Strange Circumstances
Here goes nothing... It's a long story... At the suggestion of a friend, I went into the office of the Sunday preceding my termination to get caught up on various tasks I fell behind on. Because I thought it would only take 20 minutes tops, I asked him if he wanted to ride along and we would grab lunch afterward. When we arrived there was a creepy looking man, of whom I did not recognize, entering and exiting the building. Rather than sit in the car, John went with me into my office in case this man decided to start trouble. Unfortunately, the side of the building where I would have had him (John) signed in and affixed a temporary visitor badge onto his shirt, was locked. As we were getting ready to leave, the HR Assistant arrived to play catch up and asked me if I had keys to the other side of the building (which was in the aforementioned locked location) so she could get into her office. I told her I did not. I think she went to the clinical office to get a set. As we were heading out, I checked with her to see if she needed anything. She told me no so I called my boss to let her know I checked on a couple problem areas and was going to head out for the weekend. The boss asked me, "Who else is there?". I told her that it was me and the HR Assistant. She then asked, "Who else is there?". I told her John was with me and her attitude changed and she said that we were going to discuss it the next morning. Without warning on Monday morning, she called me into her office where she had the HR Manager on speaker phone. It was through that I was told they had to end their relationship with me because I went against company policy about patient privacy. Even though I tried to explain I felt unsafe with the strange man lurking around, they still said I was in the wrong for having John ("an unauthorized visitor") with me. In their eyes, I jeopardized the confidentiality of the patients. There was no formal documentation on my termination. As of today, they still owe me $83.00 for keys I paid for in an attempt (albeit feeble) to help establish a compliant and secure setting for patients' records and medications.
Unfortunately the HIPA Law protects tge privacy of others. You could have rec a "written warning" if your employer wanted to. Next time don't bring anyone who is not authorized to work with you..Good Luck in your future endeavors.
There are rules for many reasons. If you were concerned for your safety, you should have left and did your work another day! Bringing a "stranger" into a secure facility means you can't be trusted. I'm sorry, but you management acted properly.
Hi Jennifer: It's understandable as to why this is a strange situation. You had every right to bring John with you because you felt unsafe and you did take the steps to get him a visitor's badge. However, since your dealing with patients records and company policy, once you seen the hr assistant, you should have went in and left him in the lobby.
Hi Jennifer,
I assume you work for some type of healthcare company. This actually happened to a co-worker of mine, she had to have her wisdom teeth pulled out on a Friday, on Sunday she still was not feeling well and emailed her manager that she was not well and would work from home on Monday and that she was going into the office to get her laptop; she was feeling very queezy with the medication she was on that she asked her fiance to come in with her, mind you he stayed in the lobby of the office, but when she came back to work several days later, she was called into the HR office with her manager and she was fired for the very same thing. We both worked at a pharma company and she was in customer service. So sorry this happened to you.