Occupational health sending report to my manager that contains really personal things - AIBU

[thfgre45tyhgfd]

I've been off work due to poor mental health, and as part of my return to work I have had a meeting with occupational health. It was a long meeting that was really personal and they have written up a report to send to my manager and HR. I asked to see the report before it gets sent, and it's really upset me to be honest. It's so personal and talks about things I wouldn't even tell my closest friends. AIBU to want to edit it to remove a lot of the details? For example, it mentions things about me struggling to get out of bed, isolating myself from my friends and things I've worried about.

It's made the return to work process even more stressful as I categorically do not want my line manager to know all of this about me.

Does anyone have any experience in this to know if I'm being unreasonable? The report also includes a back to work plan with actionable steps and targets - surely that's the important part rather than hearing all about my personal struggles?

When I saw OH they actually made a point of saying some of the details my employer had requested were none of the employer's business and irrelevant to them as an employer - and therefore OH would not be providing that information and I should not feel I had to disclose it either. (And they suggested it would be in my interest NOT to disclose.)

For instance, employer had requested details of medications and doses. OH's view was that all they needed to know was that I was on an appropriate treatment regime and any impact on work (e.g. common examples re medication and work are people who need a slightly later work start time as medication makes them groggy in the morning; not being able to operate machinery; needing to self-inject at work, etc).

On that example, OH also observed that HR were not doctors so telling them details of medication wouldn't be useful to them anyway - because they weren't qualified to know if that was appropriate medication or what the side effects were so what were they going to do with the info except hit Google and come up with ignorant conclusions. OH considered it an entirely inappropriate and intrusive question.

My OH were very clear on what information was appropriate and relevant to employer, they were not prepared to go on a fishing expedition. It is a shame the person you're dealing with lacks that experience and expertise, but you are right to assert your boundaries. It is necessary and better over the long term.

Your employer isn't entitled to know "context" of how you are affected in your personal life - the section on how work is affected and how they can support you is perfectly sufficient and constructive. That is all they should have requested in the first place.

Take out as much as you want and say that you do not consent to the answers you gave being shared with your manager. You can also state that you were not aware of the details that would be asked when you gave your original consent therefore as you were not adequately informed, that consent is not valid.

They were not a medical professional at all, so not a doctor, nurse, therapist, etc.

I can only speak for my company but we have a portal that HR access and the current manager of the individual would be able to see the report but not all managers or any future manager. The reports stay there. We don't put them on the employee's general personnel file.

I’m a manager and OH reports come to me first and then I pass to the colleague for their approvql

it is me who gives them the copy not the other way round

OP please don't get yourself upset snd stressed about this. Occupation health must get your sign off and permission to share anything that has been discussed, with your manager/HR dept/work

One of my direct reports is under OH, we use BUPA, although BUPA are the umbrella for the majority of OH companies, and they will not share anything that you ask them not to.
They have a duty to record everything you discuss with them, but you still do get final sign off before its submitted .

However do remember that your work cannot help you and make reasonable adjustments to help you through your difficult time if they don't know what's affecting you.
Maybe ask OH to reword the report so it's less personal but don't remove everything entirely.

Think the answer will depend on the organisation and the rules it operates in.

I'm a manager and where I work, the OH report goes into the personnel file and stays there until the end of employment. On a practical level, I wouldn't go looking for one unless it would be relevant to the current issue or sickness absence. The other reason would be for me to find out when the last time you were referrred to OH if you had recurrent sicknesses, just so I could get an up to picture of what support you may need.

I don't go rummaging around in staff files for 2 reasons:
1- I have no reason to most of the time, only done if I'm looking for something specific, ie on a need to know basis.
2- I have no time or inclination to sit and read everyone's file, I've got a day job to do.

Everyone thinks personnel files are interesting to read, newsflash- they're not!

This makes no sense. How did they introduce themself to you?

What on earth were they then???
I'm not aware of any other kind of occupational health practitioner

Your employer should have a policy explaining that. If they don't the only way to know what they do is to ask for their policy. Our managers don't even see OH reports in the first place, much less years down the line - HR only pass on any adjustments or practical measures they need to be aware of.

Health information is "sensitive data" under GDPR so your employer is legally required to safeguard it and ensure it is not leaked to whoever fancies a dig.

So about the same quality of a PIP assessor where the DWP have wholly unqualified people "assessing" disabilities in which they hold zero expertise?

They don't sound appropriately qualified to be writing such a report, which may explain their inability to write a professional appropriate report.

I don't think your line manager needs to know the nitty gritty personal details. They need to know from
Occ health if you are fit to work or not and if you need any adaptations etc. They don't need to know the details. You can talk to Occ Health and state clearly what you are happy and unhappy to disclose

OP if it's the NHS I remember a colleague telling me they had the option to request amendments, can you do that?

I had an awful experience with OCC health. They were also intrusive and I ended up saying things because I was being pushed to explain. They then sent it to me, my manager and our HR without letting me see it first.

I was v upset and made a complaints. It really set back my recovery. If you have a good relationship with your manager, I'd encourage you to complain. Our OCC health used to be good. Then they cut costs and bought a dreadful third party off the shelf product with OCC health people who are so pushed for time, they actively told me not to interrupt and were irritated by me asking them to repeat questions when my condition has bluddy brain fog.

Hugs. I totally get how you feel.

I'm glad you are getting a chance to edit certain information.

When in this situation always remember the person assessing you is working on behalf of your employer, they're not overly concerned about you personally or your future health needs.

First of all if you asked for it to be sent first it should have been. So I would suggest you complain about that.

All the rest about struggling to get out of bed and not seeing friends. They are a description of your symptoms and should be in the report in order for your manager to understand why you are not at work. If you are returning to work and are fit and no longer experiencing these symptoms I tend to gloss over them as they are not relevant but if you are still avoiding social interactions and getting out of bed then they very much are.
not wanting this information shared is also a symptom as you see it as a failure therefore "personal information" rather than as a symptom and is due to the stigma of mental health issues even when the individual ironically has them. I have never had someone complain when I write they are unable to get out of bed and can't manage washing and dressing due to their fractured arm and ankle but if I write it about mental illness people get angry and that is also a symptom.

Personal information would be why you have depression/anxiety and I leave it very bland work or personal and really one or two words to describe it, such as workload, bereavement, change, moving house, several personal issues, poor working relationship with manager/colleagues/report.

I would be pretty surprised if the OHA/P didn't discuss this with you and if you did say you wanted to see it first it is almost always an admin error.
Managers rarely look at reports straight away so contact the company and ask them to withdraw it, whilst you decide if you want to give consent or not

They are a work place rehabilitation consultant or something like that

Ps if they have written about anything really personal they can take it out I often have people tell me awful things that have happened and I just write they have depression due to personal issues... for work it's not important for them to know what the issue is, just how it affects you.
Rarely I do have something personal which I do feel is relevant and I ask if I can include it and why.

The role of HR in all cases is to ensure employment compliance, but within that, to help the employer to help its employees to perform well, especially if they’re struggling with issues of discipline, capability, or fitness for work.

The role of occupational health is to look at the impact of work on the individual’s condition, and the impact of the condition on their ability to work, so it’sa balancing act. Occupational health in this sense should never diagnose or treat a condition.

I beg to differ to lots of PPs and say that sometimes that detail is really needed. The threshold for reasonable adjustments under the equality act is of the condition causes an impairment to everyday life for 12 months or more or is likely to, along with just three diagnoses that are automatically considered to be a disability.

So your employer knowing that you’re struggling to get up and about is very demonstrative to them that you’re nowhere near ready to face the rigours of work. It’s not in anyone’s interests for there to be a failed attempt to return to work.

Like another PP has said, the causes of your condition can also be very helpful to know. If someone’s depression stems from working with an awful college, the employer can address this. Sometimes people who become depressed due to work have completely unreasonable expectations about what the employer can actually do. And if the cause of any illness is actually something outside of work, then it’s imperative that the employer knows this too

vague, waffley OH reports don’t help anyone.

like PPs have said, you may have to trust the employer with a little information here. Good managers and HR people will likely have seen it all before.

Yes you should be able to edit/consent before the report is released to your employer.

No it shouldn’t be available to all and sundry in your personal file. However I very much like to ensure that OH reports are indeed Leo appropriately over time so that patterns and the ‘story’ of what’s happened can be ascertained, especially if certain individuals leave the business.

I’m sorry you feel this way OP. By all means give cautious content. Whilst I’m not sure of the qualifications of the OH assessor, and the assessment itself seems overly long, as a HR professional this all sounds fairly normal practice to me.

They will have to be a qualified HCP to get a role like this.
They often put their qualifications after their name st bottom of the letter.

They have a master's in sports medicine

Did my post help at all OP?

They have a masters in sports medicine yet it sounds like they were carrying out a psychological assessment on you? Doesn't sound like that would be in their remit, I'd be questioning this too op

Op I've also had a weird occ health report. Some of the comments above are very victim blaming. If people are asking you very direct questions it can be hard to repeatedly say, "I don't want to answer that," particularly if you're not sure how that will be interpreted (e.g. if you're being defensive or not engaging with the process), and if it's a mental health issue you're struggling with, you're usually not going to be at your most resilient anyway!

I would go in asking the report to remove as much non-essential information as possible, and say if your manager comes back to OH and says they require more detail you'll consider then what you're happy to disclose. If you feel up to it I would 100% raise your concerns generally about the report with HR too - you can say you've spoken to 'friends' working in the sector and they were surprised at the level of unnecessary detail the report included. I would expect the OH person to make it very clear at the start that everything you said would be fed back, and also make sure you are sent a version to check. I raised this as an issue when I did mine, I wasn't sent a copy at all, let alone before it was sent to my manager! My manager started to discuss sections of it with me and I had to say I had no idea what he was talking about, so he sent it to me, and, like you, I was surprised at the level of detail. I think it's important you make clear that reading it has actually made you feel worse. You could also query the exact qualifications of the person doing it and if they are sufficient.

OH people can be useless. Mine asked me how many units of alcohol I drank per week and I couldn't remember off the top of my head what a unit would roughly be equivalent to so asked her, and she said in a really judgy voice "I wouldn't know, I don't drink." So I said "Well, I suppose roughly estimating, perhaps the equivalent of whatever a bottle of wine is, so what's that, 8-10 units, but obviously not all in one go," and from that she wrote "X drinks wine every night!"

@latetothefisting is right. Mine did comment in whether I'd engaged with the process fully or not..

Hope you are ok @thfgre45tyhgfd . I found it very difficult.