AIBU to think writing confidential HR notes on a train is inappropriate?

[Elphabababa]

I am on a train in the UK.

Someone on the seat in front of me is writing up meeting notes from work. All clearly visible through the gaps between seats. I am slightly long sighted mind you.

I have seen that:

• She works in HR for company X
• The meeting was for an employee named Y (I can see his name and job title), following him raising a grievance about a GDPR breach of his data within work.
• Subsequent notes of the meeting about this grievance.

She's still typing her notes now.

AIBU for thinking that people should be very mindful of what work they complete in public places? And that this is inappropriate, and if Y found out that these notes were being written in full public view, they would have a further grievance on their hands?

Or am I a nosey parker?

(Or both?)

I would contact the company and state the facts. She obviously didn't realize, and you may be doing her a favour. Something similar happened to me many years ago on a plane: I sat in front of a couple discussing confidential info about people I knew. I now assume that anything i write/discuss in public in any fashion can be public knowledge and behave accordingly.

Why do you care? It's not your job to supervise people who don't work for you!

Why do you care that I care? It’s nothing to do with you my views!

I care because I’m on this thread and shocked at the lack of empathy that people have about people that are wronged.

I care if I hear about a child abused and would have empathy and report, about a woman physically abused and report and anyone emotionally abused and report. This is about a person being “outed” because someone is so lazy they don’t take care of confidentiality, don’t work in a secure area.

Your reference to being “Stasi” is abhorrent.

Given that this was a case regarding someone making a GDPR complaint your comparative examples are ludicrously OTT. In the context of this specific data breach (as opposed to all data breaches - some are actually serious) some more appropriate wrongdoing examples might be: putting your bins out three days early because you’re going away, sharing one streaming account over multiple households, saying your kids not yet two to get in free, failure to scoop your dogs poop (actually no, that one does deserve a custodial). You mention this being about a person being outed as if the HR woman has actually outed them. The chain of events required for that is for nosey Parker to publish the specific details online and this distinctly boring set of information to go viral so their colleagues find out. If I found out this information about one of my colleagues I’d find it far too boring to pass on. Now if I heard about one of them ringing up a random company to complain about what they had peeped between the seats, I’d consider that worthwhile gossip.

I was responding to someone that compared me to the “stasi”, the post has justifiably been deleted. But do not speak to me about my post being ludicrously OTT!

FYI I only read the first four lines of your post, not interested in the rest because you’re massively ill informed.

It wouldn't work, as (unlike Ms. Morrisette) you understand what ironic means. 🤣

This sounds like a fair way to do it. You will not be personalizing your complaint and maybe it will be a wake up.call for more than one person.
I would be horrified if train passengers could see my personal details because someone didnt protect them when working in a public place.

As we approach 300 posts we see Godwin’s Law in action. P.S we know you read it all, and I’m not ill informed - in fact some would say I am the illest when it comes to being informed

Same here! Quite horrible actually.

Find the email address of the person who raised the grievance and tell them....it will enhance their complaint!

I don't think this OP was being a nosy Parker in pointing out this incident at all.

Besides not using a security screen. I think this person showed a complete lack of discretion in their actions.. Not to mention Professionalism. Which is now rapidly disappearing in most UK Professions.

You have his name, you know where he works, i’d track him down and tell him, and that I’d be willing to testify in a tribunal.

This, can’t imagine being invested this much in someone else’s life. Fgs you really looked hard and long to read so much!

That’s ironic! He’s complained about GDPR and you can see all his information in a public place!

Well that certainly won’t make them feel like their privacy has been invaded

😂

This is a GDPR breach, OP isnt noisy for noticing - she shouldn't be able to see it! She can see an employees name, where he works and confidential information.

Especially considering the topic, I would email the company something such as:
'I would like to highlight an incident that occurred on a recent train journey (list the journey) whereby I saw a member of your HR department typing up notes from a grievance meeting on a train.
The notes were regarding X (employees name) and his claim that the company has breached GDPR. I am aware of the irony in me reporting this to you but considering there is an ongoing grievance on the matter I thought it should be raised. I recommend providing privacy screens for any employees wanting to work in public.

I will also be contacting Employee on LinkedIn as I feel this may be important to their grievance'

Someone who works in HR should be WELL aware of privacy rules and should know better.

It will prove their point for their grievance which should prevent it from happening in future at the company and potentially, depending on the details of the grievance, could even give them a payout of some kind.

I once got £18k for a grievance - then I quit!

What’s horrible is an employee having their personal details disclosed in a data breach. We don’t know what the original breach was. It must have been bloody serious for them to raise a grievance against employer. Maybe sensitive data about their sexual orientation or political views. Maybe something that caused them to be bullied at work and suffer terribly.

then here we have an entirely incompetent HR official breaching their privacy further. And you want us all to feel sorry for HER! In case she has busy home life or a bad day!!??

are you for real? She had options! She could have put XX instead of the name, used a privacy screen. She will have been trained on GDPR but wilfully ignored it.

No, she deserves to be disciplined and the data subject deserves to know that this company is breaching their data again and again.

People saying stop being so nosy- it’s a VERY small world and there’s an extremely high likelihood ( given they are both travelling by train) that someone who knows the person could also read those notes. It’s not for the “ nosy person” to avoid reading, it’s for the person writing to absolutely 100% ensure no personal details are visible - especially regarding a grievance issue. Totally unprofessional and inconsiderate. I would 100% contact the company.

She feckin well SHOULD know if she works in HR!!

YANBU
this is completely unacceptable.
On MY watch that would have resulted in a formal investigation had it been reported.
That person is a disgrace to the HR profession. No excuses, no exceptions.

“You read it all”

No, I didn’t 🤣