sharing health info with co-workers - do you care? (employee, apply, secretary)
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Wondering what folks' thoughts are about health information being shared about co-workers.
I do not work in a small mom-and-pop type place. After going through a merger, my department alone has close to 100 people. This is not a cut-throat environment, generally people like each other, there are many friendships, etc.
All that aside, it seems that the culture is one in which if any employee goes out on leave for an illness or an accident, this information is shared via email with everyone. These are not generic emails like, "Bob will be out on medical leave for the next 3 weeks," these emails usually include specific details about what the illness or injury is, such as, "Suzy ruptured her spleen last night and went into emergency surgery today. We will keep you posted as we learn more." And these are sent to large groups of people, generally entire departments at this company.
In each case, I don't know the person involved beyond being mere acquaintances, so I don't know how they feel about this information being shared about them. Maybe they don't care. I just find it a bit odd. I would think that someone would want to check with these folks first and confirm that its OK to disclose this information company-wide before doing so.
Is this common in most offices? How would you want this information handled if it was you? Would you care if everyone you worked with knew the major details of your illness/accident?
I think it's odd and an invasion of privacy, particularly since the company has 100+ employees.
When I worked in a small dental office, there were no secrets... if someone was in labor or had an emergency appendectomy or a deviated septum repair or an ingrown toenail, everyone knew about it. But there were about 10 of us and it was like a family. I wouldn't really want acquaintances to know if I was out because I was getting my tubes tied or that I was home with my child who had head lice. :|
totally unacceptable. That's PHI (private health information) & protected information. Anyone sharing that info, including managers, is violating state law & should be reported to HR & your internal privacy abuse office. It's usually an anonymous reporting system, and your company should have " no retaliation" protection.
Employees are not required by law to tell their manager why they are calling in sick. However, most management claims to have an "open door" policy, and encourage employees to share details they are not typically entitled to. And of course, people feel the need to tell managers the reason why they will be on LOA, out of perceived common courtesy, even though the reason usually has to be supplied to HR when requesting an LOA....at least in bigger companies. I'm sure the process varies from business to business.
Many managers & employees just don't know the rules. If I share additional details about an illness, I usually preface by telling my manager that I do not want the details to be shared. I'm very private & don't share the details of my life with the entire team, select friends yes, but not the entire team via mass email distribution. I've worked at ,any large corporations, and this is the first job were I've actually seen this abused on multiple occasions. I always report it via the privacy office annonymous line. We recieve annual training that requires that we report this kinda thing, especially since our business revolves around PHI.
totally unacceptable. That's PHI (private health information) & protected information. Anyone sharing that info, including managers, is violating state law & should be reported to HR & your internal privacy abuse office. It's usually an anonymous reporting system, and your company should have " no retaliation" protection.
Employees are not required by law to tell their manager why they are calling in sick. However, most management claims to have an "open door" policy, and encourage employees to share details they are not typically entitled to. And of course, people feel the need to tell managers the reason why they will be on LOA, out of perceived common courtesy, even though the reason usually has to be supplied to HR when requesting an LOA....at least in bigger companies. I'm sure the process varies from business to business.
Many managers & employees just don't know the rules. If I share additional details about an illness, I usually preface by telling my manager that I do not want the details to be shared. I'm very private & don't share the details of my life with the entire team, select friends yes, but not the entire team via mass email distribution. I've worked at ,any large corporations, and this is the first job were I've actually seen this abused on multiple occasions. I always report it via the privacy office annonymous line. We recieve annual training that requires that we report this kinda thing, especially since our business revolves around PHI.
WRONG. That is not PHI (Protected Health Information) as defined and protected by HIPAA. You are wrong. HIPAA and PHI protects information that is communicated between an individual (or for an individual) and a Health Plan. All PHI (HIPAA) laws, rules, regulations, penalties do not apply to this in office emails unless it is the result of communication with the company Medical Plan (ie claim related). And an employee who discloses this detail information to their manager does NOT have the protection of PHI.
However, it is many times the fault of both the employee and the company that such email traffic occurs.
A company should have a policy and practice to stop this type of communication on company email site. They do not control non-company email platforms. Common sense dictates that the HR dept is not doing its job if this type of discussion is occurring on company time on company computers. However, if the employee decides to let it be know to a supervisor, lunch room talk, nothing illegal with that and what that may grow into as far as office gossip. All sick notes with any detail (diagnosis) should not go to a supervisor/manager--but to the designated person in HR (not the HR secretary). If HR does not know to keep it confidential, they are the cause, they should be fired. One may start by telling HR of their obligation not to disclose this information. But this is NOT PHI or NOT HIPAA information. However, every employee has a right to confidentiality of this type of information whether it is a 100 person company or a 2 person company.
I think that is way too much information shared about employees being out via email. I would express my concerns to HR or the manager. Sometimes as a company grows larger, it often keeps practices (good or bad) as if it were smaller in size.
This type of information should not be shared with everyone. The emails should just state how long someone is supposed to be out, so others would know how to handle the workload, no more details should be shared than that.
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Despite not being illegal, companies have been sued successfully for sharing too much personal information. It's none of anyone's business even whether the person is sick or took the day off for some other reason. Because we are a support group I have to notify many others when someone is off, but my e-mail is simply "_____________ is out today."
Well, at least among folks here on C-D, I am glad to know I am not alone in my reaction to this.
Its actually a very high-level director who often sends these out.
I am just surprised that there is not more sensitivity to this issue at this company.
Well, at least among folks here on C-D, I am glad to know I am not alone in my reaction to this.
Its actually a very high-level director who often sends these out.
I am just surprised that there is not more sensitivity to this issue at this company.
I have never heard of anything like this in an office. I worked in one office where out of staff of maybe 30 people there were 2 or 3 who went out on long term disability, there was never any mention as to what the issue was.
This "high level director" needs to be spoken to.
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