Letter regarding sickness absence including details of my mental health issues sent to wrong address

[scaredanddevastated]

I've worked for my current employer for nearly ten years, and for the larger organisation for over twenty years.

I have had regular bouts of quite severe depression since I was a teenager (I'm now in my 50s), and also have a diagnosis of ADD several years ago. This is mostly well controlled with medication and coping strategies that I've learnt over the years. I declared these things as disabilities many years ago.

Unfortunately I have had two periods of a week each off in the last year, and because of our sickness triggers, this has triggered a first written warning. The letter was sent out at the beginning of last week by my boss - to the wrong address. She was alerted to this when the person who had received it rang her to let her know. She then rang me to tell me. It was sent to a house on the same street. She told me which one. I was really taken aback by this, and sort of said, oh that's ok, and she apologised and said she would resend the letter.

The other day, the doorbell went, and it's the guy from down the road who had received the letter. He handed it to me with a smirk, and said he'd been sent my post, and as I thanked him and he was leaving said rather nastily, looks like you'll be losing your job if you're not careful.

I was devastated. In floods of tears. I feel like I'm being judged as some sort of skiver, and I also feel like this has dealt another blow to my mental health, when I felt like things were going really well. Most importantly, after thinking about it, I'm really NOT ok with a letter with such confidential medical information having been sent to the wrong address.

I don't know what to do. My boss made a mistake, then the guy from down the road was an utter cunt about it. But if that mistake hadn't been made, that wouldn't have happened. I'm just so anxious about it. Does anyone have any advice about the best way to deal with this. It's been my day off today, and I've spent most of it in tears worrying about all of this.

How on earth did they do this twice and ignore the git that opened your letter it’s usually just procedure the letters etc, but I would be highlighting that someone with depression this is the last thing they need and they should be investigated

Sorry investigating and putting in procedures and protocols to prevent this happening again

@pinkcattydude They hadn't sent the letter twice - the letter that the man down the road brought round was the original one, obviously opened and read. In the interim I had received a copy of the letter to my address on Saturday.

It is a gdpr issue. Has it been reported appropriately and an apology sent? Hopefully you can avoid nasty neighbour.

Is this the first letter that was sent to the wrong address, or did they send the second letter to the wrong address too?

The best you can do is ignore the nasty neighbour. He'll have forgotten all about it now, moved on to abusing someone else.

@LIZS nothing was mentioned about GDPR by my boss.

Cross Post. Second part of my post stands, nasty man will now be chucking abuse at England players or pulling wings off flies.

@Orf1abc thankfully the second one was sent to the correct address.

It’s a mistake but yes it’s a GDPR breach which should have been reported and sounds like it has been. It’s a hideous twist of fate that it landed in the hands of an absolute dick.

Everywhere I've worked, any absence due to a disability hasn't been counted with 'normal' sickness absence towards any trigger points. It's been completely seperate.

Have you checked your sickness policy to make sure they've followed it correctly?

@Faranth I always thought that, but here they don't seem to. It's a local authority, and my boss is fairly new to me, though not to this workplace. Unfortunately she has a seemingly well deserved reputation as being crap at admin.

Whether your boss mentioned GDPR is irrelevant. This is a clear GDPR breach. As it involves sensitive information (i.e. information about your health), this is a serious breach. You can claim compensation from your employer for this breach based on the distress it has caused. If they refuse compensation, you could take them to court. You should consult a solicitor before going down this route.

Giving you a first written warning for disability-related sickness absence may be unlawful discrimination. If you took legal action, your employer would have to show that their actions are a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.

I would ask your employer for compensation for the GDPR breach, I would also consider consulting an employment lawyer to see if you have a claim for discrimination.

OP I'd be in contact with HR and ask for the policy regarding disability related sickness absence, so you know exactly where you stand.

If their policy is that it's all counted together, no exceptions, then I'd say that's very likely to be discriminatory and I'd speak to a solicitor/union sharpish!

If your boss is crap at adimin it may be that they're completely unaware of a disability absence policy. I've had bosses before where I've had to do the admin related to my disability, to ensure it was done right. They were nice bosses though, and worried about getting it right, rather than trying to do me over!