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?)

Look out the window instead of being so nosy!

I think it's really odd that you think it's odd. Things catch your attention on train journeys. I can't read on a train, looking out of the window is OK for a while. I once saw a man watching porn on his laptop through the gap in the seats. If he had been watching something gross or child related you can bet your bottom dollar that I would have been on the phone to BTP.

If I knew the name of the person and the company, I'd contact the person and tell them I'd be a witness if they needed me to. What if it had been something much more personal?

There are many inappropriate things that people do on trains that are actually annoying: full volume scrolling, vaping, feet on seats, smelly food, speaker phones. You sat behind someone who is a bit crap at their job.

I once sat in a 4 seat table seat with 3 strangers who were women on a jolly day trip to London when one thought that was a good time to challenge one of the others about her DDs being mean to her own dd 🙈. God it was cringe and I wasn’t even involved!

I travel regularly for work, I always request a table seat and work on my journey. It gives me the chance to prepare for my day, catch up on emails when I have been out all day etc. I can’t justify staring out the window when I have so much work to get done. They have table seats so that people can work on trains.

Excellent idea to be working extra hours and your work load be to high to prepare for your day at work!

Which is why employers expect it from everyone!

Im not sure the tables are there for “working” at particularly, they’ve been there forever, long before the working on the train culture.

Your comparisons are abhorrent. Someone not complying with her workplace rules is hardly the same as abusing someone.
Reporting someone to their employer for this kind of thing is also disgusting.

They were relevant to the poster I was replying to who referred to me as “Stasi” the post has justifiably been removed.

And someone’s privacy should be safeguarded.

I think it's my post that was deleted. I did refer to Stasi, but not aimed at one particular person, aimed at anyone who would report people to their employer's for procedural mistakes nothing to do with them.

Sorry I didn’t realise it was your post, I won’t be answering again! Glad the post was deleted though!

I didn't say this was breaching GDPR. Just general confidentially and conduct rules

🙄

YANBU. Completely inappropriate for her to be writing confidential notes in a public space. Yes, it would be entirely reasonable for you to contact the company.

I have often travelled on trains for work, and you have to select what work you do.

At some point this stops being “the information was visible” and starts being “I spent a good chunk of my train journey reading a stranger’s screen.”

Should she be more careful with confidential information? Possibly. But you’re hardly making the case that people can't read it when you’ve managed to compile a detailed briefing note on a complete stranger’s employment dispute from the seat behind.

The fact that it’s visible wouldn’t really be a problem if people like you didn’t exist .

The reason GDPR laws and now the Data (Use and Access)Act, exist is because persons become at risk for all sorts of reasons when companies are careless with their data.

But people like this - and people who will act in worse ways than merely starting a thread on MN - do exist, and that is why GDPR laws exist and why anyone working in a public space, be it a train or anywhere else, should be very selective about what they work on in those spaces.

Even in the office, I think work on things like disciplinaries/grievances/health records/ promotions/payrises/redundancies, etc, those docs should be worked on in private areas, not the main open plan areas that most offices tend to be in these days.

I used to work in local government, I'm pretty sure they actually stipulated that we weren't to use our laptop for any confidential documents in a public place. I would contact the company.

You should contact the company, a few years ago I saw a guy marking International GCSE papers on the train. It so happened to be a school from my country. I confronted him about it and he was so embarrassed. I contacted the Cambridge Exams Syndicate and they told me they would look into it. I didn’t have his name so not sure if they did anything about it.

It seems like something that shouldn't even need to be stipulated.
It's obvious, isn't it?

Except a lot of people are used to working remotely and having to work whilst travelling and I suspect they never give it a second thought. I think companies where employees have laptops should provide privacy screens as a matter of course, at least to people who travel as part of their roles. Our information security training covers not making confidential phones in public, not using apps on your phone or your laptop where others can see the information, but the cyber security elements are the ones everyone focuses on and remembers.

Surely it's drummed into HR employees?
I've never worked in HR and not really in any sort of confidential field and I know all this.

I was on a train to Kings Cross. A woman was on the phone talking through the eviction of a family from their home including the reasons why. Appalling.
whole carriage was glaring at her.
Obviously never been introduced to confidentiality.

People are remarkably careless about their own privacy, never mind anyone else's.

I was in my garden once when a woman on a first floor balcony in the flats behind was having a long phone conversation with a social worker about her child. If I could hear her, any number of other people in the flats and in the back gardens could also hear.

Another time I was trying a new cafe in my local High Street. While I was there the assistant was on a long phone call to the DSS. That wasn't the only reason why I didn't go back, but it was one of the reasons.

Isnt it ironic...dont you think?

😆

I'm going to watch her in concert in 3 weeks

A report about a GDPR breach which is also a GDPR breach 😂 if you think they're making trouble definitely report it.

I can't speak for HR employees but everyone needs periodic reminders of this kind of thing.