Q: My boyfriend committed suicide. The boss at our old work told current employees. I live in California. Is this legal.
Both my boyfriend and I no longer worked at a place. He hadn’t worked there for two years. My best friend still works there. The regional director told all of the current employees (some who didn’t even know him) that he committed suicide less than a week after it happened. I do not know how he knows. His family has chosen not to inform people how he died. The information is not online anywhere. Is it legal for the old employer to disclose this information unnecessarily and unprompted or does it not matter?
A:
I am very sorry for your loss. Because this information was not disclosed by the employee to the employer and because your boyfriend was no longer an employee there, the employer would have the same rights to talk about him as anyone else would. There are no special legal duties that would prohibit the former employer from providing this news to others.
Good luck to you.
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