Yes. I hope there are things at your job that are exciting to you! The phone rang in the middle of the night and my mother picked it up, before she could hand the phone to my father, the person on the other end of the phone explained everything that was going on and why he was calling. 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. Confidential Info Accidentally Sent to a Large Distribution List She shared it via text not voice, but text, which could be seen by someone else. A number of US governmental agencies specifically require that the co-worker NOT tell LW that she will be reporting this to management. Nothing dangerous, and while I was there it honestly wasnt even anything that would be a big scoop or exciting dinner party story. But this was a self-inflicted wound, and you shouldnt frame it otherwise. However, I will agree that, per OPs statement, the information appears to be unsolicited and doesnt seem like it would have been considered a records request (who knows, we dont have a lot of information and what we have has been proven to be distorted). Although it was mortifying at the time, this has taught me a hard but valuable lesson about handling sensitive information setting boundaries in my relationships with reporters. She shared *exciting* embargoed information. Same here (investing). How to handle a hobby that makes income in US. Thats a flat out easy to uncover lie. Later the coworker left the company and at company B was asked to write a similar report for the new company. Heres the story: I worked for a large government agency, in communications. The mistake was breaking company policy not that they announced to a coworker they broke company policy.. You may not even realise your mistake until the person you meant to send the message to says they didn't receive it (or you have a flurry of missed phone calls, as in Serena Williams . But according to the LW, the trusted friend would not have blabbed, so if the LW didnt tell the coworker, the company would have never known and everything would be hunky dory. The Smurfs have a secret colony in the woods of Maine!. It pretty much doesnt matter what field you are in the higher up you go the more likely you are to be privy to information that you MUST NOT share no matter how excited you may be. In this situation, it is acceptable to make 'fear of attachment' jokes. 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. You didn't accidentally email the material to yourself, you did it on purpose. The fact is, its just not their secret to share. Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. If when when LW talked to their boss, they conveyed the sense that theyre thinking Whats the big deal, its all fine, the coworker who ratted me out sucks, I did it once and Id do it again but next time I wouldnt self-report to my coworker the boss would probably be unwilling to give a second chance, whereas a oh shit I screwed up, heres what Im going to do to make sure this never happens again could have gotten one. But what you were effectively asking your employer to do is trust a totally unknown (to them) journalist not to publish something that was apparently such exciting news that you, bound by confidentiality, simply couldnt keep quiet about it. Im sure he knew about things that he would have liked to talk about, and my dad can talk about anything to anyone at great length. The financial firm I worked for had mandatory quarterly compliance meetings with examples of Dont Be This Guy Because He Doesnt Work Here Anymore. Im excited about the project I started today or Something cool is happening at work would be fine to say in most situations. Everything from whats going to be on sale for Black Friday, to customer financial data. I went to a church where I attended youth group, sat outside, and repeated my news over and over to Jesus for about three hours before I felt certain I could keep it from anyone else (note that no one else was anywhere nearby). I encourage you to spend some time really thinking about this and absorbing the very good feedback you have generally received here. I missed the phrase ratted me out in the original message, but given those feelings, it doesnt really count as self-reporting. Privacy Policy and Affiliate Disclosures. Moving forward, the best way to handle it is be honest. True story: in my last job someone mistyped an email address by a single letter and instead of going to a related government org it went to a journalist. In a truly dangerous/vital public information sphere there are agency heads/regulators/IG offices/congressional members/even the police depending on the issue that you should contact before going to the press. One Employee's Accidental Email Leads To A Significant Data Breach No one ever called for a reference. Back in the dinosaur era (early 80s) the directors secretary was the only one tasked with typing up yearly evaluations on high-level staff. (I dont know if the OP explicitly said off the record, but its not like journalists dont handle that all the time when people do.). The terminology is often not eligible for rehire., And every time Ive ever given a formal reference, that has been one of the questions: Would you hire her again? or Is she eligible for rehire?. But the judge's response to the request for a. How does this make it any better or worse..? Maybe the information was a big deal to the agency but not externally (say getting a big grant funded), but if it was something that was legitimately important news, her friend would have been at least a little torn between loyalty to her friend and loyalty to her job. 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. If it keeps happening, you can report the sender as junk or spam to block future messages. I mean in the end there is not a lot of reasons to trust either, but demonstrating ongoing cluelessness is not a good way to sell this will never happen again. If you live in a place where its illegal to shoot guns into the air, and you shoot a gun into the air and the bullet does not actually kill anyone in its fall, you have still broken the law and placed others in danger. Yeah, thats a good point. Best wishes to OP in her work on this. You got a hard hit, and I am sorry for all the difficulty that causes. I work for a government entity and believe me if you need a reminder not to text a journalist non-public information my line of work is not for you. The actual problem is that OP shared confidential information. The reason all this info is locked down tightly is so that they can control the message when it goes out. If you lean over a cubicle and whisper I broke the rule! If OP doesnt recognize and own up to that, thats going to be a bigger red flag for potential employers than if OP said, I made a mistake, learned from it, and it wont happen again.. Any tax or benefit records, any survey or census records if I access them without good reason its a firing offence. But it could be that GSA's dad had a code/password to verify it was actually him and the caller forgot to verify that first. 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. At the time, I thought it would be ok since it wouldnt cause a problem, but I realize it was not up to me to make that judgement. What!!! 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. Confidential email sent to wrong address? | Email DLP | Egress (And even then, the existence of the record has to be disclosed even if the actual record is not disclosed. How do I explain to those potential future employers that the only reason I got fired was because I was ratted out by a coworker for a victimless mistake and was fired unfairly, without sounding defensive? The secretary is going to be featured at [cool upcoming event]! can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information Bye. I wont get into too many details, but where I work had a plan that was controversial and there was both opposition to it, internal and external. In my experience, a FOIA request can come from anywhere. And then that coworker did tell someone, and she was fired. This is especially true if the employee in question signed a confidentiality agreement prior to starting the job. 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. Thats the person were gonna call the blabbermouth in this situation? Dont disagree feelings arent wrong but the way we think about them often is. This is one reason why I could only ever give a vague explanation of what my dad did. But he either kept it so vague as to be useless or said nothing at all. Like X candidate is running for president!. If we think about this, not only did she trust her journalist friend, she trusted her coworker not to tell anyone either. I always assumed the phrase meant no feelings are incorrect, and it made a lot less sense than the way youve laid it out! Email Basics: Email Violations Can Jeopardize Your Job - GCFGlobal.org The best workplace I ever saw in this regard was a law firm that specializes in foreclosure (I am not a lawyer, but I worked there in another capacity). True, but youre talking more about deciding to become a whistleblower over something potentially dangerous to the public. I will add that I consider neither my cats nor Jesus to be imaginary; the connection was someone you wouldnt get in trouble for sharing with. How is an ETF fee calculated in a trade that ends in less than a year? End of story. And, yeah, that happens, its part of being a human. From a government point of view, the only thing that matters is this: LW was trusted to handle confidential information and keep it inside the agencys control; instead she passed that information to someone outside that permission (whose job is to disseminate information to the public!) (Most companies that use these kinds of scanners dont let employees know. Fired. Good luck to you I think Allisons advice for answering questions about this experience is spot on. Dont fall for it. Also, Im so done with people using the phrase ratted me out. Im not trying to beat up on the OP; goodness, Ive done similar things and felt the same way she does! This reminds me of how Northwestern Hospital had to fire 50 employees back in March for violating HIPAA by accessing Jussie Smolletts medical records. Also, legally email addresses themselves dont typically count as 'personal information' as they are contact addresses and are treated in similar ways to phone numbers legally, as opposed to, say, identifying information like full name, DOB and home address all in one document. A 40 year old making the same mistake would be much harder to trust later. I realize you want to minimize your mistake! still cant believe that happened. You believe your friend is trustworthy but, wow, the optics of sharing with a friend who is a journalist are really bad, and . 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? Additionally, J. K. Rowling won a lawsuit against the lawyer and the firm. > On Monday, I was called into a fact-finding meeting with HR. 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. I dont think you have to be Catholic.). An employer of mine got a FOIA request where they asked for every email wed sent to anyone from any regulatory agency. Were considering opening ours up to partner agencies, and I spent a good two hours cleaning up the old messages in the general chat. I strongly disagree with this. And it makes sense that it is. But, bald facts, they told you not to do the thing you turned around and did. If the policy says people who tell information to non authorized individuals must be fired they could have been fired for not firing you. And especially, sharing information that youre not supposed to tends to be the type of thing that will get you fired immediately without another chance. Yes. I think she got paid in sandwiches and the knowledge she was the only woman to neck with Nero Wolfe, though. The one time I filled a confidentiality-bound role (as a temp) the information I was given was specifically NOT to tell the person you were obligated to report. 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). But it sounds like it doesnt really matter that HR jumbled the details because neither was a permitted thing to do anyway. Your former job will probably only verify your employment unless you broke a governmental regulation. While irritating, email from mass marketing lists dont require a response and you probably wouldnt get an answer anyway. How to get feedback on application rejections sent from a noreply mailbox, Is it bad to answer "Why/how did you get into that job" with "Because I just wanted a job". Then whenever you send a message, you'll be given an option to "Cancel" at the top of the message before it's sent. No. ), Because honestly, the more I thought about this letter as I read it, the more uncomfortable I got, too. 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). Rule 1.6 Confidentiality of Information - Comment Screw-ups happen. Everything the OP described sounds like a non-public record. And thats still very unrealistic / way off-base, if OP truly gets why this was a slam-dunk decision, in that particular circumstance. We dont know if the coworker intentionally or mistakenly misrepresented the scope of OPs disclosure. Confidential information is meant to be confidential and not shared with anyone. I previously worked as a journalist. Right. But it could be that GSAs dad had a code/password to verify it was actually him and the caller forgot to verify that first. When I read the letter, it struck me that the VERY EXCITING nature of the news was more of a reason NOT to share it. The mistake was breaking company policy not that they announced to a coworker they broke company policy. I dont think your coworker ratted you out. If someone preempts that, theyre not happy about it generally. Thats not really a response to the OP but more a pushback on some the comments. First, you need to be able to frame what you did for yourself. The enforcement has to be based on the idea that the leak was damaging. 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. Messages like this can simply be ignored and deleted. Non-public just because it hadnt been announced yet isnt the same as the location of the emergency bunker. I agree. Those usually come out the morning of the speech. All rights reserved. Theres no mitigating circumstance here. Its not a big career risk for her friend the way it is for her, but depending on what the information was, it could have put the friend in an awkward position. And if we do, well tell them not to tell anyone.. Yeah, I thought it was from her personal cell too. I have also had to recommend the firing of a personal friend. People have gotten jobs in their field after vastly more serious forkups, don't despair. Instead, youre better off with something like, The truth is, I was fired. My first thought was of the whole JK Rowling / Robert Galbraith fiasco. This is a solvable problem. If you got the launch codes for the missiles, thats a big no no to share. In such cases, the employee should be given the benefit of the doubt. If youve no idea who the message was supposed to go to, simply let the sender know you received it by accident and move on. There could be a situation where it might be the journalists job to share the information LW thought they were telling to just a friend. You will find another employer who will trust you and will give you that chance to shine for them. And not even trusting her not to publish it, but what if SHE got so excited by the news, just as LW did, that she just had to tell someone, and she picked someone that she trusted implicitly, and told them in strict confidence. You know that saying Its not the crime that gets you, but the cover-up? Honestly this feels well intentioned but not right. [important person 1] and [important person 2] are coming to my office for a press conference. If I wanted a cookie and I didnt get one, I can feel sad, and thats fine. That the information eventually became public is not in any way relevant. At the risk exposing my identity to a reader who knows me offline, two big things Ive leaked without running afoul of any organizational trust are: Such and such church is giving away their building and my nonprofit is under consideration to be the recipient and Were going to be filing a lawsuit against X because of Y., To clarify, Im not trying to minimize the gravity of OPs mistake or the seriousness of strict confidentiality in other contexts. "Compose the email, and only then go back and enter the address (es)," he says. While it didnt result in any press, it was obviously a major lapse in judgment and I understand why it resulted in my termination. You simply let the sender know you've received it by accident, then they can rectify their mistake and you can delete the email. You are right. I doubt she is the only person that has ever done anything like this. I agree with you! Im very aware of that reality, so I confine my work email to work stuff only. 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. She broke a very real and important rule. It seems like LW has had time to process and isnt being combative. How do I prevent staff accidentally sending personal information Got my first job. Best of luck with your search. If not, that would be an additional reason for your bosses to take the maximum option to respond. You can avoid finding yourself in this position by double-checking the recipient email address (especially when autocomplete is involved), the cc field, and the Bcc field. I do not believe in using it for personal gain, even the minor personal gain of sharing juicy secrets with someone. If it hasnt worked out yet, it isnt the end. Has 90% of ice around Antarctica disappeared in less than a decade? I now work somewhere where I have access to sensitive information, including my own. OP, take a deep breath. Agreed. Or even if you sit at the bar and the llama design keeps crossing your mind and you talk before you think. And while you felt mad at coworker, really youre mad at yourself. LW I encourage you to ask yourself why you wrote this: Your actions showed you were not trustworthy with confidential information. Identify the cause of the information leak. In "Labs," scroll down to "Undo Send" and enable it. They may very well have not had the option to give you a second chance, whether you wanted to or not. OP: You can -and often should convey emotion in your official public statements. This is 100% on you. If you werent human, you wouldnt make mistakes. As the other commenter noted, this could have been a very serious offence considering you were working for the government. According to Tessian research, over half (58%) of employees say they've sent an email to the wrong person. We wont tell anyone. If the email involves sensitive information, this could be a serious problem for the people involved. Its not possible to catch every mistake or typo over the course of a whole career. So have a lot of other people who have managed to find other jobs. That said, is there any reason you need to answer these questions? Just keep it to yourself or youll get fired. And thatsnot great? Aug. 4, 2008, at 11:14 a.m. 7 Ways Your E-mail Can Get You Fired. Discretion and brand protection are as critical to this role as promotion and talking to the media. 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 literally barred by policy from opening up my own files unless theres a work related reason I could lay out to do so. When an employer says something is confidential, take it seriously Breach of confidentiality can be described as an act of gross misconduct, so deal with issues that arise in a timely manner, in line with your procedures and look at any previous cases to ensure fairness and consistency. Your understanding of confidential is not mine. Some of the stuff I handle is really interesting logistically and historically but I just do not have the right to get carried away and share it. But even the first is really really, really bad. I would absolutely be fired for checking out things for curiosity, I only have access in the first place so I can see whether people are currently clocked in (if you change their access to something while they are actively using it, odd things happen, so I need to check to see if they clocked in that day before I begin). So, either way my point remains. You certainly don't need to blurt out a 5 minute monologue unprompted, but you do want to be ready to answer these questions because they will come up if you disclose what happened as you intend to.
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