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Think of speaking with a colleague like speaking with your boss. Im not cleared for it. 1964 is what I remember. 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. I think particularly since its the government, they couldnt take the risk of it happening again and it becoming public that not only was their a breach of confidentiality but that the person responsible had done it before. In a roundabout way, they somewhat did you a kindness by firing you. I used to work in a one-industry town. I dont work for the government but I do work with what are technically health records, although theyre not full patient charts or anything. Youll also want to double-check any attachments. What is the point of Thrower's Bandolier? Employees. I come across soooo much incidental information about people I know in the course of this job. I tell the character and imagine their response, and the urge to share subsides. Resist the temptation to gossip about fellow employees and don't express your disdain for your. Whats not fine is trying to take somebody elses, or dramatically moping about it until someone gives me theirs. Am I likely to be rehired after being fired for misconduct? Another point: you didnt just accidently tell about it. If you cant maintain confidentiality, you can work elsewhere. Yeah, this is a big part of it. Ah! Say I have a friend working on a presidential campaign, and she tells me theres a bunch of debate about the candidates strategy, I have to decide whether to mention that to my colleague who covers the candidate. The co-worker absolutely had a responsibility to bring this information forward. When we make mistakes, they are impactful, but we're human and it happens. 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. The consequences are serious and could have legal implications if youre representing a government or publicly traded company. We all developed what we called the [cityname] twitch of looking over our shoulders before we talked about work stuff in a public place. This just wasnt the place for you in the end. Taking a quick peek at someones medical records just out of curiosity? Contact the unintended recipient It's a good idea to contact the unintended recipient as soon as you realize the error. Your second co-worker who sexually harassed a woman was put on a PIP? I empathize I LOVE being a person who is in the know and I can be impulsive. Ratted me out annoys me too, because it just means that someone told the truth and wouldnt cover for your lie. OP needs to learn the art of discernment. If someone told me something that I know Id have to report, I would report it. But they took confidentiality very seriously, and I signed an extremely ironclad NDA, so I never told anyone any of the interesting tidbits I found out about from working there. I suspect youre referring to a case where a patient was put in danger, but where no obvious harm occurred like a psychiatrist consensually sleeping with their patient, which an unscrupulous psychiatrist might see as a victimless crime, but which is incredibly risky behavior. OP has a right to be annoyed with Coworker, but Coworker was doing her job as well. Good points, and good advice for anyone whos apologizing for anything. We also got early warning that legislators were encouraged to resign, a day or two before the press releases. I would not immediately snap into how can I report this? Im a journalist and Id concur and depending on how sensitive/important the information was, and what a big deal it was when it did break, you might have put your friend in a tough spot at her job by giving her a news tip she couldnt pursue or share with her colleagues. No, shes a person with ethics who plays by the rules. Also, the OP wont be able to ever claim the good work experience she gained from the role. So if shes genuinely surprised at this outcome, it stands to reason that its new for her, which strongly implies she just hasnt been working very long, which implies youth. Where I work, there are policies that state an employee that finds out about certain kinds of misconduct is mandated to report it or face consequences if it comes out that they knew and didnt report it. Yeah, we dont want to go down the road if encouraging the OP to continue acting unethically that will ensure she stays unemployed. That being said, it doesnt change the fact that OP shouldnt have done it anyway, so harboring ill will towards this coworker is pointless. Its your actions that are right, wrong, or in that confusing gray area, and what you feel doesnt have to dictate what you do. 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. 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. How to you ensure you're aware of it, and following it? 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. Assuming the coworker had evil intentions pulls OPs focus away from the real problem (disclosing an embargoed piece of information to someone not authorized to know that information at that time) and fixates it on the coworker. He was employed elsewhere within a few weeks. More commonly it means that you either cant share anything, or you cant share parts that someone could connect to a particular client. Yes you can. Some things a company wouldnt want you to tell a competitor, but wouldnt mind if you told your spouse. She cut a guys LVAD wires so that hed be bumped up to the top of the heart transplant donor list? Not saying you did this! If the coworker said that when that wasnt communicated to her, that was wrong as hell. First, you need to be able to frame what you did for yourself. I get so exasperated with TV shows where a SO throws a tantrum about a cop/government worker not being able to tell them stuff, and turns it into a trust issue. Email DLP: A key investment management tool. how to explain you were fired, when interviewing. I think if the OP had framed the situation as, how can I get another job after being fired for being a whistleblower after I shared important but unfortunately confidential information with a journalist because the public has a right to know, these comments would be very different. This is important both in terms of owning your mistake and not blaming the person who reported it. But the other person she spoke to, her coworker, told others, and somehow that message (of who and how she leaked it) got twisted into something much worse. But doing so would likely out the department LW worked for, and probably LW herself. I wonder if OP ever got the chance to correct the misunderstanding. We call this a misdirected email and it's really, really easy to do. Coworker Dorcus, who used to write down what time the rest of us got in each morning so she could report to our supervisor when the rest of us were late, even though he hadnt asked her to, even though Dorcus had no idea when wed left the night before, how late we were working that day, or what arrangement we had with our supervisor? Contact the GDPR manager at once. 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. Im assuming the LW plead their case and filled in relevant information. In most reporting policies i am aware of it would be considered tipping off and get the person reporting in trouble. This comment comes across as quite clueless I work for a government entity where nonpublic information often affects peoples day-to-day lives and pocketbooks and people put a lot of money (lobbying) into knowing whats happening. And it makes sense that it is. I feel like this misses the overall lesson Allison is trying to impart here. 2 July 2018 at 9:11PM. The damage from most leaks isnt visible until much later, but it can be massive. Then the stories died down and the pressure with it even though there were still occasional leaks. Maybe you havent worked with, or known anyone whos worked with, sunshine law and right-to-know, but this is incredibly serious for anyone who has. One of the things that is emphasized very heavily at my agency is that your own perception of how important a piece of information is does not give you enough information to decide if its really a big deal. Cringe. One day its pre-public FOUO information; what next? Oh yes. Yep. Especially since the letter seems to have been written almost immediately after the incident, before their feelings had time to settle properly. reading. And if it is a part of that, the coworker was obligated to report it! Im sorry, but I think you were fired with pretty good cause and it would be important to own that or you wont be able to spin the story for future employers. This disclosure was not inadvertent, and trying to frame it that way could backfire pretty hard. Then whenever you send a message, you'll be given an option to "Cancel" at the top of the message before it's sent. And that wasnt even technically confidential. If I were in the coworkers position, I would need to do the same thing. 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 agree with you that its ok for OP to feel resentful (at least in the short-run)! I mean, yeah, absolutely! They sound far more serious than what happened. It can, should, and does happen, depending on the details of what all happened. If not, that would be an additional reason for your bosses to take the maximum option to respond. My employer lost a lawsuit where they had been sued for violating open records and meetings laws. And I think you can share your excitement with others, just not the information. Much safer. How to handle a hobby that makes income in US. Accidental disclosure is the unintentional release or sharing of sensitive information. Completely unrelated to the topic at hand, love the username! Which is actually good most of us get making a mistake when were young, and really learning from it. Sorry this happened, OP! You said in your letter that you were so excited that you wanted to share it in celebration. Gossage said he believed he was speaking in confidence to someone he trusted implicitly, but the story subsequently appeared in the Sunday Times, to the dismay and rage of the author of the Harry Potter books.. The point still stands, however, that Contract Killers proposed sanctions likely dont appear to apply here. OP, if everything that was predictably risky, harmful, dangerous, bad, illegal or wrong really felt bad on some core level, we would almost never need to make rules. To be clear, you were fired for admittedly breaking confidentiality not because of your coworker. The emotion is neutral; its what you do with it that counts. 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. However, were only human. One colleague really didnt like the plan, and he was communicating with people who were organizing opposition to it using his work email. This is NOT a myob type situation at all. I might consider you as a candidate who truly gets it in a way that someone who hasnt been tried by fire might not. If I ever texted a journalist about nonpublic information Id be fired. Check out this article on that HERE. I think people are reading defensiveness from the qualifiers probably and suppose. I can sympathize that this is still very raw for OP and perspective will only come with more time. But, bald facts, they told you not to do the thing you turned around and did. I disagree. 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.. Build sneaky protections into your life so you get away with violating important rules is NOT what LW needs to learn. 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. 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. But how do I explain this story to future employers? Practically everything I do in my job is confidential to some degree. Take full responsibility. 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! Interpretations, justifications, conceptualizations can also be wrong, surely. 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. I fully expect that whenever they find the source of the leak the people involved will face some pretty serious consequences up to and including dismissal and possible criminal proceedings. If there was no record, then there is no possible sanction under FOIA or sunshine law (because that only pertains to records). The amount that LW trusted that friend is a small fraction of how much the government trusted LW. I used to work for Marvel Studios. the coworker probably was obligated to report it 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. 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. Second coworker only was put on an improvement plan. Unfortunately, a lot of times people mistake the first for the second. And being mad at them is an effort to dodge responsibility and ownership of the actions that WERE at fault. Oof this is so condescending! So this. We dont even know where the LW is; Alison has gotten letters from outside of the United States before. 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. Journalists seek out and report information thats their job.. That OP knew it was wrong and felt guilty about it is a sign of strength. Where I work, I cannot legally share information about very exciting things that are happening/about to happen. As the other commenter noted, this could have been a very serious offence considering you were working for the government. I was fired over the phone. 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. So I guess maybe it is a generational thing? It may be a requirement of employment regarding compliance. 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. I agree. 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. I hope there are things at your job that are exciting to you! Letting stuff out early could mean that goes off with a whimper instead of a bang and might be a financial difference in driving extra purchases for that initial season, and the implication of The Things staying power if it doesnt do well enough during that time. 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. "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. Or if youd like to start a trial, get in touch and well be more than happy to arrange a free demo with your IT team. Its definitely not a spur if the moment decision. I agree that its ok to be upset with people, even if its irrational or illogical, as long as we ultimately let it go and refrain from mistreating someone because of our illogical emotional response. Your coworker was not at all in the wrong here, OP. But leadership has to know that if they share confidential material with us that it will stay confidential. It may be unfair to assume a journalist is cutthroat and would kill for a lead, but its also nave to assume they wouldnt let anything slip to the exact wrong person. If you are facing much trouble, look for job in domains where confidentiality is not too critical and the employer is not paranoid about it. As I said below, that may be why you werent given a second chance. The latter looks more like something that could repeat under similar circumstances. Telling the trusted friend was the fireable offense. Phishing emails are emails that appear to be from a legitimate source, but are actually from a malicious source. If it was more time than 6 months, thats a resume gap that a recruiter will ask about, and if the OP lies about the gap, an experienced recruiter will hear it in her voice. I was reading the email at home and after reading the first paragraph I exclaimed out loud (so my spouse could hear) Ooooh. I felt as defensive and upset as you. I dont know, I think thats overstating. Its no worse than our organization doesnt protect classified information no matter how badly an employee disregards policies. 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! What probably really hurt the OPs case was that the friend is a journalist. Even if they knew she used Slack to talk to journalists in general, its a massive enough leap from I told a friend via text that Im side-eyeing the coworker and HR a little. Thats a good friend but you put her in a bad position. Yes of course it feels bad that you were fired. But unfortunately, the rules of your job are such that you justcant. If it comes across like you dont think it was a big deal or that you blame the coworker for alerting your employer, thats not going to go over well. Don't use . Well meaning (or at least not meaning harm) maybe, but very foolish. can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information. Thats an important impulse to explore to avoid other similar situations with gossip. Maybe you get a 2nd chance IF you were contrite enough and blamed your excitement at the new teapot program. LW best of luck! Your former job will probably only verify your employment unless you broke a governmental regulation. If you break certain unspoken rules, you can lose your job or ruin your career. Thats what I would do. You are disappointed you didnt get a second chance. OP, think about your choice to share with this person. Your understanding of confidential is not mine. 3. 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. 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. If you dont need to / want to share with the boss share with your closest family/friend, assuming they dont work at the same place or have friends/contacts there. Click the "Settings" icon (the wheel/cog) and click "See all settings". Its unfortunate that LW lost her job over it but the coworker isnt to blame for LWs decision to disclose information they werent supposed to. I agree that you can learn how to share without breaching confidentiality. super! I always wondered if they remained friends after that fiasco. Why are Suriname, Belize, and Guinea-Bissau classified as "Small Island Developing States"? I went to my boss explained the situation and let me boss make the decision if we wanted to share the report. 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. 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. To be fair Jules, I was making the assumption that it had been, in effect, sexual assault, which may not have been the case. "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. Well 1.) Sharing HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL info. What video game is Charlie playing in Poker Face S01E07? No 2nd chance especially because you knew it was a no-no before you shared. The problem here is that the OP misjudged the level of confidentially expected in the situation, and maybe by their office/profession in general. 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. Everyone makes mistakes at all points in our careers. You can do this, if you keep working hard on yourself. That brings us to your questions. It's difficult to prevent a leak from happening again if you don't know how it occurred in the first place. Its so very context and field dependent. Me too in Government. 4. Head of the department who everyone hates for non-scandal reasons is stepping down amid a scandal As a former journalist, I can assure you journalists dont leak information, unless its something confidential about their own employers. This issue recently came up for me as an interviewer. This isnt breaking a rule; its potentially putting your organization in jeopardy. Im a journalist, so, yes. The Workplace Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for members of the workforce navigating the professional setting. She should have told her this is serious and Im going to have to report you. Then at least OP could have avoided the slack room full of journalists escalation. Equally, when we had a client who does the same job role as someone I know, I had to completely embargo that piece of information in my head, because I know that its a small field and my friend might recognise the detail I thought was vague enough to be anonymous. Better to have a 30% chance than a 0% chance. Sometimes the news is a dreadful burden to bear (staff reductions of people you know, elimination of services you think are important) and sometimes the news is exciting, you have the inside scoop and cant wait to share it. But I agree that reporting coworkers for actual errors that actually affect the company isnt ratting. And it doesnt sound to me as though the OPs coworker was in any way a rat. I am really jaw-on-the-floor stunned at people taking aim at the coworker. My guess is that the LW was fired for a first offense because they refused to take responsibility for their breach. This is so well said. But if youre singling people out, or only using it in the context of chastising someone, then yeah, for sure condescending and rude. Some offenses are serious enough that a single incident is enough to fire someone. Thank you for pointing this out! assigning women extra work to help them, calling out when youre in the ER, and more. can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information. Id like to know what LW said at the two meetings they gave her before firing her. So have a lot of other people who have managed to find other jobs. I work for a state government agency and FOIA is a really big deal. Separately, when you share, you have to still be oblique enough to not get yourself in trouble. That said, I am curious if theres other context that explains why they fired you for a first offense without warning you first. Im more curious about what KIND of exciting information it was. If OP had never confided in any coworker about what she had done, it would still not be blind-siding to be fired for it. Goes a long way to being the right way to describe this. that should be a firing offense. I hope youre able to learn and move on from this, OP. Especially in banking! Even if you feel that way, definitely dont say that! Count your blessings that you just got fired. Am I missing something? And they also need to have an acute understanding that the timing of disclosure makes a HUGE, TREMENDOUS difference. I am in this place when I read OPs response. Yeah. nsx advanced load balancer documentation; . I have also had to recommend the firing of a personal friend. It still sucks, but its not really personal per se, and perhaps it will help a little bit to think of it that way. So- bad judgement buddies? It should go without saying: a breach of confidentiality could and would wind up in a bar complaint in my jurisdiction.