can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information

LW I encourage you to ask yourself why you wrote this: Your actions showed you were not trustworthy with confidential information. 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. But if youre singling people out, or only using it in the context of chastising someone, then yeah, for sure condescending and rude. You can bet Id be gone with no second chance despite my almost-20-years and ton of good work. The best case scenario is former company only verifies employment. (Drunk driving is an extreme example of this. The misrepresentation of what happened is my concern. 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. Then what? Thats not really a response to the OP but more a pushback on some the comments. Ive had to fire someone in a one-strike situation for what I genuinely believe was an honest mistake because it was too big a risk to keep that person on staff going forward. You know thats not how that works. People do stupid or extreme things all the time; their lives dont end, but they *can* be turning points for a downward spiral. That means that you definitely shouldnt get into anything about anyone ratting you out; that would make it sound like you dont think it really should have mattered. I was often privy to non-public information because I was designing media campaigns around them. And then that coworker did tell someone, and she was fired. 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. +100. You are fortunate to get the opportunity to learn it early when it hasnt resulted in severe long term consequences. I agree. Yes, I did filing in a small-town law office where almost every name was familiar and nothing I read or saw left the office. Same here. But your processing of it has to be at one step removed. Thats not how embargoes work, and the reasons why we have embargoes are important and valid, even if they may seem like not a big deal in the context of a specific disclosure. This is just an opportunity to choose words that allow for the most generous possible interpretation (similar to how you say with a friend rather than with a journalist). Agreed, except for this: a journalist, who by profession is at risk for leaking said confidential information. a. problem then you APOLOGIZE and APOLOGIZE rather than defend yourself. While they may not state why someone was fired, Ive found it pretty common to state that someone was fired (or laid off etc) and if the person is eligible for rehire. Someone would then check into it to see if there was a valid reason for someone to be poking at it. While it's not always easy to identify the cause for leakage of information, it's important to try to find the security vulnerabilities that make your information less secure. I know it isnt the actual incident since the details dont match (no twitter or cake pictures mentioned in OPs case), but I was assuming it was something like the NASA gravitational waves thing. Messages like this can simply be ignored and deleted. exciting! PRSA is an excellent suggestion! If you feel uncomfortable about a work rule you are clearly violating, your coworkers are not going to be thrilled that you get them out there on the plank with you. Fwiw the journalist agreed to destroy the info. ! but you just cant. and starting the work of rebuilding reputation. It can take down evil people who mean to do others harm. 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. I would go through the channels to fire someone immediately over this, because it would make me lose all trust in them and if I can no longer be confident in their abilities to do their job effectively without spillage, theyre of no use to my team. Only hope going forward is own up flatly and without defensiveness . 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. It can bring vital information to the public who have a right to know. The type of sanctions that Contract Killer is talking about would only apply to confidential records, not non-public records. And it makes sense that it is. You may ask them to delete the email before they read it. 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. someone in another department saw the post, reached out to the person who made it and asked for information about the person they had heard it from. You did a thing that caused this outcome. You will find another employer who will trust you and will give you that chance to shine for them. President issuing an executive order on (issue the agency deals with) Yeah the world just being what it is, if youre this bad at keeping secrets, youre gonna get burned by it pretty quick. Man I am swamped with the publicly known project I am barely treading water. I was fired from a job and when I started interviewing for following ones, I kept trying to spin it and it did not work at it. That is exactly what could have happened to her government agency with the info that she leaked in the first place. Absolutely this. It helps you to catch context-driven mistakes such as adding the wrong recipient, attaching the wrong file, or forgetting to use Bcc instead of cc. Ultimately, its your choice to make. 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. This is your making, and while I wish you luck, you have zero cause to be disgruntled with your coworker or employer. 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. Rules are there because its so easy to do that thing that feels harmless, and sometimes nobody gets hurt.. LW is undisciplined and has a big mouth. 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. Yes. They must always assume the worst case anyway. The advance knowledge of something pending going public is a very powerful position. So, the implication is actually the opposite of giving your feelings 100% credence its saying, separate how you feel from what you do. People leak or share things to journalists they know all the time, with agreements by those journalists on how to share it. Theres a lot of admittedly not very exciting info the federal government is sitting on at any time. Im sure the letter writer has plenty of that to deal with already. We also got early warning that legislators were encouraged to resign, a day or two before the press releases. 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. But, bald facts, they told you not to do the thing you turned around and did. And if weve learned anything from this letter, its that information thats supposed to be kept secret isnt always. And while you felt mad at coworker, really youre mad at yourself. 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. In most reporting policies i am aware of it would be considered tipping off and get the person reporting in trouble. The coworker is not a rat or at fault here. The Solicitors Regulation Authority has also issued a written rebuke to Christopher Gossage, of Russells solicitors, who confided to his wifes best friend that Robert Galbraith, author of The Cuckoos Calling, was really one of the most famous and wealthy authors in the world. You colleagues are often the closest people to you, so it makes sense to want to tell them about your problems (which include work screw-ups), but you cant. Share information about a company merging before its publicly announced? Its not the end of the world as long as you adjust your thinking going forward and really try to understand why confidentiality policies exist. I got fired due to sending an email by mistake to the wrong person that had someone else's credit card information in - Answered by a verified Employment Lawyer . I dont know if shell do it again, but Im certainly not going to take the risk on someone who doesnt even seem to be sorry. Every bit of what Ive said is probably hearsay. a coworker at my company was discussing a future potential release at a bar loud enough that someone heard it, and then posted it on a public forum. Many, many of us in similar positions have made similar mistakes. Yep, I think its worth LW remembering that while she knew shed never leak anything again, her boss and co-workers dont. Because a) LW broke confidentiality. I recently saw a movie in pre-screening thats being pushed to be a blockbuster. I feel like this misses the overall lesson Allison is trying to impart here. I wont lie, Im tremendously curious, but I also know this is just one of those things I will never get to know. I get why maintaining confidentiality is important, and I understand why the OP was wrong in this particular situation, but balance is also needed. Feelings can be irrational though, or overblown, or immature, or any number of shades of wrong that means you shouldnt give them 100% credence. Trying to understand how to get this basic Fourier Series, Linear regulator thermal information missing in datasheet. I dont think it matters now, but the Slack functionality for deleting messages from channels is pretty thorough. No. Or they might have a zero-tolerance policy for leaks as a deterrent. Instead, you gossiped about it and risked an announcement before things were ready. Thank you for saying that feelings are never wrong. 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. Libel or slander or posting comments about individuals that are not related to your work environment are not protected. Im pretty sure the information wasnt actually confidential in the legal sense. Employer found out and had grounds to fire you. Ive been under NDA for things I cant even disclose to my boss, much less a friend outside the organization. That, and I never slapped another plucky again. In some cases, there can even be criminal charges for knowingly releasing certain information. (Plus, were not sure how much of the inflation came from the coworker and how much came from their superiors. Sometimes they go so far as tell the bearer of the news that they now have to soothe them bc its their fault they feel bad. If you hadnt told your co-worker, then they could not have ratted you out. Nowadays with mobile devices, email and the cloud, it is extremely easy to share files, easy enough that we may accidentally send and share them to the wrong person. I used to work at a government agency and it was super hard to get fired so I can understand your consternation. But your framing of this does sound defensive and doesnt sound like youre taking responsibility for what happened. Not to mention if you tell a lie (even by omission), its a lie you have to keep up, indefinitely. But if I did, itd basically just be gossip (I hear Senator Ys staff is really frustrated) that they could choose to report out in detail or not, and definitely wouldnt be traced back to me. Yup, landline. Likewise, LW needed to understand that you dont get a next time not to tell anyone confidential information just because you get it now that they meant it when they said the information was confidential. Itd be much safer for the LW to ask HR what theyre going to say to other employers asking for references. It's difficult to prevent a leak from happening again if you don't know how it occurred in the first place. As the other commenter noted, this could have been a very serious offence considering you were working for the government. Accidents do happen, we are all human but what rights you have if you share private company information by mistake really depends on a few things: the type of information that was accidentally distributed, how this impacted your company, and what the consequences were for you. Or you mistyped her email by one letter and it went to a colleague who had no reason to respect the embargo? If you are still defensive or dismissive about this, it will come through in an interview. Yeah, seconding this. Perhaps Archie neglected to mention it. The issue of whether HIPAA information can be emailed is complicated. It could also end poorly if the employer actually sees a job opening posted for the position the LW claims was eliminated. 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. Are there any reasons why the coworker couldnt be upfront with what had to be done ? You texted proprietary information to a journalist. I actually think your big mistake was telling your coworker, not telling a trusted friend.. I dont know. Obviously leaking to one journalist that youre friends with is better than leaking to a whole Slack channel full of them, but partly because its possible to do the first innocently, whereas theres no question of innocence with the latter. I actually think this was a little rough of her mentor. No one ever called for a reference. This is to prevent LW from trying to destroy any evidence. If someone used the words ratted me out or told on me in an interview, that would be pretty much an immediate DQ for me as it shows a total lack of personal responsibility and maturity. 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. Don't worry, you're still qualified to be Secretary of State. I didnt know how to say it without seeming to condone the breach. From OPs comment, it seems like shes already taken responsibility for her actions and knows what she does wrong yet 95% of the comments are lecturing her about how dumb she is (not in those words, but thats undeniably the gist), which is completely unhelpful and honestly, incredibly sanctimonious and obnoxious. Yep. Im thinking of the Elizabeth who went on a 20-email rage about being called Liz, or even the old 1970s memos from the Tiger Oil CEO that found new viral life in the digital age. It would have been nice- but Im sure the coworker was also pooping masonry. 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! Unless his bedroom was a SCIF and the phone secured, thats really bad. Bye. A little time isn't unreasonable. Im sorry this happened to you, OP, Im sure it feels devastating, and it sounds like some of the details were inflated but there is a good reminder here for all of us as some things cant be undone. I previously worked as a journalist. It may help you to know that the dreaded why are you unemployed right now question doesnt come up in every interview. Im also a public affairs officer for a government agency- one that almost exclusively deals with highly classified information. Finally I decided to own it at the next interview and I got the job. If I know that Senator Y is releasing a health care plan on Monday that would require mandatory surgery for every American, and he has bipartisan support for it, thats a much more specific news tip, and Id rather my friend just not tell me and save me the heartburn. 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. She can still apply to jobs in her field, and even in the fields you noted, shell just have to be very clear in interviews that she understands why she was fired from this job and how shell work to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. journalists dont leak information, unless its something confidential about their own employers. Challenge them directly and be sure that when they say it's okay to start at 9.30am, make sure they actually mean it, or don't do it. Perhaps something like the announcement of the new Amazon HQ? That may not be the right wordbut Im having trouble finding the right one. The heads on spikes of the modern workplace. and that person did what they were told to do and reported it. Even when it doesnt rise to the level of legal shenanigans might happen, it can be pretty serious. Acidity of alcohols and basicity of amines, Using indicator constraint with two variables. That the information eventually became public is not in any way relevant. All people, of all ages, are capable of errors in judgment. 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. But I now realize that I had no business sharing my bad behavior with colleagues it put them into a completely untenable position. But even if there is no danger, an obligation to report is just that. Sure but I think its highly unlikely that someone at OPs level would have access to that. 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 totally get how it can be really exciting to hear about cool things, and the impulse to tell the people close to you. Your understanding of confidential is not mine. Youve got some great feedback from Alison and I hope it all works out for you. This friend understood the gravity of the information I told her, and I 100% trusted her to not leak it. I encourage you to get involved with PRSA. I definitely learned my lesson, and it was a hard one, and one that I will regret for a very, very long time. Its was exciting and you couldnt wait?! Once info is out in the community, you have no control over where it goes and any and all ramifications. My company is not going to jeopardize a $500M/yr contract over my mouth. Box-ticking SA&T wont change security behaviors. Did you apologize profusely and then explain that there was some miscommunication here? The obligation to report a security breach doesnt include warning the violator. The fact is, its just not their secret to share. Funny story: My mom used to call the bank I worked at where she had an account. But thats not what happened here. 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 definitely let go any butthurt about your coworker they did nothing wrong and followed clear policies on reporting this incident. I have news from my job that I cannot share with some coworkers. 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. This seems like a no-brainer to just not do, and if you did, certainly not to tell someone at work that you did this. Sometimes it can be a blessing in disguise. December 15, 2009, 1:05 PM. The joker on the other hand was running off at the mouth. I work within the tech/analytics field. If you say, My coworker ratted me out, an interviewer hears, My coworker reported my misconduct. Youre the one who comes off looking poorly there, not the coworker. I strongly disagree with this. But despite how liberal weve gotten with sharing information, you really do have to be very strict about upholding confidentiality policies without making any exceptions. If that puts it in perspective. And maybe they can, and maybe that chain will end with someone who doesnt forward the info on, or peter out once the information does become public in this case. Handling confidential information discreetly is a day to day part of working in communications, particularly for government entities (I say as someone in this field). Even if the coworker had malicious intentions, they were following privacy laws and regulations. This. Whats not fine is trying to take somebody elses, or dramatically moping about it until someone gives me theirs. 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.. When I was a journalist I did not appreciate people giving me tips I couldnt use! In government, keep this confidential almost always means never share ever on pain of serious legal sanctions.. ^^. Of course, but if you think that there arent tons of people out there whove made huge mistakes and managed to keep it from getting out, youre kidding yourself. rev2023.3.3.43278. How on earth could you know this was a misunderstanding? 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 had to learn the hard way, Im afraid, but I did learn. The first person needs to understand that most of the time, you arent entitled to negotiate a yes, because the answer is no. Sometimes he wasnt working on confidential stuff, and he could come home and geek out over what he was doing if he wanted. When it came up during her interview, the candidate said it was complex and that shed learned from it. I screwed up in grad school and had to go in front of an IRB board for being sent information that I hadnt gotten full clearance for. Im sure the OP will find a new job. Im not sure you can conclude that it was publically disclosable. I always assumed the phrase meant no feelings are incorrect, and it made a lot less sense than the way youve laid it out! There are lots of situations in which leaking information to a journalist would absolutely be the right thing to do, and we should absolutely encourage it in those cases. Or at least, I can. From there they have 72 hours to resolve the situation. Thank you. Sent a confidential email to the wrong address? It doesnt, but we still shouldnt state assumptions like facts if theyre not supported by whats said in the letter and theres nothing wrong with Michaela pointing it out. (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) Whether it's done to work from home, to print . You're fired for violation but convince the Dept of Labor that no one without an IT degree could ever understand your policy. But what you do when youre on the other side of the inbox? You can get past this, if you learn from the experience. 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. Does that matter? People have gotten jobs in their field after vastly more serious forkups, don't despair. Clearly yall do not understand handling confidential information. I think thats misunderstanding the severity of why what OP did was not ok. Theres any number of non-confidential matters that are embargoed prior to their public announcement. 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? What probably really hurt the OPs case was that the friend is a journalist. Before I hired you, Id want to know you were familiar with and in agreement with our ethical code, which talks a lot about protecting our clients. It only takes a minute to sign up. But we have embargoes for a reason. Yep, I have a friend whose grandmother was a codebreaker and took loose lips sink ships seriously till her dying day. 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. The enforcement has to be based on the idea that the leak was damaging. I feel your pain. 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. Dont blame your colleague she may have been obligated to report this. But when the guilt is deserved, its got a purpose. Embargoes and off-the-record information are for journalists who are actually covering a story and in most cases that information can be shared in the newsroom (by saying a source told me off record if confidentiality is really important) and acted upon (you can start to write out a story to be ready when the embargo lifts, or call work to corroborate the off-the-record with on background or on record sources). Got my first job. She can come to value the lesson while seeing it all clearly. I agree with Alisons response. (Even before learning it was to a reporter!) Yeah. That makes the violation much worse. I just think it serves OP to choose a more benign explanation because it will help OP deal with the fall out of the situation going forward. Let me tell you what happened to the people who were not on the care team and accessed a newsworthy medical case. blue_haddock wrote: . I see it a lot and I wonder sometimes if its not sending the wrong message that its okay to break confidentiality because Friendship/Family Conquers All or something. And the coworker, well, this was information that was a major conduct infraction, not just embarrassing or private if a coworker told me theyd done this, Id have promptly reported it, not to humiliate them, but to start the process of damage control. I love telling people things! And even more so in ballistic missile submarines! I think that WAS her second chance, and I think something she said at the meetings (perhaps about how the problem is the coworker for being a rat) blew that second chance. Just because a story wasnt published about it doesnt mean it wasnt discussed internally among coworkers. Like I said, very strange but its worked for me. The above divulged details to a journalist about allocation and resources they should not know about.