If you can trust someone, you can trust them, journalist or not. Dont blame the co-worker for ratting you out. He was very good about keeping track of his boundaries, and we got very used to finding ways of being politely interested in how his work was going for him without putting pressure on him about the details. A large part of this is creating the interest that will drive The Thing, and the market/desirability of The Thing. That said, if this was going to be public anyways, your boss may have been inclined to write you up rather than fire you if you were sufficiently remorseful/petrified/mortified. When they took the only course of action they could have taken and still kept their job and notified your employer of your actions, you became defensive of your actions. No one ever called for a reference. If its obvious who the email was intended for, just forward it on and cc the original sender, letting them know what youve done. Once info is out in the community, you have no control over where it goes and any and all ramifications. I imagine there are a lot like that in government but he learned from working with a non apologetic, scandal plagued politician that consequences of what seems little to you may not be to the tabloids. Hows work? Its also possible that the way you talked to your boss about it cost you a second chance too- if you were anything other than mortified and taking 100% responsibility, they likely thought it wasnt worth trusting you again. Sometimes it can be a blessing in disguise. What probably really hurt the OPs case was that the friend is a journalist. Access rules are very, very strict, and there are reminders all the time. You kind of glaze over this, OP, but if you spoke in this meeting as you did here then I wonder if thats the real reason for the firing. +1000. It might just be that the scanners caught it and notified security. They might push the company to reverse your termination. Let me tell you what happened to the people who were not on the care team and accessed a newsworthy medical case. Don't be me, is what I'm saying I guess! This friend understood the gravity of the information I told her, and I 100% trusted her to not leak it. Really? People dont talk about it very much but it definitely happens. Im still pretty upset that I had no second chance, but I suppose I just lost their trust. Remember when Beyonc lip synched at Obamas inauguration? 3. My point is that you learn how to share AND maintain confidentiality. I encourage you to get involved with PRSA. Sometimes people screw up and they still really need their jobs. ugh, no if you cant tell them the actual news, dont tease it. I think it most likely would be very boring, but some stuff like the jobs report a few days early would be very interesting to unscrupulous investors. 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.. All journalists are human and many of us have spouses/friends who do things that are news, and this is a situation where good boundaries can protect everyone. You didn't accidentally email the material to yourself, you did it on purpose. "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. Thats a horrendously burdensome thing to ask! Request that they email you to confirm they've done so. 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). Its a bigger deal because that friend is a journalist. As others have noted, it probably isnt anything especially exciting. 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. It can, should, and does happen, depending on the details of what all happened. You said it yourself that you were working on client confidential information, and sent it to your personal mailbox. I have information that I have kept confidential for more than a decade that I know the patients wife does not even know (think undisclosed criminal record). 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. She knew about a leak and didnt say anything, who knows what else she is helping to hide, My boss, in a well meaning way and to correct some weird barriers previously put in place by the person before him, told me openly that if Big Boss [aka the owner] asks you anything, just answer him, its all good, you dont need to filter things through me or anything., And I just tilted my head and laughed at him saying Even if you told me differently, I would tell him whatever he wants to know. Which given our relationship he just giggled and responded with of course and thats the way it should be.. That guilt is because you KNEW you did something that was explicitly not allowed, and you went to your coworker in the hopes theyd absolve you of your guilty conscious. I mean, yeah, absolutely! I think the fact finding phone call cleared that up, otherwise OP would have said so? Under the "General" tab, you'll see a section called "Undo send.". But he either kept it so vague as to be useless or said nothing at all. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? Can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information? No one is trying to tell the OP that she needs to be friends with this former coworker. Everything the OP described sounds like a non-public record. This is one of those very serious offenses for which there are no second chances in many organizations, even when the breach is accidental or through slop practices and not intentional. Youve got some great feedback from Alison and I hope it all works out for you. If you had stayed they would have never trusted you again.. what did you want to get out of sharing with her? Only behaviors are right or wrong. The misrepresentation of what happened is my concern. Within hours, there were writeups on tech blogs about the new iPhone before its official release. I was dismissed for a breach of confidentiality. I strongly disagree with this. Yes. You asked how to handle this in future interviews and one key is owning the mistake, taking responsibility for it. No matter how small the company, they trust you to safeguard the data, and you didnt do that. Report and act quickly Agreed. 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. There is a greater issue here regarding judgement. I would push back slightly on the leak to press part. OP notes that she is a government employee. If I ever texted a journalist about nonpublic information Id be fired. Same applies here as you stated. It may help you to know that the dreaded why are you unemployed right now question doesnt come up in every interview. You might have to take a step back in your career to come back from it but you can you bounce back. The Smurfs have a secret colony in the woods of Maine!. In a job interview, how do I explain why I was fired? This makes it seem like they owe LW something, to be loving and release her to her best life. 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. I remember the first time (as a teen) that I had something from a volunteer position that I had to keep my mouth shut on. A lot of times, the actual employee might not be important, but they might know something like when a key senior person works, or gossip about so-and-so, that is then used to either help with hacking, help with fraud, do additional social engineering where they know just enough about a topic to lead the conversation, or in some cases to put pressure on a higher-level person to try to get them to give further information or make certain decisions. Its also true that people do break confidentiality for a variety of reasons, but people who are really really REALLY aware that they are breaking confidentiality and how big the consequences of it are, are also on top of not leaving a footprint that can be traced back to them. Alisons given you great words to say now its to you to live out your learning with sincerity and build trust with a new employer. Our newspapers report quite frequently on gossip of whats happening behind the scenes. Where did you go from here? If you lean over a cubicle and whisper I broke the rule! I can remember almost exactly what I said: It was wrong of me to put that information out. That being said, I think you can overcome this. Likewise, they would have fired you anyways regardless because they now feel that they cannot trust you with information. 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 . Any of our PR folks would be immediately fired. They might try to use silence to get you to say more. Messages like this can simply be ignored and deleted. But even if there is no danger, an obligation to report is just that. Its not an obligation to confront. picture of male guinea fowl . You may want to target less security-sensitive industries or environments until you've worked up enough of a resume after this event to show that you're reliable. Im going to go see how they reviewed it.). Like you said, it was a breach and thats serious on a professional level (your friend is a journalist, too! 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. Its like pain (heck, it IS pain); its telling you something important. I dont think your coworker ratted you out. The reason all this info is locked down tightly is so that they can control the message when it goes out. My employer lost a lawsuit where they had been sued for violating open records and meetings laws. So, either way my point remains. 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. Judgement errors tend to repeat themselves. Agree with this. Confidentiality, especially in government, is no joke and should be taken very seriously. Im also not going to tell anyone else! So, are you clear about the severity of your action and the significance of this rule? Youre not in a gang or on a schoolyard playground or fighting with your sibling in the backseat of the family station wagon. It goes through a game of telephone and the person at the end of the line gets mad that the first person would say such a thing. Good luck to you I think Allisons advice for answering questions about this experience is spot on. 2007-2023. (i hope this story still makes sense with all identifying details purged, but hopefully its clear from context uh why i am purging all those details smdh) Confidential information is meant to be confidential and not shared with anyone. 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. And they also need to have an acute understanding that the timing of disclosure makes a HUGE, TREMENDOUS difference. Especially odd because LW emphasized how trustworthy the friend is for why the friend wouldnt blab. In such cases, the employee should be given the benefit of the doubt. Email DLP: A key investment management tool. On other occasions, you might accidentally receive a confidential email with information meant for one person (or a few people) you know. Excitedly texting confidential, FOUO information to a friend who happens to be a journalist, unconscious of the optics and real potential harm? How to get feedback on application rejections sent from a noreply mailbox, Is it bad to answer "Why/how did you get into that job" with "Because I just wanted a job". They fell prey to the Its just a quick peek and it wont hurt anybody fallacy. I agree. Yeah, I wish the mentor had walked the LW directly to the boss to discuss this openly. Im sorry it happened to you, though, and it definitely stinks. Its also possible that she got caught in a broader crackdown on leaks and thus wasnt given a second chance when she otherwise might have been. Certainly not an electronic blog. OP will also want to consider not focusing her career path on jobs that require a security clearance for classified information. Thats the one that needs to learn to keep things to herself? rev2023.3.3.43278. The type of violation you are talking about normally only applies to confidential (shall close) records and not non-public (may close) records. I deal with it by having friends in the firm who I can say it to (but not in a bar!). Until the boys parents threw the uncle out. For many fed and state agencies, non-public records _must_ be released on a records request despite their non-public status unless they fit into a narrow set of explicit exemptions. If youre excited that your agency is moving into a new building or buying land someone could buy up the new building or land ahead of time for profit. People tend to share with trusted confidants/partners/etc. Rules are there because its so easy to do that thing that feels harmless, and sometimes nobody gets hurt.. One day its pre-public FOUO information; what next? "Yes, humor in the workplace is a fabulously invaluable thing that any workplace can benefit greatly from, but when your colleagues already feel buried under a pile of never-ending emails, adding. The same goes for ratting out. Be careful. Although it was mortifying at the time, this has taught me a hard but valuable lesson about handling sensitive information setting boundaries in my relationships with reporters. In most reporting policies i am aware of it would be considered tipping off and get the person reporting in trouble. And Im happy to report that I have never shared that news (still remember it bcs this was so hard that first time!). Besides the stuff that has already been discussed upthread like potential for insider trading, unfair advantage in things like competing for federal contracts or grants, or derailing a communications strategy, one of the biggest reasons to keep work information private is due to counterintelligence concerns. Yes. As a damage control, should I (as the manager responsible) send a message to all employees explaining what occurred and asking them to respect the confidentiality of the information and not open nor forward the information to anyone else or should I just not bring additional attention to this message? You put your coworker in an awful spot by telling her this information. Perhaps the way you feel (felt?) Confidentiality can stink at an interpersonal level, everyone tends to talk about their work and it can be hard to hide things from people we care about. Your contract can still be terminated if you violate a lawful . If youd like to learn more about human layer security and email data loss prevention (DLP), you can explore our content hub for more information. When theres something I really want to share with my wife, I mask it, pretty much what we do here talking about how the client invested in llama shearings, or called up asking about rumours of purple llamas, or asked us to sell all their teapots that kind of thing. The heads on spikes of the modern workplace. So please think about that aspect when youre thinking about how she ratted you out. I am trying not to be too harsh but yes you screwed up. They would definitely see any mention of confidentiality breach as a huge red flag and drop OP from the hiring process at once. but to start the process of damage control. When weve made a mistake, it often feels unfair when we dont get an opportunity to explain, defend, and/or redeem ourselves. It also wasnt illegal to share it, because it was about a program or something that has now publicly been announced, so this doesnt even fall under the criminal aspect brought up in the original comment. If she tried to downplay the seriousness of the breach in the meeting (like saying it was a victimless crime) then they may have decided that they couldnt afford to give a second chance. Dang! I hope there are things at your job that are exciting to you! So seriously, just dont tell anyone at all, fight the temptation, its an icy slope. Dont blame your colleague she may have been obligated to report this. Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. We just had something similar happen at my office last week. Shes never even heard any of the names of our clients, except for a couple she met once at an adjunct social function. It can be exciting to know whats going to happen before it happens, even when the news itself isnt *that* thrilling. Fascinating (and fun!) Before I was born, there was a project where mother had to get clearance as well. So you let the cat out of the bag about the cat your zoo bagged? Thats a big deal. Thats when it gets tricky. I think that is also part of the lesson that OP needs to learn. You will bounce back! You want to minimize this, and thats natural. When they call for a reference, many employers will absolutely say if you were fired or laid off, and they will give detailed references. Good luck to you, OP, with getting over this one. I work for a charity that offers a telephone service nationwide, and I take a lot of calls from people in quite distressing situations. The problem here is that the OP misjudged the level of confidentially expected in the situation, and maybe by their office/profession in general. We wont tell anyone. If theyd covered up for her/not removed her access to confidential info and she did it again, their jobs would be on the line too the next time. I wouldnt be obligated by anything other than displaced loyalty if I wanted to try to be squirrelly of course but I respect myself way too much and have my own standards to just keep quiet about things. Maybe OPs workplace does the same? Taking full responsibility isnt just the better moral choice, its the more effective one. journalists dont leak information, unless its something confidential about their own employers. THIS ^^^ Whether it is age or just immaturity, there is clearly a major blind spot about the big picture and the potential impact resulting from this behavior. My guess is thats where some of the defensiveness in the initial letter comes from that no one would have known if not for the self-report. 100%? And that even one second counts as a HIPAA violation. Pro tip: when working in mental health residential treatment, do not have clients write your staff logs. Obviously telling the friend was the fireable offense here, Im not arguing that. Having worked in communications and journalism for the past 15 years, I think this ishonestly really bad. I missed the phrase ratted me out in the original message, but given those feelings, it doesnt really count as self-reporting. The protected classes are race, age (40+), sex, national origin, religion, or disability. MUCH stronger. Im a journalist, so, yes. (They could be facing prison time.). Its the only way they can maintain control of the information. When an employer says something is confidential, take it seriously If a breach is proved, the employee may be liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages Howard Levitt Published Aug 01, 2019 Last updated Oct 28, 2019 4 minute read Join the conversation In "Labs," scroll down to "Undo Send" and enable it. Although paragraph (b) (2) does not require the lawyer to reveal the client's misconduct, the lawyer may not counsel or assist the client in conduct the lawyer knows is criminal or fraudulent. Its not great, but some breaches really are that serious, and employers cant always be like the library giving amnesty for late fees if people bring the books back. If OP reasoned I told mentor, confident that there was NO WAY she would let anything slip it throws a lot of doubt on her parallel reasoning of how certain it was that the journalist wouldnt let anything slip. Any tax or benefit records, any survey or census records if I access them without good reason its a firing offence. 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. And in fact, NOT getting that second chance with them might mean that you take it more seriously and handle the next relationship in a trustworthy manner. If OP doesnt recognize and own up to that, thats going to be a bigger red flag for potential employers than if OP said, I made a mistake, learned from it, and it wont happen again.. The fact is, its just not their secret to share. I agree that you can learn how to share without breaching confidentiality. Further, the laws/regluations dont actually make allowances for how many people are told the confidential information, or how much you, the employee, trusts the person they told. One of my friends is working on projects that she cannot list on her resume now that shes applying to jobs and I only know that because Im looking at it and she told me shes frustrated because she has good work that she can quantify but cant talk about yet. The first job will be the hardest but gradually you are less and less likely to be asked about an older job. In the worst cases though, businesses can lose clients and employees can lose jobs. Its also important to note that OP called it non-public and Alison was the person who called it confidential. Period. They know it happens. But thats where having friends in the same workplace comes inyou can expend the impulse by gushing to them and then zip your lips once you leave the building. Or, maybe they totally overreacted, who knows its impossible to say from here. So while the OP can feel what the OP feels, the sooner she can get rid of any hostile feelings about the coworker, the better it will be for the OP. Youll get another job. I can't remember the details, but there was a point about the fact the word "confidential" added in every e-mail by such a notice wasn't actually helpful, since tools that looked for the word confidential were flagging everything up, including a large number of false positives. The financial firm I worked for had mandatory quarterly compliance meetings with examples of Dont Be This Guy Because He Doesnt Work Here Anymore. Yeah it totally sucks but now you at least have a chance to start fresh. As easily as one of them knowing OP uses Slack to contact reporters and assuming I told a journalist friend or I told Rain (who they know is a journalist, possibly on that channel), anything but I texted a (journalist) friend meant OP went the usual Slack route. Oh, dear. how to explain you were fired, when interviewing. Its hard though, and its a skill thats learnt over time. Both the affected parties were amazing clients who prided themselves on solid security practices. 1) Broke a rule It may help in your next position to transpose your thinking around these things a bit. This is so true. Maybe consider a career in advertising, where its your job to tell people about exciting things. Im not sure you can conclude that it was publically disclosable. Many, many of us in similar positions have made similar mistakes. Assuming OP was correct and journalist friend never would have said anything, OP could have pretended it never happened. Learn that about yourself, and move on. As a government employee they are obligated to report a breach of information regardless of whether they like the employee they are reporting or hate their guts. LW best of luck! How do I politely turn down the call for an interview by another employer? In some cases, there can even be criminal charges for knowingly releasing certain information. Acidity of alcohols and basicity of amines, Using indicator constraint with two variables. Im not curious at all, but Im different. Thats the wrong lesson to learn. Never mind firing for leaks, they dont even hire people who appear to have poor judgement about confidential information. What I ended up doing is learning to avoid mopped floors as much as possible and warning people to be careful around them. Sharing HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL info. The penalty for breach of confidentiality isn't restricted to employees who have . Just wanted to point out that OP said they worked in the government, so while yours might be the public understanding of confidential, it wouldnt apply to anything their job considered confidential. (And even then, the existence of the record has to be disclosed even if the actual record is not disclosed. The thing is, its a big deal that you were given confidential information and then texted it to a friend. As a fellow human being, I absolutely get the impulse to tell someone about something! Please keep reflecting on this. A major penalty for breach of confidentiality is termination of employment. Im assuming the LW plead their case and filled in relevant information. OP erred, which she knows, but I dont think that means her mentor no longer has the obligation to be honest with her. Yes and thats the consequence they now have to live with. Well meaning (or at least not meaning harm) maybe, but very foolish. This is a much more fulsome explanation of what I meant! Id like to know what LW said at the two meetings they gave her before firing her. They did exactly the right thing to you. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. It's hard to answer this question without specifics, but it strikes me as very important to differentiate between an accident or mistake in the sense of "oops, I did that by unintentionally" versus misconduct, as in "this was against policy and I deliberately did it anyways" regardless of whether you knew about the policy or had a good reason to do it or not. Check out this article on that HERE. Yet they were fired outright for gross misconduct. Ive worked in the banking industry for a couple decades and this would be a fireable offense on the first instance, no ifs, ands, or buts. This is why you never ever confidentially share work-related things with colleagues. Once youve actually done the thing, its out there. Long since past, now.). That, and I never slapped another plucky again. How to not get fired from work for what you post or send online: Make sure your Facebook and social media accounts are locked down. 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. There ARE circumstances in which keep this confidential means you can tell very close, trusted people about it as they did in the letter. This is a very important life lesson, both for your professional and personal life. If someone preempts that, theyre not happy about it generally. I think also this illustrates how hard confidentiality is; these are trained and likely reasonably experienced people who still couldnt resist this temptation. I reminded him that anything sent in our work email is subject to FOIA and not really completely private from our employer, so if he was going to continue to work against the plan, use personal email. It makes me so happy that I had to tell someone is a reason to text them, OMG, huge news that I cant tell you, but you will be SOOOOO happy when its in the papers in a few days! Not to actually, yknow, tell them the private information. Maybe you get a 2nd chance IF you were contrite enough and blamed your excitement at the new teapot program. Look the UK Foreign Office is currently knee deep in a police investigation into information thats been leaked to journalists and the consequences are potentially extremely serious. I think one can be upset at not getting a second chance without feeling necessarily entitled to one. That way, the Address box of every reply starts out empty. Its no worse than our organization doesnt protect classified information no matter how badly an employee disregards policies.