I mean, yeah, absolutely! Im not cleared for it. Sure, its not going to be easy, but being honest and upfront will serve them a whole lot better than a potential employer finding out from a different source (and its not unlikely that they will find out). update: how can I turn down training requests from my clients? As Alison said, its a lot like DUI; even if no one gets hurt, theres a reason we shouldnt take those risks. Unless his bedroom was a SCIF and the phone secured, thats really bad. Life is full of these weird potholes we find ourselves in at times. can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information. But according to the LW, the trusted friend would not have blabbed, so if the LW didnt tell the coworker, the company would have never known and everything would be hunky dory. it doesnt count as they reported themselves if they later say they were ratted out by the person they reported it to. I can remember almost exactly what I said: It was wrong of me to put that information out. Its was exciting and you couldnt wait?! I agree that the companys response was wrong the sexual harasser should have been fired but in the US, authority doesnt care. "Even if it were, transmitting some personal data by email does not of itself breach data protection laws in any jurisdiction" Actually in the UK the Data Protection Act would apply as it is being transmitted outside of the company without the express authorisation from the data subject. Its good to hear from you! Ethically, you dont have to do anything. I always assumed the phrase meant no feelings are incorrect, and it made a lot less sense than the way youve laid it out! And that is a hard pill to swallow, for sure. Ultimately, its your choice to make. OP can come up with steps to fix the real problem in their future jobs, but they cant really fix an evil coworker. Box-ticking SA&T wont change security behaviors. While it is possible the line could be actively tapped/monitored by someone else, even if it was an unsecured line it would be reasonable to assume the home phone number on file for GSAs dad would lead to the dad. You asked how to handle this in future interviews and one key is owning the mistake, taking responsibility for it. Thats an important impulse to explore to avoid other similar situations with gossip. Communications professionals are privy to so many deals and information that cant be divulged to even spouses until they become public. Some offenses are so serious that you immediately get fired. The communications team is often brought on board to develop strategy for organizational decisions that may not be public for weeks or even months. They looked at themselves as an organization and realized that the damage was irrevocable. Granted, it was to your older co-worker rather than your boss, but that still shows you felt uncomfortable with your actions. It should go without saying: a breach of confidentiality could and would wind up in a bar complaint in my jurisdiction. And youre a risk, on top of having done a fireable offense. Yes, this is the valuable lesson about how precarious trust is and how breaking it can have swift painful consequences! If youre found to be lying, thats an instant rejection in a way that a well-explained firing would not be. 4a) Coworker did not owe (and usually would be discouraged from giving) notification to the OP. But if I did, itd basically just be gossip (I hear Senator Ys staff is really frustrated) that they could choose to report out in detail or not, and definitely wouldnt be traced back to me. From the other persons perspective, its always easier to say Oh, dont worry, its not that bad than to get a half-hearted minimizing apology for something youre really stinging from. The client can, of course, prevent such disclosure by refraining from the wrongful conduct. Appropriately so, but still, wow. When we think about misdirected email, we often put ourselves in the shoes of the sender. Theres no such thing as blind-siding once youve committed an infraction and people have to act on it. No one ever called for a reference. Its very dangerous to OPs professional reputation to assume OP can trust anyone who is unauthorized, including a good friend, with embargoed information. Thats why they told you the information was confidential. None of this makes you a bad person, untrustworthy, or unemployable. But the judge's response to the request for a. This is so true. about your coworker reporting you, betrayed and hard done by, is the way your employer feels about you. I can see a manager getting pressure from the top to reduce leaks choosing to fire someone over even a minor leak. Our actions and our thoughts can definitely be wrong, but calling someones feelingswhich they have little to no control overwrong (or, dead wrong with double asterisks), only contributes to shame and self-loathing. Best wishes! I resent our new hires for setting better work-life boundaries than our company normally has, hairy legs at work, my office sent me a random TV, and more, heres an example of a great cover letter with before and after versions, my employee cant handle even mildly negative feedback, my new coworker is putting fake mistakes in my work so she can tell our boss Im bad at my job, insensitive Diversity Day, how to fire someone who refuses to talk to us, and more, weekend open thread February 25-26, 2023, assistant became abusive when she wasnt invited to a meeting, my coworkers dont check on people who are out sick, and more. I work for a state government agency and FOIA is a really big deal. Employees also. Whether it's done to work from home, to print . Remember to be kind to yourself: youre human, you made a mistake and, as you said, youve learned from it. If you live in a place where its illegal to shoot guns into the air, and you shoot a gun into the air and the bullet does not actually kill anyone in its fall, you have still broken the law and placed others in danger. This is an actual security headache/nightmare for my government department as its so common for people to go out to lunch and start discussing what theyre working on while eating. Where the investigation uncovers evidence of divulging confidential information, then the employer should take formal action. There are no legal ramifications or civil lawsuits at this stage as it wasn't trade secrets or secret IP. Im thinking of the Elizabeth who went on a 20-email rage about being called Liz, or even the old 1970s memos from the Tiger Oil CEO that found new viral life in the digital age. It doesnt matter if it was text or Slack, a single journalist or a whole group. Its also totally understandable that youre disappointed about losing your job, but they might have just considered that kind of confidentiality breach too much of a risk going forward. You may not even realise your mistake until the person you meant to send the message to says they didn't receive it (or you have a flurry of missed phone calls, as in Serena Williams . I understand the issue had to be reported, but why this way ? And that wasnt even technically confidential. you can include that in there too, not as a way to cast doubt on their decision but as a way to indicate this was a fluke, not a pattern of bad judgment. You arent entitled to a second chance to screw this up. Identify the cause of the information leak. > On Monday, I was called into a fact-finding meeting with HR. Agreed. Its your actions that are right, wrong, or in that confusing gray area, and what you feel doesnt have to dictate what you do. Im now turning my head sideways and re-reading/rethinking. Theres truly no compelling reason to break confidentiality here. One of the things your field requires is to be able to think and act dispassionately about the information you have custody over. But your wording indicates that you dont yet have insight into just how much you breached the trust of your company. I am assuming you had a clearance of at least Secret. (Plus, were not sure how much of the inflation came from the coworker and how much came from their superiors. This will sound very, VERY strange, but if you have the urge to share things youre not supposed to, theres a trick you can try: telling a fictional character in an imaginary conversation. 1) Slack vs text: doesnt matter. Whats not fine is trying to take somebody elses, or dramatically moping about it until someone gives me theirs. Or it could be about a broader picture like if youd had performance issues or other problems that made it easier for them to decide to just part ways. This is to prevent LW from trying to destroy any evidence. The advance knowledge of something pending going public is a very powerful position. I sent confidential documents to someone by accident via email I need the file completely removed - Gmail Community Gmail Help Sign in Help Center Community New to integrated Gmail Gmail Stay on. Disclosing confidential information has, at best, resulted in nothing, and at worse, resulted in injury/death, or even political systems toppling. You learned, BOY HOWDY did you learn, and now you dont mess around not even gossiping with co-workers or any of those other little ways that could instill doubt in your discretion. RIGHT NOW it is totally privileged information and it needs to be treated that way. (For your job search, this might be obvious, but steer clear of medical, legal, PR, or any other field that deals with privacy.). Occasionally our clients have been in the media and have shared part of their story. Not just confidential, but confidential from *journalists*!! He and my mother kept their noses clean. Show prospective employers that you can reflect on your actions and learn from mistakes, because thats not at all what Im seeing here. If someone stole money from their workplace, or illegally harassed a coworker, and their colleague reported it would that person be a rat too? This was also my thought. Nothing I said contradicts this. If something like this would help, maybe try it. I work in the auto industry in media communications. I wont lie, Im tremendously curious, but I also know this is just one of those things I will never get to know. Its the only way they can maintain control of the information. Being honest going forward really will help OP to repair the damage to her reputation and show she has integrity. Well, this is both unkind and off-base. To be clear, you were fired for admittedly breaking confidentiality not because of your coworker. Its to LWs friends credit that she didnt pass on the info to a journalistic colleague who DOES work in that area; its not to LWs credit. That functions differently from confidential information in government sectors and sounds closer to your examples in your original comments, but it would still be a really bad idea to share that information. Like, firing on the spot if I access my own chart. Really? I had friends who would jokingly-semi-serious ask me if I was poking around their accounts and such while I was working there and I would deadpan look at them and say your finances and personal information isnt interesting enough to lose my job over and then change the subject. Your coworker didnt choose to know this information and does not owe you silence. Examples that most journalists would find pretty snoozy (although journalists who cover the agency super-closely for trade publications, Politico Pro, Bloomberg Gov, etc, would still be interested): That being said, I think you can overcome this. And if weve learned anything from this letter, its that information thats supposed to be kept secret isnt always. A recent Harvard Business Review article indicated widespread use in the workplace, with over one third of the US . We are not in kindergarten. Its so very context and field dependent. Sent a confidential email to the wrong address? If you stay in comms, good to always remember the optics. A very long-term employee who did excellent work, as a joke, made up a fake news release that indicated we got the contract. How to you ensure you're aware of it, and following it? So- bad judgement buddies? But how do I explain this to show I learnt from my mistake and get a new job ? Everything from whats going to be on sale for Black Friday, to customer financial data. Exactly this. I was coming to the comments section to say the same thing. And, yeah, that happens, its part of being a human. It happens. OP, please do not take this comment string seriously, because internalizing these statements will severely harm your ability to address your error effectively. I think the wider point is that anyone can make that mistake at any age, and speculating about this part of it is irrelevant and not helpful. That said, is there any reason you need to answer these questions? The misrepresentation of what happened is my concern. In fact, think of it this way: you put your journalist friend in a situation where she was potentially sitting on a scoop but she actually kept mum to protect you. [duplicate]. its not condescending to point out that what LW did was incredibly foolish. I am now going to assume that its exactly that. Even innocuous-sounding information, like the name of a database, can be a huge security risk. I once interviewed someone with a great resume but had switched specialties within the field. The above divulged details to a journalist about allocation and resources they should not know about. I dont think you have to be Catholic.). My (unclear) point is that there are some options for OP that extend beyond you can never share anything before its public with anyone ever and completely change career tracks.. And this will definitely have an effect on how you come across to people interviewing you in future. Giving her information relevant to her beat and asking her not to share it is basically asking her to stand on the sidelines and fail to do her job, while somebody else gets the scoop. Depending on the circumstances, you can indeed get fired for sending what you assume to be a private email or text. Is there a single-word adjective for "having exceptionally strong moral principles"? Its not a victimless crime and you have to understand the seriousness of what you did, even unintentionally. The info is out, the tech used to spread it is irrelevant and a distraction from the problem. At the same time, though, its a program the average American would likely never have heard of and would give less than a crap about. should I tell my coworker about our colleagues criminal record, I deeply regret joining my companys leadership program, and more, my company is cutting my overworked teams pay as punishment for mistakes. 2) Multiple people is relevant, but its easy to misunderstand 3rd hand stories. If that puts it in perspective. Weve all made mistakes. You need to be ready to show that you understand that you have responsibility to understand and comply with policy, and that you're willing to do that. Basically, one of the key ways that spies get information is by social engineering picking up seemingly minor information through friendly chat that they can then combine together to make more. You certainly don't need to blurt out a 5 minute monologue unprompted, but you do want to be ready to answer these questions because they will come up if you disclose what happened as you intend to. If you got the launch codes for the missiles, thats a big no no to share. If you say, My coworker ratted me out, an interviewer hears, My coworker reported my misconduct. Youre the one who comes off looking poorly there, not the coworker. If the email involves sensitive information, this could be a serious problem for the people involved. I feel like this misses the overall lesson Allison is trying to impart here. Only hope going forward is own up flatly and without defensiveness . We call this a misdirected email and it's really, really easy to do. It would have been better if she had told you first that she was going to tell someone, but whether she warns you first has no bearing on whether she was obligated to disclose. I supervise a manager who falsified an employee write-up but I dont think she should be fired. You did wrong, fessed up, and got fired anyway. People have gotten jobs in their field after vastly more serious forkups, don't despair. OP erred, which she knows, but I dont think that means her mentor no longer has the obligation to be honest with her. But I dont think this applies in any case since it was on her personal cell. Youll get another job. You still have to go through the same information request as someone who doesnt work there. Take full responsibility. This is a very important life lesson, both for your professional and personal life. Those kinds of disclosures often rise to the level of immediate termination, which is what happened, here. Excellent points, especially LWs use of ratted out. Alison has said so many times that theres no tattling in the work world. Im not going to spell out what it was, but it was completely unethical and immoral, and shes lucky her license wasnt permanently revoked for it. We had a discussion on a work committee about not using our work emails when discussing some sensitive information. Penalizing or firing such employees may lead to the loss of good talent and even create a negative impact on employee morale. I now work somewhere where I have access to sensitive information, including my own. . I think interviewers will pick up on the equivocation in your language here. Journalists are very charasmatic and will fish for info its their job. Or, she just needs to buy a journal and write the good news, and her feelings about same, down and go on with her job. The co-workers obligation is to the employer, not to the OP. If it keeps happening, you can report the sender as junk or spam to block future messages. Because a) LW broke confidentiality. Hopefully whatever she disclosed doesnt violate a public access law, since the information was released publicly shortly afterward, but wow did she dodge a bullet. Im assuming the LW plead their case and filled in relevant information. 2) Told someone you broke a rule. When dad got on the phone he explained to the person that he understood the situation and that he was going to have to report him because he gave my mother classified information. I would absolutely be fired for checking out things for curiosity, I only have access in the first place so I can see whether people are currently clocked in (if you change their access to something while they are actively using it, odd things happen, so I need to check to see if they clocked in that day before I begin). Fired. Those questioners would hammer her on this. Situations like this are one reason I think workplaces with confidential/sensitive information should regularly remind their employees of what confidentiality means for them, rather than leaving it as a blanket statement or only discussed during new employee training. They take information security and confidentiality so seriously that they make delivery people who come to the offices sign an NDA just in case they were in the elevator with Sam Jackson. Forgetting to attach a mentioned attachment is common, but still embarrassing. I was reading the email at home and after reading the first paragraph I exclaimed out loud (so my spouse could hear) Ooooh. *(assuming that you did so)* She covers a totally different subject area so it never even crossed my mind that her career would be an additional conflict. A member of the public wants some data, they contact anybody in the agency they can think of, the internal employees bounce it around because somehow they dont know who to send data requests to, and finally it gets to us and we respond. December 15, 2009, 1:05 PM. 4. You knew better. I deal with it by having friends in the firm who I can say it to (but not in a bar!). The protected classes are race, age (40+), sex, national origin, religion, or disability. Thats a flat out easy to uncover lie. Ohhhh come on. (For example, my BFF works at the Pentagon. Any message that starts with Oh honey is going to read as rude and condescending unless its followed by a sincere Im so sorry in response to something terrible happening. Not generational, just a young person thing. What I find interesting in the original letter is LWs insistence that it was a victimless crime because nothing bad happened as a result of their leak. He was valuable. Heck, at my agency were cautioned to not use work email on our personal devices (unless were management or its an emergency) because records requests could potentially get our personal devices as well. Plus, I think part of it was that it was exciting BECAUSE it was secret, and now its apparently common knowledge. 2. Even though shes made the same mistake 2 times). Confidentiality, especially in government, is no joke and should be taken very seriously. What you did was misconduct. On the other hand maybe they didnt listen to her or believe her, and in that case shes been fired based on a misunderstanding but that doesnt help her because what she actually did wasnt OK either. That was not an enjoyable situation at all. If its obvious who the email was intended for, just forward it on and cc the original sender, letting them know what youve done. Messages like this can simply be ignored and deleted. . But if youre singling people out, or only using it in the context of chastising someone, then yeah, for sure condescending and rude. But folks with strong confidentiality duties often dont disclose the confidential parts of the information to their trusted confidants or partners. Also, Ive seen plenty of firings that were absolutely not presented as position elimination. Even if the exact reason wasnt shared employer isnt going to say Oh, Jane took home a spreadsheet full of MNPI they will absolutely share that the ex-employee was fired for cause, not laid off. Thats also real life. Ill add one point: You dont know that she didnt leak it. One of my favorite shows had a plotline about a sibling not liking someone not breaking doctor confidentiality. Sometimes the news is a dreadful burden to bear (staff reductions of people you know, elimination of services you think are important) and sometimes the news is exciting, you have the inside scoop and cant wait to share it. But given the kind of convo LW describes.while the LW really should not have been surprised they got reported and then fired, and does seem to be downplaying the severity, I wonder if something about the convo led them to believe it was somehow less serious than the mentor clearly understood it to be, and mentor didnt seem to do anything to help the LW understand how big a deal this is, which is kind of a bummer. Accidents do happen, we are all human but what rights you have if you share private company information by mistake really depends on a few things: the type of information that was accidentally distributed, how this impacted your company, and what the consequences were for you. Hes in an unrelated field, it doesnt affect him at all, and he wouldnt really care outside of knowing whats going on in Eddies life but hes a chatterbox and theres a decent chance hed forget and say something to someone. Or does it only matter that I broke a rule?, For #1, Youre certainly allowed to bring up anything you want in an interview, the question you should really be asking is, Will it help or hurt my candidacy to bring this up?. Discretion and brand protection are as critical to this role as promotion and talking to the media. You didn't accidentally email the material to yourself, you did it on purpose. Moving on from that company is probably a mixed blessing. Thank you for saying that feelings are never wrong. This reminds me of people whose response to hearing no is well, how do we get to a yes? LWs response to this was unacceptable and we cannot have a person on our staff who would do this, was Oh, okay, well, next time I have a similar opportunity here I wont do this.. Between that and having family members who have been laid off and lost access to their work account that they used for personal use as well, I have learned to keep work and personal email accounts separate. People working on campaigns get to be privy to all sorts of information that is not intended to be public. They did exactly the right thing to you. Its part of driving a media and product blitz where it basically shows up out of nowhere because everyone has been working on it quietly so it would all be ready for the big day. The first job will be the hardest but gradually you are less and less likely to be asked about an older job. But reasonable minds can certainly differ. Im glad that youve had time to think about it and can own the mistake, thats the most important part when we mess up. I think its also something to do with the fact that if you tell a journalist something newsworthy, youre not just talking, youre offering a thing of (potential) value, which is an entirely different action from sharing news with a friend. Better to have a 30% chance than a 0% chance. And honestly, you broke an embargo for your own company. In some cases, those policies . How is an ETF fee calculated in a trade that ends in less than a year? Or at least, feeling like one should have been possible. So to summarize, while an individual in your circumstance can be fired for the accidental dissemination of confidential employment information, their employer cannot press criminal charges against them, both because a private entity lacks the authority to make that decision and more fundamentally because the accidental dissemination of . @bent in my experience most companies view the data leaving their possession as the real concern, anything else is secondary. Youre not in a gang or on a schoolyard playground or fighting with your sibling in the backseat of the family station wagon. Once you told your coworker, you dragged her out there on the plank with you. Heres the story: I worked for a large government agency, in communications. It involved something the OP had learned about in confidence, but hadnt even been publicly announced and the OP blabbed about it to someone completely unrelated to her job. I dont know. Later the coworker left the company and at company B was asked to write a similar report for the new company. So this. I thoughtlessly mentioned an embargoed announcement to a longtime friend in journalism before it was public. Eh, if a waitress at a homey diner calls everyone honey, I wouldnt call it condescending. It sounds like youre taking responsiblity for your actions and are doing your best to move on. And that even one second counts as a HIPAA violation. Lack of rigor. 4) The coworker was absolutely right to report the breach in confidentiality. Disclosing Government information to a journalist (even a friend in confidence) without permission is a major breach of confidence and Im not surprised it resulted in a significant sanction. That response will likely impress an employer that she has grown and learned, that she is honest and has some self-awareness, and that she would be worth trusting. If I happened to expose that to my BIL who runs the comic book store and has a bunch of media and arts and entertainment contacts? Think of speaking with a colleague like speaking with your boss. Dec. 17, 2009 -- You probably don't think twice about sending personal messages through your work e-mail. Thats the wrong lesson to learn. they dont owe it to you to offer that opportunity, That reminds me of the guys who say, I know I cheated on you, but I want a second chance.. was. Those usually come out the morning of the speech. That was the profound breach of the OPs duty. "It is likely not private if the employee used the employer . a coworker at my company was discussing a future potential release at a bar loud enough that someone heard it, and then posted it on a public forum. Yeah, Im wondering that too. it really should be I made a foolish mistake, Its more a case of I broke the rules bigtime and expected someone else to cover up for me.. As Brett said, there was definitely a record in this case. If you own your mistake, meditate on it, learn from it, and learn to tell the story of how you learned from it, then you might be able to get another job in the communications industry working for a company that does not handle sensitive client data, or in another industry where there are no potential confidentiality issues with your job.