Think I’ve done something really stupid in work

[WurpleTurtle]

At work we have a database that shows us how many pieces of work we’ve competed each month. I had my annual appraisal meeting today and was told that I was performing slightly below the rest of the team in terms of numbers. I realised I could toggle the database to show me not just mine but everyone else’s numbers. I just was curious to see how many more pieces of work I need to sign off to catch up. I feel sick and can’t sleep because I’m now worried that by toggling the database and getting it to show me everyone else’s info it will be some awful GDPR breach and I will be in even bigger trouble. Do I need to fess up that I looked? It literally shows you your name and number of tasks complete per month. I didn’t even think of it as being confidential information at the time (because it’s freely available on the system). Now I’m wondering if the function I found is even supposed to be there/ accessed

I can’t imagine it being a problem. It’s not personal information and it was freely available.

You’re overthinking if they didn’t want you to access the information they’d restrict access. Distract yourself and get some sleep.

I think I’m worrying because my first ever job was working in a GP practice and I know that looking up any kind of data in that environment is a huge no no that will get you sacked. And rightly so. I suppose the difference is there is no confidential information in this case. I don’t know whether I should mention to my manager I looked? Although I’m a bit wary because I’m already underperforming

Chill. This is something you can do in most jobs with KPI systems and performance reports. I literally say to my boss leave me alone claires work is more overdue than mine. Because we can all see it. No problem with seeing someone else's numbers and I work in children's services

Don’t worry about it - in most law firms you can see everyone’s billing, and it’s fine to look. You haven’t done anything wrong so forget about it.

Never had a job where you could not find this out if you wanted to know.
If it was truly confidential, HR/IT would have it protected. Don't fret about it.

Wouldn't worry about that, but I would about a performance issue. Did you find out how much you are underperforming by?

I work in the nhs and we can see colleagues’ workflows etc. as it’s all open for the team. It would be tedious to do as we don’t have a clear database and all have slightly different roles, but it’s not secret. Notes about an employee’s performance would be very different though.