Where I work, I cannot legally share information about very exciting things that are happening/about to happen. If when when LW talked to their boss, they conveyed the sense that theyre thinking Whats the big deal, its all fine, the coworker who ratted me out sucks, I did it once and Id do it again but next time I wouldnt self-report to my coworker the boss would probably be unwilling to give a second chance, whereas a oh shit I screwed up, heres what Im going to do to make sure this never happens again could have gotten one. Id had excellent feedback up until then (if this is true), but I mistakenly shared some non-public information with a friend outside the agency, and they let me go as a result. Letter writer: If youre still dealing with this emotionally, focus on the facts. As I said below, that may be why you werent given a second chance. While it clearly appears LW would not have done any of this, the regulations and policies are written to protect the employer and coworker from any potential negative actions. You would never want someone to find out from the news media that they no longer have a job, for example. So the judgment on trustworthiness is flawed. While it didnt result in any press, it was obviously a major lapse in judgment and I understand why it resulted in my termination. Oh, I wish Id seen this before replying. He and my mother kept their noses clean. They might push the company to reverse your termination. But when I wrote letters to the llama farmers whose llamas had bitten a client whose story about her life-threatening goat allergy was featured in the papers (obviously this is not what actually happened), I had to be sure I didnt say anything about the llama farmer letters that could link to the goat story. what did you want to get out of sharing with her? And even more so in ballistic missile submarines! 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. Even though I was only suspended for two weeks, it hurt so, so much. 1964 is what I remember. This is a tough lesson to learn. She already acknowledged that its 100% her fault. You did wrong, fessed up, and got fired anyway. 1) Slack vs text: doesnt matter. 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. For me, that was it. Thats why they told you the information was confidential. There are, unfortunately, many things I am doomed to not know even though I would really like to find out. Im still pretty upset that I had no second chance, but I suppose I just lost their trust. Its the only way they can maintain control of the information. Including their reputation being damaged. Note: You dont want to frame this as It would have been made public eventually so I did nothing wrong. Your tone is still very much acknowledging that you messed up. update: is my future manager a bigoted jerk? But it could be that GSAs dad had a code/password to verify it was actually him and the caller forgot to verify that first. Its helped me when a friend has told me something in confidence but I really need to talk about it for whatever reason. If theres anything else you can say about your work there to put this in context like that you had received a glowing performance review, were taking on increasing levels of responsibility, etc. I was under the impression that most big companies had a policy against telling a reference checker anything beyond dates of employment. End of story. I was talking about this upthread before I saw this discussion. Accidents or mistakes are bound to happen. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. A 40 year old making the same mistake would be much harder to trust later. NEVER by email unless explicitly given the go-ahead). Now I just leave and cry and deal with the long-term consequences, like never moving up. I dont know. Its a huge risk that if discovered by the employer would likely result in being blacklisted from the company and if the LW is employed there immediate termination. I get why maintaining confidentiality is important, and I understand why the OP was wrong in this particular situation, but balance is also needed. I constantly have journalist friends asking for confidential tips, and there is no way I would ever give up any information. And there are reasons the rule is dont leak, rather than dont leak (except to people youre *really sure* wont tell any one else (except people who they are really sure they wont tell anyone else (except people theyre absolutely positive wont tell anyone else))). Non-public just because it hadnt been announced yet isnt the same as the location of the emergency bunker. Screw-ups happen. I would not immediately snap into how can I report this? 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. If that puts it in perspective. It may be unfair to assume a journalist is cutthroat and would kill for a lead. Itd be much safer for the LW to ask HR what theyre going to say to other employers asking for references. Unfortunately, there are instances where employees have accidentally leaked confidential information. And honestly, you broke an embargo for your own company. As this was almost the entirety of your job they really couldnt keep you around. Sometimes I see stuff that is cool to nerds of that particular field, but 95% of my Secret Information from clients is not even interesting to them. In sending that information to your own mailbox, you transmitted the data to a number of machines, any number of which could be intercepting the data for reading, and many do albeit for legit purposes of scanning for advertising relevant stuff or scanning viruses. Much safer. Im glad youve learned from your mistake, and I really hope you take this experience to heart as you continue your communications career. Later when I moved on, it became my absolute best interview topic when asked about a mistake and how I handled it. I disagree. Why are Suriname, Belize, and Guinea-Bissau classified as "Small Island Developing States"? Better to say in a single instance of poor judgment I let a piece of information get outside of the company to one person which I immediately knew was a mistake and I notified someone in my company. The sharing of information is a violation of your professional duties and ethics and would get me 60% of the way to firing someone if I were your boss. And then THAT person got so excited that they just had to tell someone Each person thinks theyre only telling one other person, and that they can trust that person. Accidental disclosure of PHI includes sending an email to the wrong recipient and an employee accidentally viewing a patient's report, which leads to an . A major penalty for breach of confidentiality is termination of employment. AND I told somebody within the company about that? You colleagues are often the closest people to you, so it makes sense to want to tell them about your problems (which include work screw-ups), but you cant. OP, Im sure in your excitement you truly didnt think there was anything wrong with telling your friend, someone you trust implicitly to remain discreet. We call this a misdirected email and it's really, really easy to do. It sounds like OP is young enough that they havent learned that there are some jobs where gossiping about your workplace with your friends is okay, and some jobs where that absolutely cannot fly. You know thats not how that works. ); Im also thinking of someone I know whose work depends on his being able to drive who got a DUI last year, and someone who essentially had a full emotional breakdown in a workplace I was in when I was a lot younger, who ended up under her desk sobbing and throwing things). Your feelings are wrong, in this context means,Your feelings arent *morally* wrong.. There are people who would refuse to acknowledge their error and go about their lives being bitter and blaming others. You can get past this, if you learn from the experience. Its definitely not a spur if the moment decision. 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. As Alison said, its a lot like DUI; even if no one gets hurt, theres a reason we shouldnt take those risks. I do a lot of trade shows and we always remind booth staff of what to say (talk points) and what not to say to trade journalists. But would the government do that? Journalists are very charasmatic and will fish for info its their job. Here are five such rules, most of which were broken by Block (who reportedly left Oracle yesterday.) should I be so emotionally drained by managing? And youre being very generous toward the coworker in saying she misunderstood and mistakenly misrepresented it. I would have serious questions about your judgment if I found out you told any reporter about something that was confidential. Every hospital Ive worked at requires yearly HIPAA compliance training. Here are the things that OP needs to remember: First, the coworker is not a rat, even if she misunderstood the scope of OPs unauthorized disclosure and mistakenly misrepresented it. To be fair Jules, I was making the assumption that it had been, in effect, sexual assault, which may not have been the case. 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 being said, it doesnt change the fact that OP shouldnt have done it anyway, so harboring ill will towards this coworker is pointless. If its the government, theyd be defending Area 51 unless its a false flag operation, and the point is for the invasion to occur, but show nothing suspicious, because the government already relocated all the aliens! When youre put in a position of trust like that and then abuse that trust, you really leave the organization with no other option but to let you go, even if it is your first offense. The violation was only victimless by accident and confidentiality rules dont hinge on whether or not the leak is known to have caused damage. The terminology is often not eligible for rehire., And every time Ive ever given a formal reference, that has been one of the questions: Would you hire her again? or Is she eligible for rehire?. They thought it was funny and shared it with a couple more. Its not about breaking a rule, its about potentially causing some serious issues by leaking information. Having said that, as a hiring manager, if you were able to talk to me about how this one-time error in judgment caused a deep shift in thinking and was a critical pivot point in your professional development I would hear you out. You might not immediately get the same job you had before and might have to accept something more junior but be clear in your communications and you'll get there. Not necessarily for the leaking but for the way youre talking about it. I think thats misunderstanding the severity of why what OP did was not ok. Theres any number of non-confidential matters that are embargoed prior to their public announcement. OP, think about your choice to share with this person. Then whenever you send a message, you'll be given an option to "Cancel" at the top of the message before it's sent. On the non-security side of things its fascinating to learn what the folks in the booth behind me are working on as Im quietly eating lunch, but its a serious security violation to discuss that kind of thing in public and it makes me cringe so hard when it happens. All three have kept their mouths shut, at least to the best of my knowledge, and I can talk it over without worrying that I will cause a problem with my disclosing. This is mostly a matter of describing your motivation appropriately, and in this respect "At that time, I did not realize" does a better job of conveying that your basis of judgment has changed in the course of that experience than a mere "I did not realize" would. Im also not going to tell anyone else! And, of course, some agencies dont have a policy and, when contacted can provided whatever info they feel is relevant. It would have been nice for her to warn you that she was going to report it, or even given you a chance to do it yourself so it would have gone over a bit better. I actually think your big mistake was telling your coworker, not telling a trusted friend. Maybe a different (and appropriately mortified) approach from the OP in those meetings would of had a different result or maybe not! but the approach in the letter definitely would have convinced me to let her go if I was on the fence. 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 . This is NOT a myob type situation at all. Many, many of us in similar positions have made similar mistakes. I agree with you! This is so true. Any tax or benefit records, any survey or census records if I access them without good reason its a firing offence. If it bleeds, it leads, and if its not bleeding, you might as well kick it a few times to see if itll start bleeding Nope. In a professional context, close friendships and personal trust arent always as ironclad as they can be in personal relationships, particularly when it comes to security and confidentiality. Its ridiculous how much a speculator can get from very little information, and this is why keeping anything secret until it is announced is important. I come across soooo much incidental information about people I know in the course of this job. 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. Im sorry this happened to you, OP, Im sure it feels devastating, and it sounds like some of the details were inflated but there is a good reminder here for all of us as some things cant be undone. Of course. Something LW has not seemed to understand: the fact that you worked for a governmental agency is not the issue, the fact that you leaked info early is. A while back I had a coworker/friend who created a memo, for our company A, all based on publicly available information, along with suggestions and comments by the coworker. So you let the cat out of the bag about the cat your zoo bagged? Whose to say OP isnt right that the coworker had it out for her? The point still stands, however, that Contract Killers proposed sanctions likely dont appear to apply here. I would argue if you acknowledge your error in judgment, it would work more to your benefit, then classifying it as a one-off mistake and overreaction by your company. If *you* got that carried away, you cant guarantee that she wont, either. I think youd be in trouble for sharing that kind of information over the phone, regardless of who he was talking to. The enforcement has to be based on the idea that the leak was damaging. I can remember almost exactly what I said: It was wrong of me to put that information out. Yes, when I worked at a financial firm I believe that exact question was on a privacy training test: If I run across the name of a celebrity in the client management system while performing my duties, its okay to tell friends and family about it, True or False?. I think it helps that you told your coworker. Well, this is both unkind and off-base. Even innocuous-sounding information, like the name of a database, can be a huge security risk. Im a long time reader posting my first ever comment to tell you that this comment is incredibly condescending, unnecessary, and unhelpful. Oof this is so condescending! While I dont think the LW should be endlessly flagellating herself, this was her fault, not the co-worker. Or did you double down on not my fault, not a big deal, and co-worker shouldnt have said anything? Especially odd because LW emphasized how trustworthy the friend is for why the friend wouldnt blab. If youre excited about a new, increased source of funding, that shows your agency has money to spend. Or that might not make a difference on how its interpreted. Hows work? Wait, what the friend is a *journalist*?. There is zero entitlement in saying that shes upset she didnt get a second chance. Dont reveal confidential information and fully own up to your shit are good lessons. My philosophy is that it doesnt matter what city you live in, its a small town. Messages like this can simply be ignored and deleted. Check out this article on that HERE. Theres no way your managers could safely assign other confidential projects to you after leaking the information on this project. LW, we are all human. But OP gets to choose what they think the coworkers motivations may have been. If you told, you breached confidentiality, no matter what the other people did. picture of male guinea fowl . Don't worry, you're not alone. You were wrapped up in a project and yes you messed up but no you didn't mean to. I wish I lived in your country. This mixed with the coworkers inflated story, I would be more than annoyed by this coworker too. Employees. I feel LWs pain. We let him go for incredibly poor judgmentlike putting me as a reference, for example.. Yeah, seconding this. End of story. Rules are there because its so easy to do that thing that feels harmless, and sometimes nobody gets hurt.. I doubt she had it out for you and rather was worried you confided a big breech to her which could adversely affect the company. Is this the appropriate place to bring up Anthony Scaramucci not even uttering the phrase off-the-record during his bizarre call to Ryan Lizza and then being upset when his words were published? Please banish the phrase ratted out from your vocabulary and thinking. She cut a guys LVAD wires so that hed be bumped up to the top of the heart transplant donor list? If someone stole money from their workplace, or illegally harassed a coworker, and their colleague reported it would that person be a rat too? Im sure he knew about things that he would have liked to talk about, and my dad can talk about anything to anyone at great length. Everyone makes mistakes at all points in our careers. The person you wronged is not obligated to give you that second chance with them. Weve all made mistakes. Im sorry it happened to you, though, and it definitely stinks. As the other commenter noted, this could have been a very serious offence considering you were working for the government. Things worked out this time, so I was right! What!!! Your coworker was probably legally obligated to report this, and even is she wasnt this is the type of breach that reasonable people WILL report. Of course, it wasnt your mistake and youre under no legal obligation to do anything at all. However, placing the blame on the coworker for the entire situation, even just in her own head, is likely to come though when she talks about why she was fired. Reduce human activated risk to protect against email data breaches, Allow your teams to communicate securely and share sensitive data, Guiding principles that govern how we operate as a team, Diverse and inspiring individuals passionate about making a difference in the world, Join our team across a range of roles and help shape the cyber security market, Tailored compensation and career paths designed to attract and retain world-class talent, Unique and personalized benefits to help maximize your potential with us. OOPS! This seems unnecessarily condescending, and I dont think the LW sounds defensive here at all. ), You also werent fired for technically breaking a rule. You were fired for actually breaking a rule, and a serious one. Embargoes and off-the-record information are for journalists who are actually covering a story and in most cases that information can be shared in the newsroom (by saying a source told me off record if confidentiality is really important) and acted upon (you can start to write out a story to be ready when the embargo lifts, or call work to corroborate the off-the-record with on background or on record sources). Or if the coworker only decided afterwards this couldnt be kept in the dark, call her and tell her this. Yes, or that appalling line by E M Forster, written just before the Second World War: if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend I hope I should have the guts to betray my country. Its very possible that LW could think what happened to me wasnt totally fair and still accept full responsibility for it during interviews (which is obviously the smart thing to do). This is a bad enough screw-up that I would be contemplating a career change, or at least a pivot to an area of communications where things like confidential information and media embargoes arent ever a factor. was. I was an HR coordinator at a hospital and even though I did not deal with patient records or patients or anything remotely health care-y, I was required to take the annual training and accept compliance as a mandatory part of my employment. You know that saying Its not the crime that gets you, but the cover-up? As others mentioned, the breach is possibly a fire on first offense potential, but since they fired you after investigating slack that makes me wonder if you had too casual and friendly of chats with the journalists whose job it was for you to talk with. But how do I explain this story to future employers? Im still pretty upset that I had no second chance, but I suppose I just lost their trust.. You did a thing that caused this outcome. The answer hinges in part on what constitutes truly private communication, says Christine Walters, an independent consultant with FiveL Company and author of Helping Leaders Limit their Liability by Learning the Law. Our grant program is going to be fully funded by Congress! 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). Ultimately, its your choice to make. Yeah, this is an excellent point. Theres a lot of admittedly not very exciting info the federal government is sitting on at any time. President issuing an executive order on (issue the agency deals with) Nah, I think the odds of whats super exciting to a government agency being equally exciting to me are pretty slim. If she had been doing something perfectly acceptable, seen by someone who misunderstands the situation, and fired because of that, then she would be an innocent victim of a very unfair employer. Of course, its your fault but it is only human to be annoyed with someone, especially someone who seemed to completely misrepresent what happened. Reporting misconduct is the right thing to do, and thats how an interviewer is going to see it. You knew better. If you want to work in comms, you need to be crystal clear that the TIMING of disclosure is a crucial issue. It makes her someone with morals and a respect for her employer. Even though shes made the same mistake 2 times). For a market where most of this stuff lives in a big way for one season, and then only has some ongoing staying power? Take ownership and accountability of it, because for better or worse, all of us could have made OPs mistake at some point in our careers. And in the future if you really cant hold something in (that is not full on illegal to discuss) and want to share it with your spouse or something, dear God dont ever do it in writing! But I had a boss who always used to try to cover his ass 110%. Thats why they told you no. If you lean over a cubicle and whisper I broke the rule! If I were your coworker I would have done the exact same thing. We all developed what we called the [cityname] twitch of looking over our shoulders before we talked about work stuff in a public place. I work in a field (not government) where some nonpublic is newsworthy but only in the arts and style sections. But what you were effectively asking your employer to do is trust a totally unknown (to them) journalist not to publish something that was apparently such exciting news that you, bound by confidentiality, simply couldnt keep quiet about it. Accidental disclosure is the unintentional release or sharing of sensitive information. Even if this person had not turned her in, there was this bomb just sitting there waiting to go off. So no matter what, she cant be the person that you reach out to in any kind of way to share that kind of information. can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information. Alison, I really liked your advice, because it can apply to any situation where the person has truly done something egregious but has to move on. Yeah, if the LW is in the US or things operate the same way in their country, theres no point in trying to lie or even waffle about what happened. Agreed. Your failure to understand the gravity of your actions is alarming. Of course I understand that I broke a rule, and that it was my mistake 100%, and it was no one elses fault. Telling the trusted friend was the fireable offense. Im sure they thought she was a fruit cake. We received a staff email that shared that they were going to release some BIG news about positive new office changes and remodeling and that there was going to be a BIG press conference in 2 days at our office with a lot of high-up political bigwigs and asked everyone to show up for support. *(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. This is what I wanted to say but you said it better. To me, her wrong doesnt justify her mentor going behind her back. Yes. 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. He had a fairly high security clearance and was stationed at NORAD for a time. LW, first, I want to offer sympathy. Regulation people have heard of is going to be changed/repealed and its a big deal No 2nd chance especially because you knew it was a no-no before you shared. 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. It sounds like youre taking responsiblity for your actions and are doing your best to move on. A little time isn't unreasonable. Journalists discuss things all the time that dont make it into published stories, or make it into stories that get killed, or get used for shaping further investigation, or even just as gossip. OP thinks she was super discreet in texting her friend. Third, with bright line rules, we cannot adopt situational ethics where its ok to disclose to close-trusted-journalist-friend because we trust them. While I was working there, I started dating an entertainment journalist who then covered some Marvel projects, and there were definitely things that happened at work which I did not share with him because of my NDA. Yeah, this is a big part of it. I was trying to disagree with the idea that it puts journalists in a terrible position to receive off-the-record info, not that it would ameliorate the employers concern. Confiding in an older mentor in the expectation of confession-like confidentiality? If the email involves sensitive information, this could be a serious problem for the people involved. 4. Also to prevent someone who might be a bit dangerous, from hurting you. But what might walk that back to a performance plan would be a sincere, unqualified apology showing understanding of the gravity of the error. Confidentiality is a big deal for a lot of reasons, and people in those types tend to respect that. I got defensive and young from OPs response. Or when she builds a pattern of sharing harmless information until suddenly it isnt harmless? LW, youve learned half of your lesson, but really need to keep working to get there. And maybe you should go next week, because the slots love you and you always win. Discretion and brand protection are as critical to this role as promotion and talking to the media. I think interviewers will pick up on the equivocation in your language here. And that wasnt even technically confidential. After all, nobody wants to tell their manager that they might (however accidentally) be responsible for a data breach. I used to be a journalist, I have lots of friends who are journalists and I never tell them anything that I shouldnt, even the ones I really trust. Im of course devastated, and moving on and figuring out my next steps. (sorry for all the theys. English has a pronoun problem.). Share information about the new roller coaster being put in at a theme park? I didnt read it that way, its not a question of the coworker being Untrustworthy, its a matter of the OP not being able to judge who she can trust to keep things quiet. I get that youre trying to take responsibility here, but your Im still pretty upset that I had no second chance, I suppose suggests to me you still have a long way to go toward recognizing and acknowledging the seriousness of what happened. At the time, I thought it would be ok since it wouldnt cause a problem, but I realize it was not up to me to make that judgement. Sometimes they do, and other times they tell the person telling them that they or their actions negatively impacted another person that *they* are the ones in the wrong for telling them something that made them feel bad. It could be that the info you leaked was especially confidential, or that theyve been concerned about other leaks and are taking a hard-line stance.
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