Articles - Employee / Labor Relations

In another post, I described how I refused (politely) to provide a list of employees on stress leave to the CEO. I am accustomed to an environment where the employee is guaranteed confidentiality. The employee has to provide medical documentation confirming inability to work for medical reasons or medical limitations affecting performance of the job, but not details about the medical condition.  The employee could choose to send the disability claim form directly to the insurer, so even Human Resources would not know the precise medical reason.

Confidentiality is the right of the employee. In reality, most employees have no hesitation in telling the boss all about their sickness and, in fact, anyone else prepared to listen. In most cases when the employee chose not to share details, they were stress claims, HIV or AIDS. I know because the employees generally contacted me because of problems getting their claims approved, particularly stress claims. In many cases they had observed other employees negatively affected following a stress leave.  They were scared to tell their boss the real reason, or ashamed – or both.  

Some supervisors had no problem with medical details not being disclosed, but some became very angry. It was as though the supervisor believed that by virtue of their relationship, the employee had to tell – almost like ownership. Some would put a positive spin on it – if I knew why my employee is off, I can better help him/her.  Some supervisors were incensed because their employee was saying, “I don’t trust you.”   Whatever the reason, the employee had to face potential workplace stress in seeking to recover from stress.

What do you think? How much information about an employee is a supervisor entitled to know? Does it help the employee to be open with the supervisor on sensitive personal matters or could it be inviting backlash? Do you think there is a stigma attached to an employee who has been on stress leave? Would you be hesitant in promoting an employee who has been on stress leave?

Our HR community is international and practices in some countries may be based on the employee having to tell everything.   In such environments, the employee would probably force himself or herself to come to work everyday, for as long as possible.  The reaction to a claim of stress is more likely to be termination than a paid medical leave.  Some will say that our system is too soft and people are influenced by the system to believe (or pretend) they are entitled to paid time off.   What do you think?

Do you believe there is justification to allow the employee to keep his/her medical condition secret? Would you see changes, e.g. legislation, confirming the right of medical confidentiality to employees as being necessary for all jurisdictions?

It can be argued that the employee/supervisor relationship must be open or honest, or argued that it is a working relationship and openness should be limited to what is relevant to getting the job done. What do you think?   I certainly have observed that the employee who shares his/her “weakness” (stress) with the supervisor may be quickly targeted for lay-off, job elimination or whatever before the problem becomes a medical claim.

Thank you for your interest. I look forward to any comments you may have. 

Ian

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BIOGRAPHY

Bio:  Ian Welsh CHRP

Ian’s style of HR is being resourceful in a human way.  His HR experience spans more than 25 years at an executive level within major organizations where his emphasis was on HR solutions – respecting theory but knowing how to apply it in real life situations and recognizing holistic needs.  As an Independent HR Practitioner, based in Toronto, Ian continues to focus on “reality HR” with strong communications overtones.  He shares his experiences and thoughts on his Toolbox for HR blog “The Search for Mutual Success” and interactively through online discussion.

http://hr.toolbox.com/blogs/search-for-mutual-success/

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