As others mentioned, the breach is possibly a fire on first offense potential, but since they fired you after investigating slack that makes me wonder if you had too casual and friendly of chats with the journalists whose job it was for you to talk with. Before someone decides to do that, I encourage them to get legal representation. As a former journalist, I can assure you journalists dont leak information, unless its something confidential about their own employers. He shared it with one person, telling them it was a joke. I wanted to say, it sucks you lost your job after this one time indiscretion, but Im glad you understand the seriousness of it and with Alisons script, I hope youll find a new job soon. A 40 year old making the same mistake would be much harder to trust later. The coworker is not a rat or at fault here. That being said, I think you can overcome this. I have a friend whose mother did work for an intelligence agency during WW2. They are designed to trick the recipient . I imagine optimal framing varies by industry and so Im not sure what to advise there. As someone who works in PR/comms, my recommendation is to tell future employers the truth and emphasize what youve learned: Yes, the ratted me out thing is probably not a fair assessment of what actually happened 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. 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. Sure, thered be a record in Slack of prior messages. It also protects the coworker from any immediate threats or retribution by LW. It makes me so happy that I had to tell someone is a reason to text them, OMG, huge news that I cant tell you, but you will be SOOOOO happy when its in the papers in a few days! Not to actually, yknow, tell them the private information. what did you want to get out of sharing with her? 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 ? Since this incident, Ive taken steps like [saving journalist friends as contacts in a different phone, deleting my Slack channel, etc. and the agency lost control of the information. As Brett said, there was definitely a record in this case. Before I was born, there was a project where mother had to get clearance as well. Not generational, just a young person thing. I remember the first time (as a teen) that I had something from a volunteer position that I had to keep my mouth shut on. Even a private company would consider this a breach of trust, and could could consider firing. Thank you for saying that feelings are never wrong. Its not possible to catch every mistake or typo over the course of a whole career. I wouldnt be surprised if there was a state or federal regulation that she violated by sharing that information. On the non-security side of things its fascinating to learn what the folks in the booth behind me are working on as Im quietly eating lunch, but its a serious security violation to discuss that kind of thing in public and it makes me cringe so hard when it happens. I do a lot of trade shows and we always remind booth staff of what to say (talk points) and what not to say to trade journalists. You know that saying Its not the crime that gets you, but the cover-up? Im not going to spell out what it was, but it was completely unethical and immoral, and shes lucky her license wasnt permanently revoked for it. 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. Yeah the world just being what it is, if youre this bad at keeping secrets, youre gonna get burned by it pretty quick. True, but youre talking more about deciding to become a whistleblower over something potentially dangerous to the public. "You can call or text and say, 'Call me, you were sent the wrong information.' " She recalls one time when a co-worker accidentally sent an email calling a client a "tough cookie" to the. Candidate must then come up with a good reason why former employer wont re-hire given they merely eliminated the position. Have you learned from your mistake? It may be unfair to assume a journalist is cutthroat and would kill for a lead. If you go in there going "my. Email DLP: A key investment management tool. This will suck for a long time writing this post has made me feel anxious thinking about my own lapses and consequences from years ago but it all works out in the end. Unfortunately accepting responsibility doesnt always work in some workplaces, it just digs your hole. This kind of reaction from the company screams 'serious laws broken' and there aren't many other possibilities on what these laws maybe. I am very sure they didnt want to fire him. This mixed with the coworkers inflated story, I would be more than annoyed by this coworker too. She was fired for the leak to the single friend, the slack channel thing was a brief misunderstanding but shes annoyed it ever happened. 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. I would not immediately snap into how can I report this? At the same time, though, its a program the average American would likely never have heard of and would give less than a crap about. Second coworker only was put on an improvement plan. Same applies here as you stated. Its a bigger deal because that friend is a journalist. You technically did something, your friend happened to be a journalist, victimless mistake, and so on. The point of the story is the funny way people behave. Just keep it to yourself or youll get fired. And thatsnot great? Its not about breaking a rule, its about potentially causing some serious issues by leaking information. Im in Chicago so I read about those firings with interest. If you cant keep your mouth shut then you need a new line of work. I encourage you to get involved with PRSA. This is a tough lesson to learn. Forgetting to attach a mentioned attachment is common, but still embarrassing. Im excited about the project I started today or Something cool is happening at work would be fine to say in most situations. They thought it was funny and shared it with a couple more. Dont fall for it. I want to encourage you to drill deeper on something you said in your letter: I did feel guilty. It doesnt matter if your friend is a journalist or not; thats a total red herring. Accept responsibility for what you did. Yeah, its like that line from Horton Hears A Who. To say my friend was mortified would be an understatement. How does this make it any better or worse..? Then your story isnt just I did something wrong, they found out, and I got fired, its I did something wrong, I knew it was a mistake and told a senior member of my team about it, and as a result I got fired. The more you can acknowledge that you took responsibility for your mistake, the better it sounds for a potential employer. Nothing I said contradicts this. (It also might be notable that you didnt originally mention that your friend was a journalist until I asked about it which makes me think youre underestimating how much that matters.). It will also help you to not repeat the mistake in the future. Completely unrelated to the topic at hand, love the username! Find somewhere else to tell it in order to release the steam valve. People tend to share with trusted confidants/partners/etc. See Rule 1.2 (d). You might have to take a step back in your career to come back from it but you can you bounce back. If you find a colleague has breached confidentiality like this, procedures are typically clear that you DO NOT approach them yourself. This is 100% on you. In a job interview, how do I explain why I was fired? Its not a victimless crime and you have to understand the seriousness of what you did, even unintentionally. 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. Thanks for answering! Im confused about the fact-finding meeting. It could be that the info you leaked was especially confidential, or that theyve been concerned about other leaks and are taking a hard-line stance. Shes assuming the friend has more self-control than she does, which is precarious at best. Im assuming the LW plead their case and filled in relevant information. That said, if this was going to be public anyways, your boss may have been inclined to write you up rather than fire you if you were sufficiently remorseful/petrified/mortified. And even more so in ballistic missile submarines! Id had excellent feedback up until then (if this is true), but I mistakenly shared some non-public information with a friend outside the agency, and they let me go as a result. Now were just nitpicking the OPs words here. 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. Because they turned out to not be trustworthy. should I be so emotionally drained by managing? I wont lie, Im tremendously curious, but I also know this is just one of those things I will never get to know. If not, an investigation would be started on which employees were poking around in Famous Persons account and why. Were considering opening ours up to partner agencies, and I spent a good two hours cleaning up the old messages in the general chat. 100%? I know that I messed up and I shouldnt have told anyone; in a moment of weakness I texted one of my best friends. A further 2 years can be added onto the sentence for aggravated identity theft. The penalty for breach of confidentiality isn't restricted to employees who have . 2. When weve made a mistake, it often feels unfair when we dont get an opportunity to explain, defend, and/or redeem ourselves. You can get past this, if you learn from the experience. None of this makes you a bad person, untrustworthy, or unemployable. Yes and thats the consequence they now have to live with. And youre being very generous toward the coworker in saying she misunderstood and mistakenly misrepresented it. You've learned from this mistake and had no malicious intent. The first job will be the hardest but gradually you are less and less likely to be asked about an older job. If it hasnt worked out yet, it isnt the end. Im not cleared for it. Also, no matter how good a friend someone is, if they are a journalist you need to zip your lips. You undertook those actions while working for (1) A Large Governmental Organization, who is answerable to Congress and to the general public for the actions undertaken by their employees, in the (2) Communications department, which is a department where employees will specifically, systematically, regularly be exposed to confidential information that should be kept confidential until such time as it is explicitly said to be something that can be shared publically. quite a lot of people are going to feel as though youre making them an accomplice in your bad behavior. LW, please, please look hard at what happened and how you can promise yourself first of all that this was the last time. Not advising you to lie, but you can present the circumstances in as flattering manner as you like. It seems like LW has had time to process and isnt being combative. That may not be the right wordbut Im having trouble finding the right one. Request that they email you to confirm they've done so. If you lie during the interview and the truth later comes out, thats enough to get you fired. So you let the cat out of the bag about the cat your zoo bagged? I would have serious questions about your judgment if I found out you told any reporter about something that was confidential. The mistake may not have been trusting the friend with that information, but it was definitely telling her. She would ask every rep if they were using TEAPOT o service accounts, and would proudly exclaim, My daughter built TEAPOT! She thought she was connecting with the people who helped her. For what its worth, one thing I noticed from your letter is language that sounds very social, discussing your trust in your friend, being ratted out by your mentor, not being given a second chance, and so on. Its understandable that you feel betrayed by your coworker, but she probably felt obligated to say something. 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. My company is not going to jeopardize a $500M/yr contract over my mouth. By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been. Ramp up your privacy settings across all accounts. Libel or slander or posting comments about individuals that are not related to your work environment are not protected. This. 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.. Practically everything I do in my job is confidential to some degree. 9 Posts. This is a situation that youre going to have great difficulty explaining away and I might prefer a resume gap to being at such a disadvantage. You said in your letter that you were so excited that you wanted to share it in celebration. "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. I used to work in a one-industry town. It sucks this happened, and Im sorry that this was the way it all went down. Between that and having family members who have been laid off and lost access to their work account that they used for personal use as well, I have learned to keep work and personal email accounts separate. Yeah. and starting the work of rebuilding reputation. The ex-coworker reached out to me asking if I could send them a copy of the report so they didnt have to start from scratch and repeat the same work they had already done. I once interviewed someone with a great resume but had switched specialties within the field. I came here to say this. By Candice Novak. 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. But leadership has to know that if they share confidential material with us that it will stay confidential. 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). Shell lose credibility in the hiring process, and even if she did slip through and get hired, its automatically grounds for a dismissal if the truth ever came to light (even in Canada, where it is harder to let people go from roles than in most of the US states). I dont know the full text of the conversation and I dont want to, but she was probably in a position where she had to tell someone. Maybe OPs workplace does the same? This is essential to sanction the employee and also send out a clear . We dont know if the coworker intentionally or mistakenly misrepresented the scope of OPs disclosure. 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. Lack of integrity. Its a big difference if you sit together at a bar, your friend mentions chocolate teapots and you say oh, this morning I was asked to design a llama-themed one before you realize that you really shouldnt have said that. Changing how you feel (as opposed to what you say or do or think) is not something you need to do to solve the problem. Im sure the letter writer has plenty of that to deal with already. Your coworker then followed proper procedure when learning of this data breach- their actions were not ratting you out, their actions were following proper protocol for what an employee who is working at a company that frequently deals with sensitive data is tasked with doing once they learn of a data breach. You shouldnt be upset at your coworker, if anything she should be upset with you for putting her in that situation. Theres a difference between wishing you had a second chance (acknowledges they arent entitled to one) and being upset you didnt have one (expected that there would be one). 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?. Those who work in circumstances that require them learn how to filter through multiple layers of risk when they get to a point where they come up against that need to share. Disclosing confidential information has, at best, resulted in nothing, and at worse, resulted in injury/death, or even political systems toppling. Once you told your coworker, you dragged her out there on the plank with you. But we have embargoes for a reason. The details dont really matter. One of the things your field requires is to be able to think and act dispassionately about the information you have custody over. Now I just leave and cry and deal with the long-term consequences, like never moving up. Thank you it was getting boring to read everyones outrage. Even though he loves the MCU and would have enjoyed the anecdotes. Ms_Chocaholic wrote: . Even if healthcare providers and business associates are compliant to HIPAA Standards, there is always a possibility of unintentional or accidental disclosure of Protected Health Information (PHI). Yup, landline. But I now realize that I had no business sharing my bad behavior with colleagues it put them into a completely untenable position. The part I think is dangerous is calling the coworker a rat and saying that disclosing to friend was not a mistake. Age doesnt matter here. But reasonable minds can certainly differ. All of that being said, I wish her the best in moving forward and finding another job shell bounce back and be the wiser for it. Same-sex marriage is going to be legalized tomorrow!. Where the investigation uncovers evidence of divulging confidential information, then the employer should take formal action. There could be Official Reasons, but it could also be something as simple as the coworker, while being made somewhat uncomfortable by this confidence originally, got more and more uncomfortable the more she thought about it. Your comment above is much closer to an effective track. Yes. They must always assume the worst case anyway. Im not curious at all, but Im different. But if I found out a coworker was sharing this information with just anyone it would be a probably HIPAA violation and, yes, I would need to tell my boss. 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). According to Tessian research, over half (58%) of employees say they've sent an email to the wrong person. Yeah, this is an excellent point. Ive represented or advised friends, friends of friends and the occasional famous person, and nobody else knows anything about it nor will they ever. While some employers will accept the I take personal accountability and heres how I address it path, this probably does remove some employers from consideration. But unfortunately, the rules of your job are such that you justcant. +100. 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. While irritating, email from mass marketing lists dont require a response and you probably wouldnt get an answer anyway. And then that coworker did tell someone, and she was fired. Whats not fine is trying to take somebody elses, or dramatically moping about it until someone gives me theirs. OP, Im sure in your excitement you truly didnt think there was anything wrong with telling your friend, someone you trust implicitly to remain discreet. Sorry, Im tired and I think that metaphor got away from me. Was this alone enough to be fired, or is there a history? Yeah, I think CA meant, the message was only sent to the friend/journalist, but you dont know where she opened it: if shes in an open newsroom or something, someone could have seen it on her screen over her shoulder. 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. never actually say the words Gross Misconduct. Thats why they told you the information was confidential. But if you act that way about a mistake at a previous job, I think people might worry about the same behavior in the future. Its hard though, and its a skill thats learnt over time. Messages like this can simply be ignored and deleted. I feel your pain. Me too. Dont get me wrong, she shouldnt have ever told the friend and Id understand if they were worried if she told more people, but its concerning how they immediately jumped to an even worse conclusion based on nothing but their own assumptions. Theres no context where calling a stranger honey doesnt feel condescending (whether someone intends it to or not!).