Agreed, that immediately got on my nerves. More employers are still going to be turned off by that than impressed. Was the friend a journalist, or is there something else that would explain why she said that? The reply: Yes, the friend I texted happened to be a journalist but doesnt cover the area that I was working in. You cant let yourself act out of emotion. Telling the trusted friend was the fireable offense. Not necessarily for the leaking but for the way youre talking about it. And especially in the field youre in, leaks are a big deal, and ESPECIALLY leaks to a member of the press. how did HR and OPs boss come to the conclusion that this information was spread through Slack (!) I encourage you to spend some time really thinking about this and absorbing the very good feedback you have generally received here. She has to protect her job and reputation as well in the end, she shouldnt have to risk her own job stability due to your choices! You just seem to still want an answer and I picked up on this as a possible avenue to reflect on in your letter. The problem here is that the OP misjudged the level of confidentially expected in the situation, and maybe by their office/profession in general. 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. I agree that the companys response was wrong the sexual harasser should have been fired but in the US, authority doesnt care. 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. how trustworthy somebody actually is is never certain. What happened is reputation-ruining for such jobs so re-assessing what is realistic in terms of job expectations after this is important to moving on successfully Thats another instant firing, even if the information isnt ever misused. So I guess my coworker could have misunderstood when I said I texted one friend, but I wish she would have talked to me about that first? The company would have thought everything was hunky dory, but they would have employee on staff who did not understand confidentially requirements. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. it doesnt count as they reported themselves if they later say they were ratted out by the person they reported it to. This was actually a very kind way to get this point across. I dont think it was over company lines. Ive been under NDA for things I cant even disclose to my boss, much less a friend outside the organization. I get that people can learn from their mistakes, but this could be an indicator of a lack of proper framework, and perhaps a boss wouldnt want to risk it. Reacting to being fired for that as if being personally persecuted over some piddly technical rule violation and not being given a second chance? Im not cleared for it. Its your actions that are right, wrong, or in that confusing gray area, and what you feel doesnt have to dictate what you do. The letter writer came here and owned up to what she did and said she knows now it was her fault what do you want her to do, throw herself on a sword? There were maybe 50 of us on the team for the app. They are designed to trick the recipient . I wrote back and asked, Is there more context for why your coworker thought that? I dont recall that Lily Rowan ever had a job. Lose that part of the defense completely, OP. If its something that would be a big deal for LWs friends news outlet to report first, not being able to say anything to the reporters who could write about it even, hey, I hear this might happen, you should make some calls! I will never not believe the publisher did that intentionally and threw him under the bus. so that youre ready the next time it happens at your next job. We all make stupid mistakes. picture of male guinea fowl . I had not thought about this issue via this lens, but I think youre 100% right. There are offenses, especially regarding releasing items, that would be serious enough to warrant immediate dismissal. Im excited about the project I started today or Something cool is happening at work would be fine to say in most situations. You knew better. The co-workers obligation is to the employer, not to the OP. And there was no social media then, so 100+++ times that now. Have you learned from your mistake? The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. I hope you mean it when you say you understand the magnitude of this mistake and why you were fired for it. Appropriately so, but still, wow. Yeah, seconding this. Right? This. So far that has not happened. Compare someone in law enforcement happening to find out the (secret) address and phone number of their friend-groups favorite celebrity, or finding the contact information for the cutie in the convertible, after their roommate catches the license plate numberand sharing. Much as we like to think confidentiality is transferrablethat as long as the people we tell keep things confidential we didnt breach confidentiality to tell themits not. OP has a right to be annoyed with Coworker, but Coworker was doing her job as well. This will suck for a long time writing this post has made me feel anxious thinking about my own lapses and consequences from years ago but it all works out in the end. I arrived in 69. No! You can never rely on people to be 100% trustworthy, no matter how long youve known them. Mandatory reporting is a thing that exists. And then that coworker did tell someone, and she was fired. Don't worry, you're not alone. (Especially since termination hearings and the related records are often public records once the employee is terminated, so any concerned employer could just do a records request and get the whole story.). Its no more blind-siding because the coworker reported the issue, than it would be if, say, IT had reported it after monitoring OPs traffic. For the purposes of VIWI, a confidential client shall be able to establish a mutually authenticated TLS channel with the auth server and resource service, providing a trusted identity, usually in the form of a certificate signed by . But OPs situation sounds like more of a case of I am just soooo excited about Cool Thing that I had to tell rather than something dangerous or corrupt is going on and the public should know.. All this said, I think Alisons approach is the best one when youre applying for jobs. Certainly not an electronic blog. Companies (and governments) want to carefully manage the messaging and strategy around information that is released in order to bring the biggest buzz and the best information to the public. 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. They care a little more in the last 2 years, but not much. Both of those would merit a reprimand, separately or together, but somehow in the telling it got turned into that the latter happened with the former as the method. Contact the recipient Get in touch with the recipient as soon as you notice the mistake and ask them to delete the email without reading or sharing it. Our grant program is going to be fully funded by Congress! I work in communications for a large organization and I see this as a trust issue with leadership. Maybe you let them know more then they should even without meaning too? This reminds me of how Northwestern Hospital had to fire 50 employees back in March for violating HIPAA by accessing Jussie Smolletts medical records. 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. 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). OP, there is another thing to keep in mind. You seriously violated your privileged access to confidential information. I dont think you have to be Catholic.). Talking about your work on a more general level is usually allowed unless your employer or their client is unusually paranoid. 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. Since you touched on it in your follow-up, OP, dont look at this as not getting a second chance. You are its just going to happen at another organization. Here are five such rules, most of which were broken by Block (who reportedly left Oracle yesterday.) Which means have to vet things like your friend is a journalist, but doesnt cover your area? Exactly this. Leaking anything that could put those things at risk is an insta-fire offense. I wanted to add to the part about putting your friend in a bad position: shes a journalist its a competitive industry and being first with the story matters a lot. End of story. Contact the GDPR manager at once. What happens when someone sees that message over her shoulder? Funny story: My mom used to call the bank I worked at where she had an account. I feel LWs pain. The amount that LW trusted that friend is a small fraction of how much the government trusted LW. Removed a long string of comments about the condescension in the honey remark. Id instantly think that youd learned nothing, that no information we kept around you would be secure, and that anything we brought to you as far as behavior we needed you to change would suddenly be labeled as victimless and only because *truly irrelevant fact here* and unfair. Also, am I even allowed to bring up the fact that someone ratted me out? I was new to the field and had no idea how dysfunctional that workplace was. I used to work at a public Zoo that was owned by the state, and so we were all state government employees. There could be Official Reasons, but it could also be something as simple as the coworker, while being made somewhat uncomfortable by this confidence originally, got more and more uncomfortable the more she thought about it. But if I found out a coworker was sharing this information with just anyone it would be a probably HIPAA violation and, yes, I would need to tell my boss. People have gotten jobs in their field after vastly more serious forkups, don't despair. UK government has fired people for looking up records of contestants on reality TV series, multiple times. I agree with you that its ok for OP to feel resentful (at least in the short-run)! That makes a certain subset of people *extremely* excited. Still wondering why there was no second chance, though. Why are Suriname, Belize, and Guinea-Bissau classified as "Small Island Developing States"? Received someone elses confidential email? And that is a hard pill to swallow, for sure. I work in patents, and regularly see information that can definitely not be made public and has to be sent back and forth with extra security measures, but would also be tremendously boring to everyone but the IP team for a few specific rival companies in a very tiny field. But your processing of it has to be at one step removed. The fact that you were surprised and angry (to the point of calling her a rat, essentially) speaks to the fact that you actually do NOT know who you can expect to keep things secret, at least not as well as you think. journalists dont leak information, unless its something confidential about their own employers. People just seemed to forget that with Epic, even one second of accessing a chart is recorded. What is the point of Thrower's Bandolier? Plus you might be doing them a massive favour when it comes to catching a data breach early. Damn, thats hard core. This is a tough lesson to learn. You can get past this, if you learn from the experience. 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. They might tell superiors accidentally, out of frustration (e.g. :) :) :) :) Being a wealthy heiress and a socialite IS a full-time job! Im curious about how to turn the page, and I think your advice is really good about this own it, let go of the defensiveness, be ready to talk about changes youve made so it wont happen again. This disclosure was not inadvertent, and trying to frame it that way could backfire pretty hard. But that was the right response to what you did. Ive been in the position of having the relevant information, and even if its hard, you just cant tell your journalist friends unless youre okay with them using it: its what they do, and its not fair to ask them not to. As a former journalist, I can assure you journalists dont leak information, unless its something confidential about their own employers. Perhaps something like the announcement of the new Amazon HQ? They are pretty free with stating exactly why someone was fired. Then, when someone particularly notable would enter our database, we would get a reminder email not naming names but reminding us that no matter how interesting the information is, its private and not ok to share. ugh, no if you cant tell them the actual news, dont tease it. 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. Phrase it as a serious learning point, because you sure as hell aren't going to do it again after getting fired. The communications person from the Marine Band was immediately fired when it was discovered she had leaked this information. It can feel like the end of the world but I promise you it isnt. I constantly have journalist friends asking for confidential tips, and there is no way I would ever give up any information. It made it seem like some part of OP still feels hard done by, rather than really getting it. This is an issue in most fields. I have accidentally terminated people, messed up HRIS changes that prevented people from getting their paycheck, and scanned/sent confidential information to an employee instead of myself. So, thats to say that I *completely* get the idea that at some point, you get to a point where you just really really need to share. Though there are a few that would be exciting. My first thought was of the whole JK Rowling / Robert Galbraith fiasco. The person you wronged is not obligated to give you that second chance with them. As someone who works in PR/comms, my recommendation is to tell future employers the truth and emphasize what youve learned: Id say forgive that coworker NOWyou put her in a terrible position by being a big blabbering blabbermouth. It might not seem to be that big a deal to you, but depending on what the information you shared was its really easy to use seemingly trivial information for profit. OP: Move to a sector and a position where you wont be called upon to handle confidential information, and admit that you are doing so because youve recognised your own limitations and are willing to actively avoid being a liability to your future employer. 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? You committed battery. I did not get fired for the offense, but I genuinely learned a great deal from the experience and it changed the entire way I interacted with clients, for the better. this is one of the reasons why its best to have a mentor who is NOT at the same company as you. I dont find it understandable that the OP expected a second chance for this, as someone who routinely deals with unclassified-but-FOUO, Confidential, and Secret information, except insofar as I can have sympathy for someone who perhaps didnt understand the gravity of their actions until consequences came down. The mistake may not have been trusting the friend with that information, but it was definitely telling her. You didn't accidentally email the material to yourself, you did it on purpose. (And thats before you tack on that LW thought it wasnt SO bad because he told Journalist Jason, who can keep a secret, as opposed to Reporter Robert, whos a real sieve.). 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. But there was no way we were actually going to get the contract now if they didnt. Those usually come out the morning of the speech. Understand the true risk of accidentally hitting send to the wrong person. Life may not look better in 6 months but I bet it does in 3 years. All rights reserved. The consequences are serious and could have legal implications if youre representing a government or publicly traded company. Goes a long way to being the right way to describe this. My point is that you learn how to share AND maintain confidentiality. Unless this job was the bulk of your experience, I would leave it off your resume. And that doesnt even take into account that I could be prosecuted for divulging any private information. What you did was misconduct. the coworker had an obvious physical feature that the poster mentioned, so the company was able to figure out who was discussing it in a public place and *fired* them for it. Despite a good track record and being with this team for a few years now, the rules were made very clear to me and I know I wouldnt be given a second chance in that situation. Thats an important impulse to explore to avoid other similar situations with gossip. If its a marketing message, spam, or something that looks entirely unimportant simply delete and move on. The penalty for breach of confidentiality isn't restricted to employees who have . I understand your irritation with your former coworker. We let him go for incredibly poor judgmentlike putting me as a reference, for example.. This was more or less what I was thinking. Resist the temptation to gossip about fellow employees and don't express your disdain for your. So, you've accidentally sent an email to the wrong person. Agreed. They made much more money off of the JK Rowling name. No checking out salary information permitted! It is ok to be upset at the coworker but it is important to recognize that she did nothing wrong and is not a rat. Later when I moved on, it became my absolute best interview topic when asked about a mistake and how I handled it. Thats what I would do. I dont / cant post it publicly, but I can share all kinds of stuff with people close to me even friends in journalism, though I always specify off the record before i dish and my employer doesnt care because the concerns about confidentiality arent strict NDA / security issues. It sucks this happened, and Im sorry that this was the way it all went down. [important person 1] and [important person 2] are coming to my office for a press conference. This is a much more fulsome explanation of what I meant! The above divulged details to a journalist about allocation and resources they should not know about. My boss and I had a very serious conversation about it, and I think the only reason I was not fired was that I immediately and unequivocally took responsibility. 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. Draft your UI forms and pre-write your objection to his unemployment on the grounds of "good cause" firing for willful misconduct- Then after all that you can fire him. This is awkward to frame as apparently it would have passed unnoticed if you hadnt taken aim at your own foot and then pulled the triggerit would be better if you were fired after fessing up to your superiors, rather than involving anyone else. If someone told me something that I know Id have to report, I would report it. But it sounds like it doesnt really matter that HR jumbled the details because neither was a permitted thing to do anyway. Employer found out and had grounds to fire you. Rather than leading you on and allowing you to continue to work for them under a cloud of mistrust (and all the downsides that come with that), they made a clean break and released you to get a fresh start elsewhere. Also, the OP wont be able to ever claim the good work experience she gained from the role. The only thing even slightly puzzling is why during the conversation with the mentor, mentor didnt say you do understand I am obligated to report this? Maybe mentor thought that might prompt LW to do something track-covering so it was better left going directly to the bosses without warning. You still have to go through the same information request as someone who doesnt work there. Yes, this is the way to do it: Friend, I just got the best news at work, I am so excited! OP can come up with steps to fix the real problem in their future jobs, but they cant really fix an evil coworker. Thats totally true, and when I worked for state government release of confidential information would have been grounds for immediate termination, but Alison is the only one who calls it confidential, OP calls it non-public. Employees who violate their companies' email policies can face penalties ranging from disciplinary action to termination. This is a long way to go for a publicity stunt. They thought it was funny and shared it with a couple more. I am in this place when I read OPs response. Period. Journalists seek out and report information thats their job. The mistake was breaking company policy not that they announced to a coworker they broke company policy.. Yep! An employee who doesn't know about a policy important enough to fire someone over is just a ticking time bomb to an employer. Also to prevent someone who might be a bit dangerous, from hurting you. "It is likely not private if the employee used the employer . Best wishes to OP in her work on this. Feelings are frequently conflated with facts in our minds and it can take some work to separate them. For example, a lot of insider trading is based on the TIMING of someone finding out information. This was a person whose reviews had been glowing up until that moment and I am sure they are still upset that this came out of the blue. Specifics dont matter, but to me, being able to explain you told your friend your employer was about to buy this farm to build a park so they bought the farm so they could raise the price and make a profit would make a huge difference in terms of making the OP aware of the consequences of their actions. Coworker would let the other authorities figure that out. If you hadnt told your co-worker, then they could not have ratted you out. I recently saw a movie in pre-screening thats being pushed to be a blockbuster. but if you mess up and by the skin of your teeth get away with it, just DO NOT talk about it with anyone at the company. Or well often hear from contacts on the Hill about something going on behind the scenes, like that a bill is about to be introduced. 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. I now work somewhere where I have access to sensitive information, including my own. Also, its not clear from your response Do you understand how serious what you did was? How to answer question on moving to another country for job? Email violations can jeopardize your job. 2.) Coworker Jean who would CC her boss and her grandboss when Jean thought shed caught somebody in an errorbut would then cease CCing once she realized that there was in fact no error? OP came to her, she felt guilty, they apparently talked about this a bit, so why not tell her that this cant be kept secret and she has to come forward to her boss ? Its the Im still pretty upset that I had no second chance, but I suppose I just lost their trust. that did it for me (especially after all the ways the OP dodged responsibility in the original letter). can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information ninkondi prime stance 3d parallax background mod apk latest version take me to st ives cambridgeshire can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information. This reminds me of the story of the Apple employee who left a prototype iPhone in a bar by mistake, before the official release. Your coworker then followed proper procedure when learning of this data breach- their actions were not ratting you out, their actions were following proper protocol for what an employee who is working at a company that frequently deals with sensitive data is tasked with doing once they learn of a data breach. Our newspapers report quite frequently on gossip of whats happening behind the scenes. It would have been a ticking timebomb for them, and the next time it could have leaked beyond the friend. You are right. They may. So the judgment on trustworthiness is flawed.