Internal breach of confidentiality by PA - sanctions?

[JessieMcJessie]

I am one of 2 managers in a small team. The other manager has handed in his resignation but is working a fairly long notice period (more than 3 months). It was decided that only those who have an absolute need to know would be told about the resignation until closer to his leaving date. This is partly because he has a health problem that he doesn't want people to know about.

One of our junior team came to us recently to say she had heard from someone in another department that he was leaving. We've traced the source of the leak to a "floating" PA who was in our dept a few weeks ago covering for one of our own PAs' annual leave. Our own PAs were not aware of the resignation. The secretary was not told directly as part of her duties, nor was she given access to any emails or documents that would have referred to it.

When interviewed by HR the floating PA admitted to knowing the information but claimed that (a) she couldn't remember how she learned it and (b) said she had told nobody. HR are now saying that she can't be given a formal warning because she hasn't admitted spreading the gossip and they don't want to upset her as she is "good" and might leave!

I am furious. She's obviously lying (we trust the person who said the PA told her). We need to know how she found out because we have been incredibly careful with the information - all relevant emails encypted, no hard copies of anything relevant, all discussions behind closed doors. If we've made a mistake or not appreciated a gap in the confidentiality procedures then we need to know about it to prevent future leaks.

But, perhaps more importantly, surely her behaviour can't go unchecked? She knew that there had been no announcement of his leaving so would have realised that the information was confidential and yet she gossiped about it. Is it really right from an HR perspective that she can't be sanctioned unless she confesses?

Surely if someone else told her she probably didn't realise it was confidential? Unless you get the thumb screws out (which is frowned upon in hr circles) afraid hr are right.

Could an IT person know, if she is floating she will know lots of depts, someone in IT tell her (as she is working in your dept).

I also suspect the PA did not realise this was confidential information. She must have (over)heard someone else talking about it, in which case the question is who the original leak came from.

ginmakesitallok she was not told by anyone.

kefybaby if she picked the info up by overhearing a conversation (which we very much doubt because, as I said, all discussions were behind closed doors) then she'd obviously have known that she was not supposed to know the info, so the defauls assumption should be that it was confidential.

If I understand correctly, basically it's OK to snoop and gossip as you can't be punished as long as you lie about it?

One of those things I'm afraid - information always gets out one way or another. I'm surprised you have spent so much time on this witch hunt tbh.

You accusations of Snooping and Gossiping are not supported by the information you have provided above. I'm glad HR are keeping you in check.
Sorry to hear about you colleagues illness btw.

and all those who say that she did not realise it was confidential - when a person at my colleague's level hands in their notice it is announced formally in an email to everyone in the office as soon as their leaving date is agreed. She would have been well aware that in the absence of a formal announcement the info was confidential. She spread it precisely because it was confidential!

She's obviously lying (we trust the person who said the PA told her).

You're basically saying though you believe one person over another - I can see why HR dont want to go any further if there's nothing to corroborate. Even if the other person makes a statement, it's still he said/she said.

Agree with Trapper's posts above.

If I'd heard about a colleague leaving through the grapevine - rather than being told in express confidence - I wouldn't feel constrained from mentioning to other colleagues.

When you say traced the source of the leak it sounds as though it goes back through various people?

Trapper I have obviously not given every piece of detail in the post. Her suggestion that she can't remember how she learned the information is clearly a lie.

The fact that she has been questioned about this will probably make her think twice if she's in the same situation again. For avoidance of doubt, you could ask her to come straight to HR if anything like that happens again and they can then ask her not to repeat it.

You can bind her by what is in her contract on confidentiality but usually that's about business information and competitors. If she heard something and repeated it (and she clearly didn't hear anything about the health matter as that hasn't come up in the gossip) who has suffered loss or harm from that? And if it wasn't her who originally overheard or whatever, then how can she be sanctioned?

It's gossip isn't it, someone has heard something, whether it came from her or not or seen lots of closed doors and jumped to assumptions. Not sure you can do anything without proof - does she have access to inboxes etc or has she seen something printed, left on the printer. Unless she was expressly told it was confidential I don't think you have a le to stand on with regard to 'action'.

But you haven't found the source of the leak. Someone leaked it to the PA. where I work people would gossip about such a rumour.

Ditto what has been posted by trapper and youlllikeitnotalot

Yeah, did she say something as simple as "oh, I wonder if so and so might be leaving, he's always in meetings with HR?" and it went from there.

Her suggestion that she can't remember how she learned the information is clearly a lie.

well - when hauled in for an interview by HR, she probably thought it was politic to say that to protect the person who told her!

Or maybe a slight hesitation from someone when she asked about booking him into a conference next year or whatever.

How do you think she learned it, OP? Obviously if she's been unencrypting emails, she's probably in breach of IT policy.

We are fairly sure that the only way she could have found out was by seeing an email on my colleague's desktop when he stepped away from his screen (she was allowed to go into his room, which he does not share, to collect documents).

You'll no doubt say that was his fault for not being careful enough. I say that's fair enough but unless an email or document was addressed to her or given to her for filing etc then she was bound not to gossip about its contents.

To be clear, before the leak, only 5 people knew, three of whom are more senior than my colleague and me. HR did not even know.

I'm a PA and often find out that people are leaving/going on maternity/going to get fired long before it's annoinced formally.

My way of dealing with it is to never talk about internal moves (which sucks as I often come across as anti social/cagey, but there you go). When there are loads of emails flying around you can sometimes forget which pieces of info you know 'officially' and which you uou only know 'unofficially'. I've only messed up once and as soon as j realised the info wasnt out yet I threw myself on the mercy of the person Id mentioned it to and asked them to keep quiet - as far as I'm aware they did, lucky for me.

The point is that sometimes accidents happen. I'm quite surprised that you want to persue this, there's no proof and these things do happen.

If you're that bothered, just ask for her not to be allocated to float in your dept again...

It's human nature to want to be the one in the know, the privileged one. I spose she couldn't resist passing it on.

She won't do it again I shouldn't think.

You'll no doubt say that was his fault for not being careful enough. I say that's fair enough but unless an email or document was addressed to her or given to her for filing etc then she was bound not to gossip about its contents.

I am afraid that if it was that important, then yes the colleague should have shut his screen down for the duration. You can't discipline without investigating and if HR won't investigate further then you need to make your procedures tighter so that it doesn't happen again.

Think about it - if the people in the know had been more vigilant then nobody would have known in the first place. So gather them together - give yourselves a telling off and tighten down the information that you are letting out.

Right, so you've got what you think is the source so that should reassure you about breaches in procedure, the first point.

(, I've worked places where it's in the agreement to lock your screen whenever you are away from it - if you have one of those policies, your colleague may be in breach)