I have a long term health condition (I'm a type 1 diabetic) and, as rubbish luck would have it, I've had problems adjusting my insulin during the course of the PhD so had some bad patches health wise. I've always made up time off by working evenings/weekends and kept my supervisor informed, and I told him about my condition when I started.

Since then he's always treated me differently from others in the department, e.g. not letting me write up results for papers because 'I might get too bogged down with work and make myself ill', not giving me enough information for other chunks of my thesis so that I wouldn't try to work on too many different experiments (which has now led me to be in the final 8 months or so and I'm less than halfway through my experiments), and other things which I won't go into. But today was the icing on the cake - he's told me he'll have to disclose my health condition in any references he gives me for jobs I apply for when I finish. He said that he has to be honest because my condition has led me to take time off (not as an extended period, I had a total of around 3 weeks off as odd days here and there over a 3/4 month period, which I made up at weekends etc.).

I always thought that surely disclosing someone else's health problem would fall under the category of breaking confidentiality and that he wouldn't be able to do that. Besides I'm always honest with any employer about it so I would tell them myself, but if I'm not required to disclose it prior to interview, I feel that him mentioning this in my reference would prevent me from getting interviews. I'd like to know if this sounds like discrimination and who I should contact for advice. I just want to address the reference issue, everything else is in the past now.

Thanks in advance!

Also another query - do professors in universities have to go through a HR department when they give references for their students out to employers? Or can they just write whatever they want and send it off to the employer?

I will get some legal advice about this but I'm concerned that maybe the way things are done in a university setting will be different to private sector/other companies. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

If this is in the UK, as far as I am aware, he should not be able to disclose a health condition on a reference - he might however be in his rights to state how much time you have taken off. Do you have anyone in your department who is responsible for discrimination issues who you could seek advice from? Or there should be a Disability Services department in the university you could ask? I'm not sure if diabetes would be classed as disability for discrimination purposes (the definition is here - https://www.gov.uk/definition-of-disability-under-equality-act-2010). But they might be able to offer you advice anyway - failing that student unions should have advice workers. For you second qu, I think usual reference practice is that individuals can respond directly to reference requests - I've never heard of references having to go through a HR dept.

Hi Tulip,

I'm quite appalled by the way your supervisor is treating you over this and would mostly agree with what socpol said. Information pertaining to your health is confidential and it is not appropriate for your supervisor to include it in a reference. You've not had a huge amount of sick leave, and you've made the time up, in any case!

Regarding disabilities, employers normally ask about these on sections of application forms that are NOT used in the interview short-listing and it would be illegal (in the UK, at least) for them to use the information in any way other than making any necessary adjustments for a disabled candidate to facilitate them attending for the interview process. I filled in a job application only today, and in that section, they defined a disability as a condition which impairs your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. I wouldn't consider diabetes a disability, though would appreciate that it could be construed to be an intermittent one where the patient is trying to establish an appropriate control regimen (i.e. insulin dose for type I). Therefore if you "consider" yourself to be in that category, you could cover yourself under "Other" and specify. That way, you can declare it in confidence in advance of interview selection, and you'd be covered.

As for references, usual practise is for employers to take up references AFTER interview. Though it is normally a direct process, i.e. not via HR. The only problem you might have in a closed-rank establishment like academia, is if your prospective employer knows your supervisor and phones them to ask about you prior to selection.

I'd say you need to nip this in the bud. You could tell your supervisor that he's behaving illegally and if he torpedoes a job offer, you'll sue him! Alternatively, try your postgraduate tutor or student advice service. It might be that the university careers service might have information about this, too.

I wish you luck!

Either your supervisor or university can give a reference; I think it's the norm for a supervisor to do it directly though. In employment, usually the HR department writes a generic reference about attendance, performance, duration of job and sickness.

Your supervisor is not allowed to disclose information about your health in your reference. The university however can disclose the number of sick days you have taken, but not what they were for. The only person that can disclose the nature of the sick days is you, or with your permission, your GP.

Going forward, you should probably reconsider telling supervisors/managers information about your health or personal problems because in my experience they often tend to use it against you in some way, whether it's like you have described and or in not bothering to ask you to do extra work or attend meetings etc if they think it's going to be an issue for you.

I guess this depends on the person though. Personally I like to present the facade of 'everything is perfect in my life' because my life is my business and I want to be in the best position possible. This works for me because then when everything is falling apart in my life, I can still pretend everything is great when I am at work. It's a coping mechanism for me.

Hi all,

Thanks very much for the quick responses!

Socpol - thanks, yes I'm in the UK. I'm not registered with the disability service because I've never considered myself as having a disability, but I know that diabetes is classed as one for discrimination purposes, so I'll speak to them anyway and see what they say.

SimonG - Thanks for your post. I'd agree it needs nipping in the bud - the problem is I have at least a year, if not longer left with this guy so I don't want to get on his bad side when I need his advice for finishing off and writing up. I've considered getting advice from student services and the postgrad office, and then waiting until I need to apply for jobs before bringing this up again. But the problem is if he continues to be an a***hole about it, I don't really want to have spent four years doing a PhD and then be given a reference that wrongly implies that I'm too ill to work (as that is absolute rubbish!). It's his ignorance about it that could end up being a problem for me. So I'm a bit unsure how to approach this at the moment.

TreeofLife - Thanks for the post. I am relieved that my supervisor can't give information about health in references, but he tends to do what he wants which is what I'm concerned about. I agree entirely about not giving supervisors/managers personal information - I've learnt this the hard way! The only reason I was honest about it was because a) I was naive going into the PhD and b) I was ill for a few months before I was put on insulin, during which time I was really unwell and I didn't want to be seen as lazy if I had a day off work. I've decided from now on no employer will know about this.

Thanks again for the replies, they're much appreciated.

You're right of course: just because he can't, doesn't mean he won't! If it was me I would gently let him know that he is not legally allowed to do that the next time he mentions it. If that didn't work, I would try a more persuasive tactic.