[Well-known bad person] is going to be fined/punished/arrested. Granted, it was to your older co-worker rather than your boss, but that still shows you felt uncomfortable with your actions. Obviously telling the friend was the fireable offense here, Im not arguing that. still cant believe that happened. But I dont think this applies in any case since it was on her personal cell. would be frustrating if she had a good relationship with them, or if she cared a lot about the reputation of her publication as a whole. She broke a very real and important rule. Just a bad situation. Ramp up your privacy settings across all accounts. The anger I hold for my coworker is something I will deal with over time. (For example, my BFF works at the Pentagon. Fired. Yikes. Same here. 5 Ways Your Emails Could Breach GDPR - TowerWatch Tech (I think, I never worked in government communications so Im not positive of this.). While it didnt result in any press, it was obviously a major lapse in judgment and I understand why it resulted in my termination. my boss read my Skype conversations, parental involvement with employees under 18, and more, my manager and coworker are secretly dating, boss will never give exceeds expectations because he has high standards, and more, update: I supervise a manager who falsified an employee write-up but I dont think she should be fired, stolen sandwiches, disgusting fridges, dish-washing drama: lets talk about office kitchen mayhem, interviewer scolded me for my outfit, job requires an oath of allegiance, and more, update: a DNA test revealed the CEO is my half brother and hes freaking out, my entry-level employee gave me a bunch of off-base criticism. Lack of integrity. When they call for a reference, many employers will absolutely say if you were fired or laid off, and they will give detailed references. I tell my team that if it leaks from us, they cannot work here. If she hadnt told the superiors, she could have been on the hook as well if it came out that you told a journalist confidential information and then told her about it. Leaking information can actually be the right thing in some cases. because your performance / screw-up affects them, or because they feel they are being compared to you and want to put the record straight to defend themselves), or out of a sense that they have an obligation to report (whether or not they actually do). Or even if you sit at the bar and the llama design keeps crossing your mind and you talk before you think. 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. This is to prevent LW from trying to destroy any evidence. 2. (I mean, I think its a great program, but Im realistic about things lol.) But I think in order to talk about this with future employers, youve got to take more responsibility for it. Since its a government agency, I have to wonder if there are regulations in place about this kind of leak as well, most places that deal with confidentiality clauses arent messing around with them. blue_haddock wrote: . 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 what you do with what you learn that is important. What is the point of Thrower's Bandolier? If she really understood or valued confidentiality, she would not be trying to convince us of how victimless this was. The focus moving forward should be about realizing how serious a problem it was, how badly you feel about it, and how youre committed to not making the same mistake again. People leak or share things to journalists they know all the time, with agreements by those journalists on how to share it. What OP did was incredibly serious and, as happened, a fireable offense. Leaking private information in a huge breach, especially if that leak is to a journalist. MUCH stronger. Clearly yall do not understand handling confidential information. The mistake was breaking company policy not that they announced to a coworker they broke company policy. Shes assuming the friend has more self-control than she does, which is precarious at best. When I finally came clean about it an interview, the response from the hiring manager was thats ridiculous, I would never fire anyone for that.. The hospital I was working for last year had the best of this kind of presentation that Ive ever seen. The company I work for uses keyloggers and text scanners on our computers to catch these kinds of issues. You said in your letter that you were so excited that you wanted to share it in celebration. And you might know that you trust that friend 100% to keep it confidential but your employer would prefer to make that call themselves, and thought theyd done so when they told you the information couldnt be shared. PRSA is an excellent suggestion! I always appreciate your combination of kindness and firm clarity. Im more curious about what KIND of exciting information it was. How to handle a hobby that makes income in US. I consider it my greatest ethical obligation in my job, because I have been entrusted with sensitive information and I treat it like Id want mine to be treated. Has 90% of ice around Antarctica disappeared in less than a decade? (Obviously it would have been best not to give her journalist friend the info to begin with.) I was dismissed for a breach of confidentiality. Request a personalized demo to see how Egress Prevent will help you prevent data breaches over email. Not necessarily for the leaking but for the way youre talking about it. Dang! Everyone in the workplace has an equal obligation and responsibility to ensure that rules are upheld because thats what keeps the company operating smoothly and in business and able to provide jobs to you all. Aug. 4, 2008, at 11:14 a.m. 7 Ways Your E-mail Can Get You Fired. Sorry, Im tired and I think that metaphor got away from me. We were interviewing someone who had broken the #1 cardinal ethical rule in our industry (a branch of health care). Ultimately, its your choice to make. End of story. Egress Intelligent Email Security is an example of human layer security, as its able to adapt to your individual behaviour through machine learning. confusedabouteverything Forumite. How do I prevent staff accidentally sending personal information Recurring theme here is that tattling isnt a thing at work. Its especially challenging if youve grown up immersed in social media, where confidential emails with the names and sensitive details blacked out are frequently posted on Facebook or Twitter or someones blog, where they go viral. LW is undisciplined and has a big mouth. Likewise, they would have fired you anyways regardless because they now feel that they cannot trust you with information. The joker on the other hand was running off at the mouth. I mean, mayyyyyybe but the OP put the coworker in a really uncomfortable position here, and while Im sure she didnt mean to, thats what she did. Thank you for explaining this! 2. That really set the tone for the reference she gave. Just *looking* at the account would get you noticed and your hand slapped (if you were lucky). If I was that coworker, Id have to think shed continue to go around blabbing about this, and there is No Way I could just sit on it until *I* got called on the carpet. Since that didnt happen Im not surprised you werent given a second chance. In fact, the coworker probably was obligated to report it anyway since she wasnt sure about the extent of the breach. Nothing I said contradicts this. picture of male guinea fowl . Also in any governmental job or any job governed by many laws and regulations (such as medicine, law, dentistry, etc) they are laws and compliance regulations in place that must be abided by and every employee had to sign such an agreement usually yearly but at least upon hiring. And if weve learned anything from this letter, its that information thats supposed to be kept secret isnt always. A good . Even though shes made the same mistake 2 times). Absolutely this. Also, its not clear from your response Do you understand how serious what you did was? Oh, so LW cant keep a secret from her reporter friend or her coworker, but were ragging on the coworker for not keeping LWs secret? Its definitely not a spur if the moment decision. how trustworthy somebody actually is is never certain. And it makes sense that it is. Journalists seek out and report information thats their job.. Or at least, I can. The project Im currently working on has confidentiality and embargoes that are all geared toward creating a marketplace moment. Yep! OP, I join Alison in wishing you the very best of luck! I dont love not being able to tell her things (even though we are each others I promise not to tell anybody (but Friend) person), the way we share this information is by forwarding press releases once the information is public. But leadership has to know that if they share confidential material with us that it will stay confidential. Period. Thats real life. when we had a high school shooting, a student I knew (10 y old) and who got into it (gladly uninjured) got a visit from his own uncle who was a journalist that very evening, who came to visit the parents and then proceeded to try to get his nephew to talk about the details. Like, how did HR and OPs boss come to the conclusion that this information was spread through Slack (!) The person whos emailed may have inadvertently caused a data breach, so it could be important you get in touch and let them know. If that puts it in perspective. e.g. Thats not really a response to the OP but more a pushback on some the comments. 2) Multiple people is relevant, but its easy to misunderstand 3rd hand stories. It can be exciting to know whats going to happen before it happens, even when the news itself isnt *that* thrilling. I am a veteran employee in good standing, but if I shared Material NonPublic Information I learned on the job and was found out, I would be terminated immediately and they would be right to do so. If we receive confidential information, there are very specific and non-flexible procedures we have to follow to handle those documents/information. can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information 911 Dispatcher Fired for Privacy Violation - HIPAA Journal Shes never even heard any of the names of our clients, except for a couple she met once at an adjunct social function. I agree that you can learn how to share without breaching confidentiality. Later the coworker left the company and at company B was asked to write a similar report for the new company. Even when it doesnt require them to report it, it still could have consequences they dont want to be a part of! And if it is a part of that, the coworker was obligated to report it! Thank you for pointing this out! Not me. was my company right to fire my coworker for accidentally sending me a I have worked and volunteered at government-related organizations before. It was sheer luck that she didnt get caught by some other means. For most cases in the US, I'd expect it to be legal. Now, hopefully that would never happen, but if you consider reporting serious breaches to be ratting out, narcing or even tattling, your (potential) employers are going to know that you cant be relied on to report when its necessary. nsx advanced load balancer documentation; . When I asked about the job move he said he had failed to make a required disclosure on a sale and so was fired, but how he took it to heart and had behaved since. 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. You made a mistake. 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. A few weeks ago I worked on a medical chart for A Big Rockstar, but not only do I get fired if I tell anyone which one, I get fired if I open up a single page of his chart that I cant explain, if asked, what the exact and specific work-related reason for opening that page was. I agree with you that its ok for OP to feel resentful (at least in the short-run)! I was fired for technically breaking a rule but it was my first offense, and nothing bad actually happened, and Im definitely learned my lesson. Yeah, one of my former coworkers, who was allegedly fired from our company for bringing a gun to work, found another job a couple months later in our same industry. Me too. 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. Ive been thinking a lot about apologies in general lately, and one of the most thought-provoking pieces of advice Ive seen is to always err on the side of assuming that whatever you did was a bigger deal than you think. 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. It doesnt matter if it was text or Slack, a single journalist or a whole group. The misrepresentation of what happened is my concern. I do not believe in using it for personal gain, even the minor personal gain of sharing juicy secrets with someone. Does your company know she could have called the police? Click "Enable" if it isn't selected already. Send the attachment in a follow-up email and, in the future, attach the document before you even begin writing your email. Or did you double down on not my fault, not a big deal, and co-worker shouldnt have said anything? "It is likely not private if the employee used the employer . Basically, I was fired for X mistake. No one is trying to tell the OP that she needs to be friends with this former coworker. But even if there is no danger, an obligation to report is just that. OP wasnt a journalist. 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. That has an impact on real estate values and could make a government employee excited. Sometimes it can be a blessing in disguise. 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. For a market where most of this stuff lives in a big way for one season, and then only has some ongoing staying power? Another point: you didnt just accidently tell about it. 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 ? Your tone is very this wasnt a big deal and I shouldnt have been fired for it, when it really should be I made a foolish mistake which I deeply regret and Ive definitely learned my lesson. Really? From there they have 72 hours to resolve the situation. Are there any reasons why the coworker couldnt be upfront with what had to be done ? This is NOT a myob type situation at all. Im not saying the employer didnt do these things or even if they didnt that its anybodys fault other than LW that this happened, but its a good way to stop situations like this before they happen. how do I explain being fired for sharing confidential info with a that should be a firing offense. That doesnt mean you need to go into all the details or give a lengthy mea culpa, but you dont want to sound like youre minimizing it. We call this a misdirected email and it's really, really easy to do. But there was no way we were actually going to get the contract now if they didnt. All we can do is learn, rest, and go on another day. YOU know you wouldnt do it again, but nobody else can really know that. Id like to know what LW said at the two meetings they gave her before firing her. Theres an element of common sense to be used. I think the fact finding phone call cleared that up, otherwise OP would have said so? 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. I meant inadvertently as they were confiding in a friend not willfully giving information to the press. The consequences are serious and could have legal implications if youre representing a government or publicly traded company. This was supposed to be a stand-alone comment. I used to handle accounts, but could not handle my own. If you can trust someone, you can trust them, journalist or not. You know that saying Its not the crime that gets you, but the cover-up? 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. Any of them. Dealing with an employee suspected of revealing confidential information I work for a public universitys PR office and I 100% know Id be fired if I shared info with anyone before pub date. And all you learned was to avoid freshly mopped floors? > On Monday, I was called into a fact-finding meeting with HR. And depending on the circumstances, if the co-worker knew you broke the rules and didnt report it, then THEY could be in trouble also. I think that is also part of the lesson that OP needs to learn. I now work somewhere where I have access to sensitive information, including my own. So, you just caused a data breach, by CCing the wrong person in an The penalty for breach of confidentiality isn't restricted to employees who have . Feelings can be irrational though, or overblown, or immature, or any number of shades of wrong that means you shouldnt give them 100% credence. 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! Its the only way they can maintain control of the information. 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. I agree that the companys response was wrong the sexual harasser should have been fired but in the US, authority doesnt care. (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.). I dont know that I agree she should have thought twice (since going to a mentor is a good thing to do when youre in a difficult situation), but I think thats absolutely the lesson some people will take away! the coworker probably was obligated to report it Inadvertently, in my view, would be something along the lines of had confidential documents in a briefcase that you accidentally left behind at a coffee shop. It makes the sender aware of their mistake and less likely to bother you again in the future. How Should You Respond to an Accidental HIPAA Violation? It can, should, and does happen, depending on the details of what all happened. In the real world, it happens often enough that I think its more realistic to talk about the practical ways to do it that keep you on the safe side of the boundaries. If you cant keep your mouth shut then you need a new line of work. It shouldnt happen but Id understand if it did. JustAnswer is a public forum and questions and responses are not private or confidential or protected by the attorney-client privilege. Because a) LW broke confidentiality. Sometimes, like you said, you dont get a second chance. And it is so hard! The HIPAA Rules require all accidental HIPAA violations, security incidents, and breaches of unsecured PHI to be reported to the covered entity within 60 days of discovery - although the covered entity should be notified as soon as possible and notification should not be unnecessarily delayed. 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))). The heads on spikes of the modern workplace. 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! I was new, too eager to please, naive and I let the client rush me instead of following established protocol. A number of US governmental agencies specifically require that the co-worker NOT tell LW that she will be reporting this to management. Are you being GDPR compliant in your marketing? Negative emotions are a learning toolfeeling guilty is very uncomfortable, so we dont repeat the behavior that led to the feeling guilty. The enforcement has to be based on the idea that the leak was damaging. so that youre ready the next time it happens at your next job. Learn how to protect your investment management firm through intelligent email DLP. Unless things have changed since I was in j-school (which is a possibility), off-the-record arrangements are basically the journalistic equivalent of a pinky swear. If anything went down, you could say But Older Coworker knew! 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). This former employee who was fired for social media posts will get his Perhaps Archie neglected to mention it. (Most companies that use these kinds of scanners dont let employees know. 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 information was work i was working on at the moment and I emailed it as I needed to do work on my personal laptop ; I couldn't take my work station away whilst on extended leave overseas. Im sure the letter writer has plenty of that to deal with already. OP, there is another thing to keep in mind. Im not curious at all, but Im different. I agree. It was spur of the moment and, as soon as I realized what Id done I circled back to her to clarify that that information was confidential. A first offense is still a breach in trust. Theres no such thing as blind-siding once youve committed an infraction and people have to act on it. Dont blame the co-worker for ratting you out. (Or maybe the coworker did fabricate it, but I feel like thats a massive assumption itself. 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. It could be that she did (and I think no employer should ever fire anyone without hearing their version of the story) but the employer still thought its bad enough that they need to fire OP. I am very, very lucky. Id stay under a cloud of mistrust if that meant a steady paycheck if I didnt have anything else lined up. I imagine theres a section in the manual and training (possibly annually) about the great responsibility they bear around confidentiality and how people will try to scam them into breaching security, yet OP does not appreciate the weight of this. Your understanding of confidential is not mine. 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. Honestly this feels well intentioned but not right. Thats crazy (and crazy lucky for the embezzler). Thats what I would do. How do I politely turn down the call for an interview by another employer? Agreed. 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). I dont recall that Lily Rowan ever had a job. Box-ticking SA&T wont change security behaviors. But your framing of this does sound defensive and doesnt sound like youre taking responsibility for what happened. They did exactly the right thing to you. If you embezzle from the company and tell a coworker who then reports it, the mistake is embezzlement, not telling a coworker about it. There wasnt any risk, my judgment was good!. 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. No 2nd chance especially because you knew it was a no-no before you shared. 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. I agree, but its been called out and I dont want to derail on it. Your second co-worker who sexually harassed a woman was put on a PIP? OOPS! As much as I love some of my coworkers, Im not taking one of the team. What happens if an email is sent to the wrong person? : r/gdpr - Reddit You did a dumb, impulsive thing and when you took time to consider it, you did the right thing. I doubt it was the plan to storm Area 51. But your wording indicates that you dont yet have insight into just how much you breached the trust of your company. 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. You are fortunate to get the opportunity to learn it early when it hasnt resulted in severe long term consequences. The coworker could have totally done the right thing and the LW would still have a right to be annoyed and hurt by the action. 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. Its a common occurrence, especially within a large business where autocorrect can incorrectly select people with similar names.