Confidentiality?

[Usernamewhereisthewine]

I’m off sick at the moment and due back in 1 week.

I have noticed my employers have been contacting clients to inform them im on long term sick leave and can they wait for my contact on return. I’ve been off 3 weeks with an illness that is now under control, my manager has been in touch and knows this.

Should they be informing my clients about long term sick leave, should that personal info be disclosed. I am aware the clients needs some info but many haven’t been in touch with me either so they are receiving a call out of the blue.

The calls have been happening this week, im due back in 7days.

How do you think they should have handled it?

They haven't said what is wrong with you, but it is a fact that you are on sick leave so there is no breach of confidentiality.

Thank you, I think I’m feeling a bit down and have been worrying about it over nothing.

Im hoping that my time off hadn’t hindered me in my job and probably worrying a bit too much.

The two are mutually exclusive whether it is fact or not, has no bearing on whether or not their is a breach of confidentiality.

they should have just said you are on leave for an indefinite period.

That would leave it up to the clients to speculate for possible reasons for this.

When this has happened us - we had a chat with the employee about what they felt comfortable sharing with the client.
Saying indefinite leave or personal reasons I think creates speculation and drama - when left to imagine the reason will create something more dramatic than the truth- I'm not sure I would want to create the mystery in their heads. I think sick leave is fine. and fairly neutral from a reputation perspective. But I'm unsure what is GDRP compliant - generally we would not want to disclose any information about one of our employees without their agreement.
Hope you feel better soon.

I wouldn't leave it for clients to speculate as to the reason for a lengthy leave period - suspended, under investigation, some other nefarious reason? Someone is on sick leave, we are expecting them back soon so can your query wait until they return is clean and easy and avoids any speculation. And not a breach of GDPR. So "confidentiality" may be open to different interpretations but GDPR isn't - "off sick" is not a form of personal data.

No idea how you get that someone being off sick is not personal data. Personal data is any information that relates to an identifiable living individual. The fact that someone is off sick is clearly personal data. However, I think the employer can rely on "legitimate interests" as the basis for telling clients that OP is off sick. Unless someone else is able to handle OP's clients while she is off, they clearly need to tell clients something. Telling them she is off sick is factual and avoids the client speculating, which could be damaging for OP and the employer.

It would be if they were in hospital.

As a doctor I'm not even allowed to confirm if someone is a patient to a third party without their consent.