Are work schedules confidential?

[got2bebrave]

Hi can anyone confirm from an employment law perspective, whether work schedules (days and times people work) are confidential, when provided for internal use only within a team - ie not made public to anyone other than co-workers. Thanks

We have a rota at work and I can see what everyone in my workplace is working, as can all colleagues

Hi all, i dont mean to customers or externally - ONLY within a small team

Of course not. How can you work efficiently if you can’t share who is doing what shifts.

Perfectly normal. Why would you think otherwise? Is there some backstory here we don't know, because it seems an odd query...?

When we work other than normal we put it on the bottom of email signatures

This reminds me of when a colleague was due to go on maternity leave and she asked me to complete a large number of projects so she could input and sign off before she went on leave. I asked her the date she would be leaving (ie the deadline for completing the projects) and she launched in to a tirade about how she didn't legally have to confirm the date yet and it was none of my business and threatened to complain about me to HR.

I pointed out that I couldn't reasonably be expected to complete the projects before she went on leave if I didn't know when that would be. She really didn't get it.

To clarify, are you asking if someone's days and times of work should be kept confidential?
If that is what you're asking then the answer is no of course not. How can a team function if they don't know when their colleagues are in or off?!

As someone else has said, we have it on our email signatures to ensure that people internally and externally can manage expectations on responses etc.

V curious to hear the backstory to this

It's normal to share internally and be able to see colleagues' calendars. Not always managers/ those higher up than you, but usually people on your own level and below.

I'm pretty sure it would be a breach of GDPR to share it outside of the team. What if it's their violent ex partner who's going to wait for them after work for example?

She’s been very clear she’s asking about within the small team.

Within a team or company, of course it’s fair that others know your work schedule particularly if it’s less than 5 days 9-5 assuming office job. It shouldn’t be shared externally unless necessary, like if clients book meetings is fair to to say “xx doesn’t work Fridays”

I think it would only be a breach of GDPR to share outside the workplace, not team. Loads of people write their work schedule on their email signature anyway

Perfectly normal - our calendars are fully visible to the whole organisation (unless you mark something as private).

Normal
I can view all my colleagues shifts and allocated breaks/lunches etc

So within your own small team, someone doesn't want their colleagues to know when they are working? How is that reasonable or efficient - how would people organise meetings, events, sort out absence and annual leave if one person's (or more than one person's diaries) is a complete blank?

It would only be a breach of GDPR if the information shared could be used to identify a unique individual.

So if there was a rota on the wall of a supermarket that every customer could see but it only showed initials or first name of the staff member that would be very unlikely to be classed as a GDPR breach. Unless the staff member has a very unique first name.

If someone were to use it to find out when someone was going to working in the store for example then they'd need to already know the name of the person to use the rota, so no Personal Data has been breached because they already had it.

OP - can you elaborate on what the actual issue is here as your posts are very minimal and don't make clear who it is that you want to keep your rota secret from. Is it that you don't want other colleagues to know your rota or that you don't want customers/general public to know it.

It definitely is not confidential from colleagues, arguably colleagues need to know your rota to be able to perform their duties and manage the business so there is a legitimate need for that information to be available to perform business operations.

Perfectly normal, I can see all my colleagues' calendars.

Any working patterns outside of 5 days @ 9-5 is put at the bottom of email signatures.

Out of office has to be applied on non-working days with the return date specified.

I'm my team of 10 We also keep each other informed of late starts/long lunches/ early darts.

I’m struggling to see the issue
sound just like petty shit the poor manager has to deal with

Completely normal within the team as others have said, also on email footers.

There has to be a legitimate reason for processing personal data and depending on the circumstance the data subject has to consent/be told how their data will be processed. They can withdraw consent but they have to accept there may be consequences to that.

So, for example a legitimate reason for processing this data would be for a company to give a customer a list of days their account manager was working in order that the customer knows when to call. If the account manager withdrew that consent it might impact on the customer choosing to use that company/they might request a different account manager which could potentially lead to there being less work/hours available for the first account manager.

It would not be a legitimate use of data for a supermarket to give a customer a copy of their checkout operator rotas. They have no need to do so, no reason why the customer in that circumstance needs to know.

How could working hours be confidential within a team? The rest of the team would surely see / be aware of who else is working. What a strange question.

Of course it isn't a breach of anything to share working patterns within a team! It's normal practice and it erupting be extremely inefficient not to share this info.

Are you a manager, OP, and is a team member objecting to this?

Thanks everyone for your responses :)

No, i asked someone the question and am now being told by person and Senior manager it is not fair or appropriate to ask the question

to clarify i asked the question, within our team and with no intention other than to assist with a INTERNAL planning meeting and with absolutely no intention of sharing that outside of our team and certainly not to customers.

Someone in your team is refusing to share their diary and hours of working with the rest of the team, and your manager is backing them up?

If that's correct, your manager and colleague are bonkers.