Grassing up a colleague

[Janey90]

I’ve got to deal with this on Monday morning. One member of my team (let’s call her Nicola) made a big mistake last week, which resulted in some confidential information getting sent somewhere it shouldn’t. I don’t want to go into any more detail than that, but the information was not medical or financial. But it has caused my department some embarrassment.

However we would all be none the wiser about this (for the time being) if another team member (let’s call her Ruth) hadn’t reported this to a very senior member of staff. Ruth could have helped Nicola with some damage limitation measures, but chose not to.

As much as I’m frustrated that Nicola made this error, I don’t like a snitch and feel Ruth has been very petty.

You are out of your depth, OP.

It is not Ruth's responsibility to do 'damage limitation'. A breach should be reported immediately and if you and Nicola play it down (which you do), you both need better training.

If Ruth reported to your senior colleague who is a DPO or compliance officer that's the correct process. Even if not, she bypassed you because it's very apparent you are out of your depth and incapable of managing this issue as it stands.

I completely agree, you are pissed off because it shows the incompetence not only of Nicola, but also yours. Tough, but right.

I think the opening post was possibly worded badly but I see what OP may mean.

The incident could have been reported correctly and mitigating action taken. It sounds as though OP thinks it was escalated to senior management as a malicious act rather than in the best interests of the company (and against procedure).

I have a colleague that would do the same. It wouldn’t be escalated for good reason, it would be done to make them feel superior and hopefully cause someone else to be less well regarded. Any opportunity to puff his chest at someone else’s expense will be taken. Very unpleasant to work with.

Or Phil Mitchell 🤣🤣

GET OUTTA MY PUB.

Thank you - this is exactly the case. Tomorrow I will have to deal with Nicola’s mistake but the most troubling element of this is Ruth’s vindictive behaviour.

This
Nicola has made an unintentional human error of which no one is exempt. I hope she gets the required support. There but for the grace of God go I

Using the fact that I am adult and using my intelligence and not using the word snitch like I am 5, reporting a situation that has happened to people higher up protects all staff and the company as a whole it is reporting the facts not being back in the playground like a bunch of young children snickerting

I cant believe mature responsible adults can't see the difference

And the way to deal with it is to put your hands up.

Tbh some of my previous colleagues were cunts and I would have had no issue grassing them up.

I’m struggling with the fact that Ruth escalated the matter to the most senior level, way above where it needed to be, when we have a department who deal with GDPR breaches.

I'd be asking her why she didn't follow the correct procedure. Presumably the normal route would be for her to contact the department that could actually act swiftly, and then talk to you.

Though on an ideal world she'd have pointed out the error to Nicola and strongly advised her to take the initiative and do both of those things.

Something similar happened to my best friend (male, so not Nicola!). Someone at lateral level complained that he'd made an error, emailing him about it and entirely unnecessarily copying in the bosses two levels above. Unfortunately for her, she was mistaken, and no error had been made. She just hadn't understood his report. Which the higher ups did. Apparently the meeting the next day was cringe central for her.

So yes, unprofessionally, sometimes snitches DO get stitches!

It sounds to me as though your issue is that Ruth went above your head to report this. Maybe she had reasons for doing so.

I agree that this sounds more than just "This has happened, it needs to be dealt with". Frankly it comes across as "Please Miss!!!!! Nicola did THIS!!!" in an attempt to humiliate and bring down.

If Ruth ignored procedure, surely a word needs to be had with her too to remind her of how things should be done. I would view this just as negatively as the original mistake. Are you Ruths line manager?

You wanted to cover this up. Ruth realised that this shouldn’t occur and reported it. She did you a big favour. You’d have been in real trouble if you’d covered it up and it was later discovered. You should be grateful to Ruth.

I’d be asking Ruth to explain why she didn’t follow the correct process, explain to her why she was unprofessional, and retraining her.

While I still don't agree with your thinking, it may help to take the individual out of it so you can understand if it's an issue with the individual or the action.

Imagine if every other person on the team did the same as Ruth, would you be equally annoyed by them?

It will allow you be more objective.

OP hasn't given any impression that she wanted this covering up. Just that it should have been reported to the correct department, so that they could minimise the damage (which is their job). Ruth, instead of talking to Nicola and advising her to do that, didn't follow that process, but leapt at the chance of reporting it right up the food chain in order to get Nicola into trouble.

If Ruth wanted the right action to be taken, and Nicola wasn't taking it, then she should have reported it to the GDPR department. She is as much at fault as Nicola, but worse, her action wasn't a mistake. It was deliberate.

How is she at fault? Because she didn’t help Nicola and instead reported her? Seems fair tbh

Ruth doesn’t like Nicola and has relished the opportunity to get her into trouble as much at possible. Even though she was right to report the issue, her attitude is clearly pretty poor.

You don't sound very professional, she did the right thing.

If someone in your team isn’t performing then it doesn’t matter about her motives. To expect Ruth to help mitigate is a bit much.

I have worked with people who were a bit crap and I wouldn’t inconvenience myself to help them.

Let’s keep it factual op. Grassing up and snitch sounds very very biased, no one involved is dealing drugs
a gdpr or similar breach must be reported. That is not snitching.
nevertheless, Nicola needs training in how to report it correctly. I would ask if there’s a training module the whole team can do on both confidentiality and how to report breaches, as she failed to follow procedure.

I think I mean Ruth but I’m sure you can tell that!

Actually I think it is Nicola who needs training!

Because she didn't follow process and report to the department whose role it was to deal with it, and who needed to act promptly. Instead she reported Nicola to the big big bosses.

They both do. Nicola needs training to ensure that she doesn't repeat the error. Ruth needs training on the process for reporting things like this, with the emphasis on who needs to know, and can do something about mitigating the damage.

I loath snitches to the very bottom of my soul. However there are snitches and informants.

A snitch is someone who reports a colleague for some minor breach like nipping out for a smoke or coming back late from lunch, This is usually to curry favour with management or for solely selfish reasons.

In informant sees something wrong - possibly gross misconduct or an incident which might be a disaster for the organization - and passes the information to management. Its then for management to decide how serious the breach is and to take appropriate action.

I once passed some information when I heard about a serious case of corporate bullying. An employee had misused their authority and had egged on others to play a mean and viscious trick on a team member. I informed my immediate boss. assuming he would give the culprit a good telling off. He decided it was far too serious for him to deal with and it went to the very top of the organization. The guilty party was disciplined and fortunate not to lose their job. It would have been wrong of me to cover up the information in question.

OPs colleague did more or less what I did. To keep quiet might have put her own position at risk.