Strange situation at work

[Tryton]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana

This really doesn't fit in any of the employment categories but I have a problem. I work for a loan servicing company. I happen to have a loan with this company that existed before I worked there. My wife also has one. Both are in good standing because it's a requirement of employment that your loan not be delinquent. Our employees are broken down into teams of about 16 people with a manager and what they call a senior. Last Tuesday, we were having a mundane conversation about a lot of things and the subject of birthdays came up. All of a sudden, the senior on the team says out loud that he didn't know I was born on Valentine's day. He had looked up my loan account to get that information. He then also proceeded to give other personal details out about my loan for everyone to hear. I have two witnesses on my team who heard everything and I don't know who else around or on other teams may have heard. He then announced out loud what my wife's birthday is meaning he was in her account. To top it off, he then began talking about another employee who also has a loan there and it's always behind. I happen to be friends with that employee and know that they struggle with things but it wasn't his place to tell me. Within 2 minutes he committed 3 major violations in front of several people. The policy is that if you have no legitimate business need to be in an account then you are not supposed to access it. I am not even allowed to access my own loan there and I never have. I reported this incident to my manager and employee relations. On Friday last week, I had to give my side of the story to my manager's boss and employee relations was on speaker phone. I told them what happened but then they kept asking me whether I asked him to look up the loans which I did not. I now feel like I am the one who did something wrong after that conversation and I did NOTHING wrong. I was asked what I think should happen. I told them that wasn't for me to determine (although he should be fired) but that I was extremely uncomfortable with him having a position of authority over me. Not long after that meeting he left so I made the assumption that he was suspended while they do an investigation. I was wrong. I came in Saturday morning and he was there and he's been there all this week. I don't think this is being handled properly at all and I feel like my complaint is not being taken seriously. The upper management is now out of town until next week so I'm stuck working with this person in a position of power over me. I know they have fired employees over less than this. I feel like he's being protected because he's in management. I don't know at this point what my legal recourse is. I know it may be limited as an employee but the fact is that, as a customer, my privacy and my wife's privacy were breached. I just don't know what action, if any, I can take at this point. I'm put in the situation of being the bad guy when I didn't ask for any of this.

 

[Zigner]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana

This really doesn't fit in any of the employment categories but I have a problem. I work for a loan servicing company. I happen to have a loan with this company that existed before I worked there. My wife also has one. Both are in good standing because it's a requirement of employment that your loan not be delinquent. Our employees are broken down into teams of about 16 people with a manager and what they call a senior. Last Tuesday, we were having a mundane conversation about a lot of things and the subject of birthdays came up. All of a sudden, the senior on the team says out loud that he didn't know I was born on Valentine's day. He had looked up my loan account to get that information. He then also proceeded to give other personal details out about my loan for everyone to hear. I have two witnesses on my team who heard everything and I don't know who else around or on other teams may have heard. He then announced out loud what my wife's birthday is meaning he was in her account. To top it off, he then began talking about another employee who also has a loan there and it's always behind. I happen to be friends with that employee and know that they struggle with things but it wasn't his place to tell me. Within 2 minutes he committed 3 major violations in front of several people. The policy is that if you have no legitimate business need to be in an account then you are not supposed to access it. I am not even allowed to access my own loan there and I never have. I reported this incident to my manager and employee relations. On Friday last week, I had to give my side of the story to my manager's boss and employee relations was on speaker phone. I told them what happened but then they kept asking me whether I asked him to look up the loans which I did not. I now feel like I am the one who did something wrong after that conversation and I did NOTHING wrong. I was asked what I think should happen. I told them that wasn't for me to determine (although he should be fired) but that I was extremely uncomfortable with him having a position of authority over me. Not long after that meeting he left so I made the assumption that he was suspended while they do an investigation. I was wrong. I came in Saturday morning and he was there and he's been there all this week. I don't think this is being handled properly at all and I feel like my complaint is not being taken seriously. The upper management is now out of town until next week so I'm stuck working with this person in a position of power over me. I know they have fired employees over less than this. I feel like he's being protected because he's in management. I don't know at this point what my legal recourse is. I know it may be limited as an employee but the fact is that, as a customer, my privacy and my wife's privacy were breached. I just don't know what action, if any, I can take at this point. I'm put in the situation of being the bad guy when I didn't ask for any of this.

Did you have a question?

 

[mmmagique]

He wants to know what action, if any, he can take at this point.

 

[Zigner]

He wants to know what action, if any, he can take at this point.

That may be a good assumption, but no question was asked.

 

[mmmagique]

I just don't know what action, if any, I can take at this point. I'm put in the situation of being the bad guy when I didn't ask for any of this.

This is from the end of his OP. I believe he would like to know what action, if any, he can take at this point.

 

[cbg]

You've done what you can do - you've reported it. Regardless of whether you take the position of employee or customer, it is not your right to determine what action is taken; nor is it your right to be told what action they've taken, or even if they've taken any action.

 

[Tryton]

Yes, the question was what recourse do I have. I find it hard to believe that there's none, especially on the customer side. As far as finding what's been done to the offending party, I realize in a normal situation that they aren't going to tell me what punishment is handed down to another employee. However, the fact that he's still employed there means they either haven't done anything yet or what they have done isn't severe enough. What he did is considered a huge violation and most would already have been terminated by now. It shouldn't take more than a week to investigate. The fact that he's already admitted being in the account with no legitimate business reason should have been enough to get rid of him. Yet, I'm forced to be in a situation where he still has a position of authority over me.

 

[cbg]

I've already told you what recourse you have. You've reported it. It is now out of your hands.

Unless you work in HR and have access to his personnel file, you have no way of knowing what action has been taken. IT IS NOT YOUR DECISION WHETHER HE IS FIRED OR NOT and that is true regardless of whether they are addressing this with you as customer or employee.

But please do feel free to pay an attorney to tell you the same thing I have.

 

[Proserpina]

Yes, the question was what recourse do I have. I find it hard to believe that there's none, especially on the customer side. As far as finding what's been done to the offending party, I realize in a normal situation that they aren't going to tell me what punishment is handed down to another employee. However, the fact that he's still employed there means they either haven't done anything yet or what they have done isn't severe enough. What he did is considered a huge violation and most would already have been terminated by now. It shouldn't take more than a week to investigate. The fact that he's already admitted being in the account with no legitimate business reason should have been enough to get rid of him. Yet, I'm forced to be in a situation where he still has a position of authority over me.

The point being, your definition of what is or isn't severe enough doesn't matter.

At all.

 

[commentator]

Most people labor under the delusion that they have a lot more rights and privileges on the job than they do. In a situation like this, you really don't have privacy from people who work with the system which accesses your loan information. In this situation, where they can look at your loan, if they're curious about this, most people who have any interest in it will already have looked at your loan. Or if they happen to see your information, they'll look at it. Regardless of what they should do, this is just standard.

I worked for many years in a situation where we had access to just about everyone's pay. If we knew your name, and knew where you worked, we could see what you were being paid. And we looked at thousands of these records in a day or a week. Prove one of us was looking up unnecessary ones, or ones we did not have a legitimate business reason to access? It would've taken up far more time to enforce this than the offense was worth.

Of course, if you were outed for doing this, say you looked up and provided such information to the National Perspirer or something, you probably were going to get fired for doing it. But they didn't have time or energy to make this a huge outstanding something they checked on day and night. They were too busy doing the real job of the agency.

What you need to remember is that your employer is in the business of making loans, NOT of protecting your privacy or making you feel good. If they spent all their time and energy on it, they could make double sure no employee accessed anyone's account without a true need to. They could fire and discipline and make examples of employees, and make you feel that it was a real violation to do this, but in the long haul, they aren't going to prioritize it if it doesn't help their bottom line.

If your supervisor is an otherwise good and well trained employee, and they have admonished him, maybe that's all they feel like they need to do. That you "no longer feel comfortable working for him" is a personal problem. You have the alternative now that you've shared this feeling with them and they have responded as they are going to respond. You can quit this job and find another one. Yes, he broke the rules. No you do not have a legal case to sue him or demand he be fired or protest about having to continue to work with him.