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From: taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (Dave Taylor)
Newsgroups: mod.comp-soc
Subject: Re: Records Accessability
Message-ID: <968@hplabsc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Jan-87 14:41:01 EST
Article-I.D.: hplabsc.968
Posted: Fri Jan  9 14:41:01 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Jan-87 01:47:24 EST
Reply-To: hplabs!gatech!gitpyr!jkr
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
Lines: 31
Approved: taylor@hplabs
Reference: <958@hplabsc.UUCP>


This article is from gatech!gitpyr!jkr (J. Kenneth Riviere)
 and was received on  Thu Jan  8 18:35:51 1987
 
This doesn't have much to do with computers, but I heard about it in a 
management training class I took and it is relevant to the question.

As I heard it the story goes like this:  employee at an institution
(for mentally ill? for children? for handicapped?  I don't recall) is
found to have been molesting the residents.  The institution wants to
avoid a scandal but also wants to get rid of said employee.  The employee
agrees to quit if all record of the 'alleged' molestation is removed from
the employee's work record and this is approved by the directors of the
institution.  Later, the person who had managed the problem employee gets
a referral form from a similar institution which has had an application
for employment from the ex-employee.  Knowing about the problem the manager
tells the truth about the employee, not wanting this person (who has been 
known to molest people who had been entrusted to his care) to have 
a similar opportunity to do so again.  Of course, the ex-employee 
is not hired at the other institution.  He finds out why he was 
rejected and sues the first institution for telling lies about him 
and wins the case since there is no documentation that he had ever 
molested anyone, all such records having been removed from his work 
record.  I was told that this actually happened.  Personally,  I
find it pretty upsetting to hear about such things.

Moral of the story:  don't say anything about former employees that you
can't back up with documentation.

J. Kenneth Riviere   (JoKeR)   ISA, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA  30332
Internet:  jkr@pyr.gatech.edu          Bitnet: iadt1kr@gitvm1
uucp: ...!{akgua,ihnp4,hplabs,seismo}!gatech!gitpyr!jkr