Another one who thinks a functioning uterus absolves then of all responsibility

TLDR: Did a performance assessment with a new hire. She is a single mom and left her 9 y/o son in her hotel room while we were working. I reported this to our manager due to liability and after returning to the home office this afternoon, was informed her contract had been terminated and she would no longer be employed at our affiliate partners.

This Monday l was in the Midwest evaluating a remote new hire still in her probationary period in my department. While working, we shared small details of our lives that you normally do with new co-workers. She mentioned she was a single mom to a 9 y/o boy and since it was still summer break, she had a hard time finding childcare while she worked. I nodded in sympathy and then she told me she brought him along with her on this business trip to enjoy the hotel amenities and get out of the house.

I paused what I was doing and looked at her in surprise. I asked if she had gotten approval for family travel as it’s allowed, as long as it’s requested in advance and approved by our manager. She told me that she didn’t think it was a big deal and she’s done it before in other companies. I didn’t say anything else and we finished our day at the site.

While at the airport, my manager called asking how the review had gone. I gave him my assessment but told him my biggest concern was outside of the site work and mentioned what she had told me. I also expressed my concern over leaving a young child alone for so long. My manager agreed and told me this was a possible liability issue for the company. He said he needed to speak with HR department after our call. I gave him the rest of my assessment and then boarded my flight when it was called.

Today, I arrived at our office for a weekly in-person team meeting. My manager informed us that the new Midwest hire’s contract had been terminated. He added that she would not be receiving a referral and that she was now blacklisted from working on partner company projects.

After the meeting, a few colleagues asked me what happened. I summarized the trip and a couple of colleagues, also single mothers, said I shouldn’t have ratted her out because she most likely didn’t have any other option, and now she was no longer employable in our field. I told them I didn’t expect the consequences to be so severe, but I still had to report what she did because of liability. They disagreed and said I should’ve been more sympathetic to her situation.

Am I the asshole for reporting her transgression?

ADDITIONAL EDIT to answer repeat questions.

Thank you to everyone who’s given judgement and for all the constructive comments. To those who have attacked me personally based on my post, fair enough.

1. A lot of people are assuming that the new hire was poor or at least too poor to hire childcare. I never wrote that she was poor, only that she had a hard time finding childcare because of summer break. I’m not trying to be elitist, but to qualify for our job, you need a graduate degree or a BSN with at least a couple of years of experience. The new hire certainly has options with other companies not affiliated with our current one or its partners. Any major health network or any large private clinic certainly has openings for what we do with or without a referral.

2. In regards to corporate loyalty, me, my coworkers, and her are all contractors. We work for ourselves and we pick and choose contracts that we want to take. Once your contract is up, you move on. I could care less who the higher ups are as long as I get a fair evaluation at the end of my contract.

3. As for HR policy regarding employee information. My field review summary is not privileged information among departmental co-workers who are also field reviewers. This wasn’t water cooler gossip. This was me giving a factual account of what occurred to people who perform the same function that I do. The fact that 2 co-workers thought I was an asshole is a result of this discussion.

4. Some have asked what I do for a living. In broad terms, my co-workers and I audit clinics, hospitals, and insurance companies to be sure no fraud is happening on either end, and that government laws are followed in regards to procedures and practices. It’s literally our job to be meticulous in following and enforcing established policies.

EDIT for Clarifications

1. She knew about the travel policies and needing approval. We are all trained on company SOPs as contractors for several weeks before being certified. Once certified, we’re field reviewed and if approved are assigned work projects as remote workers.

2. My role as a field reviewer was to assess her on her work ethic, site task abilities, and adherence to our SOPs including travel guidelines. I’m not allowed to give feedback to her as it’s her assigned mentor’s job to discuss strengths, weaknesses, and how to improve because they work one on one with new hires closely. I’m a essentially a proctor overseeing a field test.

3. I’ve never met her or spoken with her or her son before this past Monday and only know what she mentioned in passing.

4. Her mentor and my manager would have learned she was traveling with someone eventually because the hotel receipt lists the room service menu items purchased. There no possible way food could have been delivered to her room while she was at work with me without someone else ordering it.

5. “Outside of site work” refers specifically to the tasks we do while at the clinic but doesn’t mean she isn’t evaluated for following guidelines while offsite during travel.