Re: I'm in no way defending the guilty here, but....
"What I'm wondering is why a mental ailment falls into the second category? There are campaigns on the go about how we need to be more open in talking about peoples' mental health, and removing the stigma from things like depression.
Is there a secondary issue as to whether the workplace culture in this case was such that the employee felt that they needed to be more secretive?"
Because the employer doesn't get to decide which category it fits into, the employee does. There are indeed loads of campaigns to remove the stigma of mental illness, and crap like this only sets those campaigns back. If you've plucked up the courage to open up to your boss and tell them something in confidence, and they then break that confidence by telling others what message does that send? Will that person open up and seek help in future? Will anyone else in that department with mental health issues feel comfortable speaking to anyone? No!
Even if (and it's a big if) there was a legitimate reason for the line manager to tell those other people, it should only have been after they'd informed the employee that they were going to do so. If you've promised the employee that you'll keep what they've told you in confidence, then you should tell them if that's not the case as well as who you need to inform and why they need to know.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
