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manager shared personal info with coworkers (need advice)

i’m not sure where I should post this question, but here is my dilemma: I have been working as a sales associate at a major clothing retail store for a few months now. This is one of the most popular clothing stores in america, and is owned by a ~huge~ corporation. recently, I took a couple weeks off of work to go to a mental health/drug rehab program, and the only person I told was the store manager. She said it was fine for me to take a couple weeks off to get better and all that. I come back to work for the first time since getting back from rehab last week, and one of my coworkers makes a harmless but completely random comment to me about how she’s always here for me if I need to talk about anything. She also specifically said that there are some cool…


i’m not sure where I should post this question, but here is my dilemma: I have been working as a sales associate at a major clothing retail store for a few months now. This is one of the most popular clothing stores in america, and is owned by a ~huge~ corporation. recently, I took a couple weeks off of work to go to a mental health/drug rehab program, and the only person I told was the store manager. She said it was fine for me to take a couple weeks off to get better and all that. I come back to work for the first time since getting back from rehab last week, and one of my coworkers makes a harmless but completely random comment to me about how she’s always here for me if I need to talk about anything. She also specifically said that there are some cool people at the store and some uncool people at the store when it comes to talking about personal problems, and that she is one of the cool people. I say thanks and that I appreciate her support and go on with my day, but the more I think about it the more obvious it is to me that the store manager told the other employees that I went to rehab, and the employee that made the comment to me about being there for me was also warning me that the other managers/employees know, and that they aren’t very understanding people. This makes me very uncomfortable, I already am not close with the people that work at the store (i don’t really try to be friends with them, i’m just there to get a check and go home) and now I have been led to believe that they all know this very personal information about me. While I did not tell the store manager explicitly that she could not tell anyone else, I feel like it goes without saying that this is extremely personal information that should be kept confidential. The store manager could have absolutely told the other employees that I was on vacation instead of sharing my personal problems, especially since it’s summer and everyone who works here is college aged and are frequently taking time off to go on vacations. Should I contact HR? I already reached out to the store manager to ask if she told anybody just to see what her response would be, but she claims she only told the other managers (who are all my age and know people that i know, who are very much NOT my friends). Any advice? I feel like I want to quit because I’m already so uncomfortable around all the people that work there and now they know this super personal fact about me that I wanted to keep on the DL.

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