You dont get a warning for things like that. No work friendship is worth putting my familys financial security on the line. Oh yes. My first thought was of the whole JK Rowling / Robert Galbraith fiasco. I am a govt worker in NY. The government takes this stuff very very seriously. 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. 3. Ive definitely been guilty of sharing exciting but not-yet-announced news with colleagues. This was a person whose reviews had been glowing up until that moment and I am sure they are still upset that this came out of the blue. Thats what I would do. 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. Not generational, just a young person thing. Except that when the reference checker asks if the candidate is eligible for re-hire (for the position they left or any other position) should the opportunity present itself, the response will be no. Because I said I wouldnt, I knew there would be consequences if something like your story happened to me, and also because, hows that going to look to a potential future employer that might value confidentiality equally highly? Also, the OP wont be able to ever claim the good work experience she gained from the role. This was actually a very kind way to get this point across. You didn't accidentally email the material to yourself, you did it on purpose. 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. This reminds me of how Northwestern Hospital had to fire 50 employees back in March for violating HIPAA by accessing Jussie Smolletts medical records. Businesses have a term for that kind of behaviour, and that is 'data leakage'. Think of speaking with a colleague like speaking with your boss. The communications team is often brought on board to develop strategy for organizational decisions that may not be public for weeks or even months. Definitely anti-climactic to actually know at this point! While it didnt result in any press, it was obviously a major lapse in judgment and I understand why it resulted in my termination. The message there is dont violate confidentiality policies. Fired. Though there are a few that would be exciting. 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. The awareness that anything sent in your work email is subject to FOIA and open records requests really varies. They are pretty free with stating exactly why someone was fired. And I did use Slack on my work computer, and I did interact professionally with some journalists who covered my area over Slack. Copyright 2007 - 2023 Ask A Manager. Or even if you sit at the bar and the llama design keeps crossing your mind and you talk before you think. So yeah, confidential stuff is confidential for a reason. (Most companies that use these kinds of scanners dont let employees know. Within hours, there were writeups on tech blogs about the new iPhone before its official release. I realize you want to minimize your mistake! NEVER by email unless explicitly given the go-ahead). The employer has a policy against this and everyone working there has signed that they read the policy. 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. Someone would then check into it to see if there was a valid reason for someone to be poking at it. If you lean over a cubicle and whisper I broke the rule! Yes, you can get fired for opening a phishing email. Good luck to you, OP, with getting over this one. Thank you for saying that feelings are never wrong. Granted, it was to your older co-worker rather than your boss, but that still shows you felt uncomfortable with your actions. Loved your opening act for Insolent Children, btw. This is a very important life lesson, both for your professional and personal life. Thats totally true, and when I worked for state government release of confidential information would have been grounds for immediate termination, but Alison is the only one who calls it confidential, OP calls it non-public. I was under the impression that most big companies had a policy against telling a reference checker anything beyond dates of employment. Are you being GDPR compliant in your marketing? Compare someone in law enforcement happening to find out the (secret) address and phone number of their friend-groups favorite celebrity, or finding the contact information for the cutie in the convertible, after their roommate catches the license plate numberand sharing. Given how much we have learned about foreign intelligence operations in American social media in the last few years, this is yet another reason why information security of all levels is taken so seriously. I cant say any details yet, but needed to share my excitement!!. Yes and thats the consequence they now have to live with. In that case its not so relevant that there was a misunderstanding. If I were in the coworkers position, I would need to do the same thing. The problem here is that the OP misjudged the level of confidentially expected in the situation, and maybe by their office/profession in general. So for instance when I got an emergency grant from a water supplier for a woman with no income, there wasnt any risk that telling my wife would identify the woman. Candidate must then come up with a good reason why former employer wont re-hire given they merely eliminated the position. Its extremely tempting to want to be the person in-the-know, but my motivation for keeping things confidential is stronger: I dont want to ruin my reputation, and I dont want deal with the fallout of severely disappointing my colleagues, whom I respect and like. 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. Like I said, very strange but its worked for me. 2. In other words, dont assume the information only went to the person you sent it to. This issue recently came up for me as an interviewer. 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. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. 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. She got paid to pose as Roeders* mistress, once. 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. Another public sector worker here. Also, am I even allowed to bring up the fact that someone ratted me out? I encourage you to get involved with PRSA. 1) Broke a rule There wasnt any risk, my judgment was good!. Your contract can still be terminated if you violate a lawful . I was often privy to non-public information because I was designing media campaigns around them. how do employers know if you're answering "have you ever been fired" honestly? How to answer question on moving to another country for job? When I was a journalist I did not appreciate people giving me tips I couldnt use! The thing is, its a big deal that you were given confidential information and then texted it to a friend. Basically, one of the key ways that spies get information is by social engineering picking up seemingly minor information through friendly chat that they can then combine together to make more. The damage from most leaks isnt visible until much later, but it can be massive. This is an issue in most fields. Perhaps over official lines it could be interpreted by the journalist as on the record comments. Privacy Policy and Affiliate Disclosures. Im pretty sure the information wasnt actually confidential in the legal sense. Id like to know what LW said at the two meetings they gave her before firing her. In a professional context, close friendships and personal trust arent always as ironclad as they can be in personal relationships, particularly when it comes to security and confidentiality. If you had stayed they would have never trusted you again.. Our actions and our thoughts can definitely be wrong, but calling someones feelingswhich they have little to no control overwrong (or, dead wrong with double asterisks), only contributes to shame and self-loathing. The fact that the LW just couldnt resist sharing this tidbit should have been a red flag that maybe her friend couldnt, either. Hes in an unrelated field, it doesnt affect him at all, and he wouldnt really care outside of knowing whats going on in Eddies life but hes a chatterbox and theres a decent chance hed forget and say something to someone. I resent our new hires for setting better work-life boundaries than our company normally has, hairy legs at work, my office sent me a random TV, and more, heres an example of a great cover letter with before and after versions, my employee cant handle even mildly negative feedback, my new coworker is putting fake mistakes in my work so she can tell our boss Im bad at my job, insensitive Diversity Day, how to fire someone who refuses to talk to us, and more, weekend open thread February 25-26, 2023, assistant became abusive when she wasnt invited to a meeting, my coworkers dont check on people who are out sick, and more. Second coworker only was put on an improvement plan. And even more so in ballistic missile submarines! 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? I tell my team that if it leaks from us, they cannot work here. 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. Sorry if this sounds like nitpicking, Im only pushing because, as PollyQ said, if OP uses this as a reason and her former employer tells a prospective employer the reasons for her termination, it will appear that she was lying and make her look untrustworthy. I think she was trying to lessen some of the guilt she felt, but really she should have just sat with that feeling and let it fuel her resolve to never share confidential info with an outside party again. 2) Multiple people is relevant, but its easy to misunderstand 3rd hand stories. I wrote back and asked, Is there more context for why your coworker thought that? Understand the true risk of accidentally hitting send to the wrong person. I have to deal with famous folks at well; I work for a company that handles federal medical insurance and every once in a while I might run across Justice X, Senator Y, etc. update: how can I turn down training requests from my clients? That, and I never slapped another plucky again. Im sure the OP will find a new job. What OP did was incredibly serious and, as happened, a fireable offense. I work for a public universitys PR office and I 100% know Id be fired if I shared info with anyone before pub date. Whether or not you knew about the policy upfront, you need to be ready to discuss steps you take to stay informed about policies and ensure you're following them. What you did was misconduct. Sorry, Im tired and I think that metaphor got away from me. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. In 2014 or so, I once slapped a superior in the face because they were yelling in my face because I was stepping on freshly mopped floors. 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. When weve made a mistake, it often feels unfair when we dont get an opportunity to explain, defend, and/or redeem ourselves. Don't worry, you're still qualified to be Secretary of State. People dont talk about it very much but it definitely happens. Coworker would let the other authorities figure that out. Its what you do with what you learn that is important. In other words, this whole line of discussion is moot. 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 tell the character and imagine their response, and the urge to share subsides. I understand that the breach was very bad and that the organization needed to take some disciplinary action, but it seems to me that firing an employee who fessed up to something like this to a senior coworker sends the message: If you mess up bad enough, dont tell anyone. So seriously, just dont tell anyone at all, fight the temptation, its an icy slope. its not condescending to point out that what LW did was incredibly foolish. Theres no way your managers could safely assign other confidential projects to you after leaking the information on this project. And if it is a part of that, the coworker was obligated to report it! Not advising you to lie, but you can present the circumstances in as flattering manner as you like. Im not going to tell them about it, unless it actually falls out that I end up being the person who is put in charge of telling them their thing is done. Unfortunately these days a lot of the regulators are crooked and will never do anything about problems without a lot of public pressure (and sometimes not even then). And Im not saying it was fair or unfair or whether your previous employer made the right call. Assuming this is in the US, and were talking about FOIA laws, typically a records request will come through a particular channel (not likely to be some random employee in communications.). Or, heck, for all I know he didnt actually work on anything that interesting. Employees can't just post anything they want on Facebook or anywhere else. 4) The coworker was absolutely right to report the breach in confidentiality. In the US, sexual harassment wont merit a police response. Not so here because what she did was wrong, just not quite as bad as the misunderstood version. As Alison said, its a lot like DUI; even if no one gets hurt, theres a reason we shouldnt take those risks. 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. (For the record, I always told people I was interviewing as a source that there was no such thing as off the record with me its not a requirement of our field, theres no law saying we have to follow that request if asked, so if the subject didnt want me to print something, they shouldnt tell me. It sounds like youre taking responsiblity for your actions and are doing your best to move on. If you want to work in comms, you need to be crystal clear that the TIMING of disclosure is a crucial issue. End of story. Which means have to vet things like your friend is a journalist, but doesnt cover your area? 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. If someone had been privy to the list of cities prior to the announcement, and leaked it, they would 100% have been fired. What is the point of Thrower's Bandolier? Thats why they told you the information was confidential. Thank you for explaining this! You can bet Id be gone with no second chance despite my almost-20-years and ton of good work. And by becoming the must fanatically trustworthy discreet person. My adviser listened to what was going on and was like we have to tell. If I had an employee that did this, Id expect them to be mortified and I would expect to hear how seriously they were going to take embargoes from here on out, and the LWs letter and response are almost the exact opposite. 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. I hope you find something good soon and can put this behind you. I hope you get past this, it may bar you from future government work, but not other placed hopefully if you follow Alisons advice and really own up to the mistake. Yes, this is the way to do it: Friend, I just got the best news at work, I am so excited! OP, please do not take this comment string seriously, because internalizing these statements will severely harm your ability to address your error effectively. They would definitely see any mention of confidentiality breach as a huge red flag and drop OP from the hiring process at once. This was also my thought. Thats another instant firing, even if the information isnt ever misused. This will sound very, VERY strange, but if you have the urge to share things youre not supposed to, theres a trick you can try: telling a fictional character in an imaginary conversation. Its understandable that you feel betrayed by your coworker, but she probably felt obligated to say something. That was a stressful week for all concerned. 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. +100 to this. It would have been better if she had told you first that she was going to tell someone There is zero entitlement in saying that shes upset she didnt get a second chance. They are designed to trick the recipient . In jobs that require non-disclosure, active disclosure is a very big deal. If someone stole money from their workplace, or illegally harassed a coworker, and their colleague reported it would that person be a rat too? You simply let the sender know you've received it by accident, then they can rectify their mistake and you can delete the email. 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. I got that impression as well and have had younger coworkers who sent random, very personal info to me in texts. Because a) LW broke confidentiality. The misrepresentation of what happened is my concern. For context I work with PHI covered under HIPAA for my job. Cmon, it was. Whilst Im sure the OP is a perfectly nice person, theres a reason that there are office shootings and other awful things, some people are not. Like you said, it was a breach and thats serious on a professional level (your friend is a journalist, too! If OP reasoned I told mentor, confident that there was NO WAY she would let anything slip it throws a lot of doubt on her parallel reasoning of how certain it was that the journalist wouldnt let anything slip. She knew about a leak and didnt say anything, who knows what else she is helping to hide, My boss, in a well meaning way and to correct some weird barriers previously put in place by the person before him, told me openly that if Big Boss [aka the owner] asks you anything, just answer him, its all good, you dont need to filter things through me or anything., And I just tilted my head and laughed at him saying Even if you told me differently, I would tell him whatever he wants to know. Which given our relationship he just giggled and responded with of course and thats the way it should be.. While I was working there, I started dating an entertainment journalist who then covered some Marvel projects, and there were definitely things that happened at work which I did not share with him because of my NDA. 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!) I got defensive and young from OPs response. Everyone messes up. Regulation people have heard of is going to be changed/repealed and its a big deal 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. It has to be violent sexual assault before theyll even consider responding. Cut to a couple hours later, and Im called into my bosss office because she has heard that I leaked this information to a SLACK CHANNEL FULL OF JOURNALISTS. I would have serious questions about your judgment if I found out you told any reporter about something that was confidential. We will always be privy to confidential information in our roles, its the nature of what we do. It only takes a minute to sign up. I understand your irritation with your former coworker. Heres one: You work for the Census Bureau , which runs demographic surveys beyond the decennial Census, and came across [popular celebrity]s personal info, perhaps noting they live near you. I was working on some client confidential information on my client issued laptop and I emailed this info to my personal mailbox as I wanted to continue doing work on my personal laptop; I couldn't take my work laptop away whilst on extended leave overseas. +1 on the choice of language and framing. Right? Good luck to you I think Allisons advice for answering questions about this experience is spot on. No one is trying to tell the OP that she needs to be friends with this former coworker. Under the "General" tab, you'll see a section called "Undo send.". 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. I know there are cases where someone might fear retaliation etc, but with a higher up getting a subordinate into (deserved sorry OP!) Having a mentor at a different organization in a similar role might be a good idea for the future. 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. Like, its so obviously wrong that people dont even talk about it. Nothing dangerous, and while I was there it honestly wasnt even anything that would be a big scoop or exciting dinner party story. One colleague really didnt like the plan, and he was communicating with people who were organizing opposition to it using his work email. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship. For excellent reasons. Mostly, Im saying this to you so that you understand that you should never have trusted that co-worker to keep that kind of information to herself, no matter how much of a mentor shed been to you I do think that she should have told you that this was serious enough that she couldnt not report it. If youd like to learn more about human layer security and email data loss prevention (DLP), you can explore our content hub for more information.