Transactional(propagation = Propagation.REQUIRES_NEW) not opening a new transaction in private method getting same value passed as parameter

Question

I am using jpa entity listner class where and spring data repository . In @PreMethod update if I used @Transactional(propagation = Propagation.REQUIRES_NEW) I am getting data from the database directly. If I use the same transactional annotation over private method( getOldEmployee ) being called inside @PreMethod I am not getting the data from the database rather its using the same latest session data not sure why this behaviour is happening

Entity Class

@Entity
@Table(name = "Employee")
@EntityListeners({EmployeeListener.class)
public class Employee extends AuditEntity implements Serializable {

}

Listener class

 @Component
 public class EmployeeListner{
 
 @Autowired
 EmployeeRepository employeeRepository;

  @PreUpdate
  @Transactional(propagation = Propagation.REQUIRES_NEW)   //if use here I get the employee database value before updating the database
  public void preUpdateEvent(Employee employee) {
    Employee employee=getOldEmployee(employee);
  }


  private Employee getOldEmployee(Employee employee) {     //if inspite of using  @Transactional(propagation = Propagation.REQUIRES_NEW) in @PreMethod if use here I am not getting the database value rather getting latest value
    Optional<Employee> getOldEmployeeOptional =employeeRepository.findById(employee.getId());
    getOldEmployeeOptional  
  }
}

Answer 1

Spring applies the Transactional settings only on public methods, in other case the settings are ignored.
From Spring documentation:

When using proxies, you should apply the @Transactional annotation only to methods with public visibility.