Sunday, Aug. 14, 2005 @ 10:52 p.m.
I work in an office that we have high security on everything, including HIPAA, if you�re not aware of what HIPAA is, it basically protects the consumers complete identification of them for medical. Your social security number, phone number, address, name, everything. So anyway, I�m sure that everyone is aware of the protection of your information when it comes to your wages etc within a company, which is a given, you know, where you don�t discuss your wage with anyone you work with, your timesheet is only for management eyes and yourself, etc. Well, my company is VERY strict on all of this security stuff, and I respect all of that because these are things that need to be protected, ESPECIALLY with the way there is identity theft going around. Any tampering with anything that has to do with security and going against our company ethics Corporate doesn�t let anyone slide.
Well, there�s a person that I work with (or I should now say formally worked with) that figured out our manager�s password to get into timesheets, and I have known this since she first did it about 6 months or so ago, and recently she really went into looking at someone particular timesheet because she was bitter about the fact of time he took off, now granted, he took time off to go see his dying father and so how he managed to work things out with Corporate is no one�s business except corporate and our boss. Since she told me that she knew our boss� password and also have read our boss� e-mail a few times which is another big no no it has been eating me up inside. She sits there and bitches about people not following the ethics rules and the security rules yet she took advantage of things. In my department, which is the IT department, we have access to everything and everyone�s computer, but we still have to follow the security rules and well, she took advantage of her access rights by doing these things. She�s done other things in the past that I don�t feel is right and she wasn�t even compassionate when the guy told us that his father is dying, all she did was thought of herself. Anyway, knowing all these things, the major rules that she broke has really been bothering me for months now.
We take our Ethics training every year and I just took mine and after taking it it really made me think about the things that I know that she has done are things that should have been reported right away. She gossips a lot and if she told (if she hadn�t already) someone else about what she did and if someone told management and they found out that I knew and didn�t say anything, it can cost me my job, and I refuse to let anyone ruin me because of what they did. So it really made me think of what I should do, I talked to Dan about it and even my parents and my best friend Jenn, and everyone sees it the same way that I do that I should say something. Well, I did on Thursday and all hell broke loose, they let her work all day Thursday and since I took Friday off I did hear from a source that she wasn�t there Friday so I�m assuming that they did let her go, I�ll know for sure tomorrow when I go in but I�m pretty sure that they did fire her.
I know that I did the right thing but for some reason it is still sitting on my mind, and I think because more that I feel bad for doing this personally, but professionally it had to be done. She had a talk with me on Thursday and brings up �I thought you were my friend?; What did I ever do to you?; I blame you if I get fired.; You did this because you want my job!� Now for one, we are not friends outside of work just at work, and even though she treated me like shit, this had nothing to do with it and why blame me for something she did? She�s the one that broke the rules, not me. I flat out told her, this had nothing to do with friendships or what she has or has not done to me, I didn�t do the rule breaking and I didn�t do it because of the job, I did it because it was the right thing to do, the ethical thing to do. And I wasn�t going to get in trouble for keeping something to myself that I knew was wrong to do because if someone else found out and then knew that I had known about it for so long I can lose my job for not saying anything. This major against ethical rules and security rules stuff that she broke has been eating me up inside and making me sick to my stomach wondering what I should do; do I continue to keep it to myself or do I go to management or the ethics officer? Well, I had made the decision of going to management instead of the ethics officer. I�m not a snitch or a back stabber but if I would have been the one to break the rules like that I would understand if someone told, I would be upset, hurt and angry like she is but I would also realize the wrong that was done�but she doesn�t see that at all. She just consistently blames me for her errors because I was the one that went to management. She tried to put many guilt trips on me Thursday of saying things like I trusted you; you were my friend, etc. But I told her, I�m sorry, I truly am as a friend but this is my professional life here not my personal life and it was something that had to be done because I refuse to take the rap for someone else.
I�m obviously relieved that it has been brought out to the open and not stressing over it anymore because I slept all weekend, I literally slept all day Friday all day Saturday and most of the day today. I know that tomorrow when I go to work I�m sure there will be a few people that she was friends with that will hate me and will probably make my life hell at work for a while and well, I guess depending on how bad it gets hell may or may not break loose, we�ll see.
Well, my question for you; if you were in my situation where your job is very important to you and you�re all about the major rules of the company and understand why the rules are there, and you knew something that someone did that they are not supposed to do that anyone is supposed to do, and took advantage of their access to things and took advantage of that, what would you have done? Would you have done the same thing? Leave me a comment and tell me what you think�Blessed Be!
Much Love~
~V~
