Lesser of two evils?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m trying to be kind of general here… let me know if it’s not enough.

Employee has a medical condition that is well known, because it is essentially a visible disability. Said employee is exploring medical treatment or surgery that his/her doctors believe will help. This employee is key to a small (<10) person business, and discloses to the employer that he/she is pursuing this surgery.

The employee specifically requests of the employer to keep the matter confidential and if it ultimately happened, the employee would help make plans and disclose this in order to prepare for his/her absence during recovery. However, getting insurance approval and such takes time. Part of the approval process includes a clearance from the employer about certain accommodations that would be made for the employee, so the employer would need to be made aware.

Employer agrees that it is confidential and would let the employee announce it when he/she was ready.

The employee, however, discovers by accident that the employer actually did divulge this information to another employee in the company. In fact, the employer told the third party to “act surprised” when it came up.

The employer and the third party are not aware the the employee knows of this. The employee handles IT issues for the company and the employer (who is not that bright with computers) left an email on his/her computer screen open wherein this was mentioned. The employee was trying to solve an issue with the employer’s Outlook settings, and the employee read the email.

So, which is the bigger breach of trust? The employer divulging medical information about an employee when specifically instructed not to do so, or the employee reading the employer’s email discussing the situation?

On a side note of opinion… should the employee even bother to bring this up? :smiley:

2

Welcome to the board, bethbeth. I’ve moved your thread to IMHO from General Questions.

As far as the situation goes: if this happened to me I would be pissed that my employer was so careless with personal information I’d asked him/her to keep private. If someone else is going to be working on your computer, don’t leave unread emails on your screen. And for that matter I mighty be upset at the ‘act surprised’ thing, too.

3

I would be far more concerned that my employer had divulged information I’d specifically asked to be kept private, and that would be a betrayal of trust since the employer had agreed to keep things quiet. I’d also be annoyed at the fact employer asked someone to ‘act surprised’ when this information became known.

If the employer leaves an email open and visible on screen and I, as the IT person, read it in the course of doing my job, well that is just the employer’s stupidity showing.