Are my hands tied? No option but to resign

[Daai2014]

Background
I have been working on a huge programme for quite a few months its been weeks/months of hardly seeing daylight.
My personal section is in a very good position and feedback has been brilliant.
I felt the last 2-3 weeks some although mainly 1 of the team has gone above and beyond to exclude be from anything that was relevant to my role. Initial I considered raising this with her as at the time I would have considered her a friend but thought possibly it was down to stress as the programme is quite substantial.
Fast track to Monday, over the weekend this member of staff has run an “audit” of the system and I have been opening a plan I shouldn’t be accessing due to commercial sensitively.( although a lot more is shared in group chats with the team and none of it would be of interest to me!)
Now ALL of my access has been suspended even the items I need to do my job and following a 2nd meeting to discuss it seems I have really had no option but to leave . The files at this company are a free for all and I do generally search for something that may have been historically completed as it’s so busy I don’t have the time to complete from scratch given its more of a 24/7 role the times I am working would also support her case in some way. In the 2nd meeting I was told if I have an issue or as I raised, I feel I have been singled out and there has been a witch hunt of sorts to this I was then told if I want to go down that route they will file a formal data breach as this has already raised this with security. (Even being accused of a data breach can be career limiting) . All of this is when a lot of people are on leave so maybe her hope is, I will leave before anyone that might support me and is back. She’s has also been checking up on my work a little asking me for estimates of completion for documents that I have never been asked to produce.
(the person also has a reputation for this kind of thing was previously sacked from the civil service for there own bulling backfiring)
Any advice what to do? If I leave then I don’t have to put up with not really being able to do my job and having to see that horrible bitch but on the flip side if I just leave this does look like guilt and other than being careless with documents I may have opened but at least I might be able to sleep and eat just feel sick 24/7.

You need to speak to HR. formally, and ask what the company’s position is.

You can also go on the offensive and threaten to report the data breech yourself, alongside the fact that no one is professionally managing secure documents or educating the employees in their access rights.

I would not resign over this, not without a very large payout and another job to go to.

IMO if the files weren't 'restricted' and marked as such, then I don't see you have done anything wrong.

I would speak to your union rep asap.

I wouldn't resign as that makes it look like you have something to hide.

You haven't committed a data breach opening a sensitive file.

They have made one by not limiting access solely to those who the content is intended for.

Any file on a shared system is classed as "shared access".

Our system has different levels. When I sign in I can open all files in general pool area and my own documents.
There are 3 tiers of management above me.
When they sign in the have further shared files they can access.

Be careful. Bullies will bombard you with long wordy attacks to make you panic and question yourself.

Keep things factual.

Find exact law on shared files and send a simple factual non emotional email.

Eg

On x date I opened Y file on z system.
This was accessible and I used it to complete abc part of my job.
By law, you as a company should have ......... if this file was sensitive. Blah blah

can you prove others are in there too not just you and they are picking on you for whatever reason (gender, race, disability etc)

Gender is not a protected characteristic. Sex is.

You haven't committed a data breach opening a sensitive file.

They have made one by not limiting access solely to those who the content is intended for.

Not necessarily true. Clinicians in the NHS have access to everybody’s medical files in exactly the same way. They are only allowed to access the records of patients. That they can search for their neighbours etc doesn’t mean they can. If they are found to do so they are 99 times out of 100 sacked for it.

Ok, so it's hard to decipher your op as it's very defensive.

Basically are you being investigated for accessing sensitive files that you were not allowed to access.

If so what is your Defense? You did not know they were sensitive or the woman who found what you'd done had excluded you which made you do it?

And now you wish to resign before the investigation is complete?

However you have already admitted knowing the sensitivity when you opened it? You said admitting it is what you initially did? You have them tried to raise this is a form of bullying in the second meeting and deny it, which if this is the case would look like retaliation,

Is this gross misconduct in uour companies eyes? Are they looking at termination? If you have admitted knowing rhe sensitivity and you weren't to open it as you say, then changed it to you didn't know and had to do it to get the data because if bullying and exclusion I fear this will not be received well.

Op, what is your manager saying about this? Have you raised that the document was not flagged as sensitive?

How are things gong OP? Have things calmed down a bit?

People only tend to run audits like this when they're looking for wrongdoing. Is there any reason why one would be run on you prior to you opening this document?

What @MoreSlidingDoors said is correct. I have a friend who worked in nhs doing admin.
She accessed a friend’s file on their internal system to see if rumours she was in a&e were true so she could run round and help her or take her home at lunchtime if she needed a lift.
She’d already phoned her mobile, no reply. She just wanted to help her.

The girl had indeed been there but had gone. When she found out, Friend was mortified her pal looked at her notes, even though no info was looked at just the latest note to see if she was still there or discharged. She complained and my friend was sacked.
So moral of the story, if you look at things you shouldn’t which are not in the course of your daily duty, which you are aware you shouldn’t look at, you can get into bother.
However, if you don’t know you’re not supposed to be in there and everyone else uses it for the same purpose, and it’s not marked as confidential or password protected when it should be, that seems different.

Is there a company policy about what records you are allowed to access that makes it clear that these are not to be accessed? If not it is not your problem. Policies need to be in place so employees are aware of what they are allowed to do and what would count as gross misconduct.

Also, if others access any files as you say a 'free for all' you have the argument that others do it too so they would have to sack everyone.

Try not to worry, it sounds like you work long hours and you are under pressure without enough guidance. This person sounds like a trouble maker.

you have the argument that others do it too so they would have to sack everyone

Other people doing it would make absolutely no difference to the outcome unless there was no way the OP could reasonably know she wasn’t meant to access something (eg complete absence of any guidance/policy/training).