When housing support officer Chloe shared confidential work information with her sister she believed it was inevitable she would lose the job she loved.
Chloe copied a work email to her sister’s Hotmail account, which related to an unnamed tenant with mounting rent arrears following redundancy at work and his struggles with poor mental health. The email included figures relating to missed rent payments and the arrears.
The email was intended for a colleague who was supporting the tenant, but Chloe inexplicably CC’d it to her sister. Chloe’s colleague reported the matter.
Chole, who had nine years’ service, was shocked when informed what she had done. She was immediately suspended from work.
A disciplinary investigation followed and Chloe was invited to a fact-finding meeting. Chloe said the email was sent in error, and an inadvertent mistake.
She explained the email before it was sent to her brother with her sister copied in. Chloe said she then must have accidently and impulsively copied the subsequent work email to her sister.
Distraught Chloe was tearful and apologetic, said she had been having a terrible time and struggling with some extremely serious issues. This was documented in the notes of the fact-finding meeting. The investigating manager asked no follow-up questions and made no attempt to explore or understand the ‘serious issues.’
Chloe was later invited to a disciplinary hearing to face an allegation of breach of confidentiality, and she contacted our Employee Support Centre for help.
When our representative reviewed the evidence, he was keen to learn more about the serious issues Chloe was dealing with at the time, in order to understand if they could provide mitigation.
Chloe revealed she had finally been diagnosed with ADHD the previous year having spent most of her life struggling with the symptoms. However, she had not disclosed it to her employer due to fear about how she would be perceived.
She explained how at the time of sending the email she was working with her brother and sister desperately trying to sort out a long running matter re paying for medical care for their parents who lived abroad. Chloe was short of money and upset she could not contribute, and believed she was letting her family down.
At the disciplinary hearing our representative, with Chloe’s consent, revealed the previously undisclosed learning difficulty, which she had been struggling with silently. Our representative added that Chloe was under no legal obligation to share the diagnosis, as doing so about a disability is a matter of personal choice.
He said Chloe’s symptoms of ADHD, which include occasional lack of attention to detail and inability to deal with stress, were exacerbated by serious concerns about her parents’ wellbeing, mental torment in being away from them and feeling hopeless and powerless to help when they were vulnerable and financial strain and worries.
Our representative strongly asserted that Chloe made a genuine mistake and it was different from an act of gross misconduct, which is usually intentional.
He also explained how Chloe was remorseful and apologetic for what she had done and how her sister had deleted the email.
Having spoken to Chloe’s sister ahead of the hearing, our representative was able to tell the hearing chair that she was willing to sign any necessary paperwork to confirm she had deleted the email and not shared it.
It was maintained by our representative that mitigation, which employment law required the employer to consider, does mean a sanction of dismissal would be unreasonable and potentially amount to discrimination because of a disability now the company was aware of Chloe’s disability.
The employer accepted that Chloe’s action was not intentional, and she was cleared of the allegation. The employer also arranged to discuss the ADHD diagnosis with Chloe to ensure she received appropriate support.
