Journalists get embargoed or off-the-record information all the time and are able to play by those rules. Forgetting the attachment. I think that speaks to exactly why this was such a breach, though. He was employed elsewhere within a few weeks. I get why maintaining confidentiality is important, and I understand why the OP was wrong in this particular situation, but balance is also needed. The joker on the other hand was running off at the mouth. LW, I work under some pretty hefty NDAs (currently, Im working on a project where the security protocols themselves are considered to be non-shareable with anyone who doesnt have a business need for them and hasnt also signed an NDA. Its was exciting and you couldnt wait?! If asked specifially try to describe in detail what happened and what you learned from it, for example: ask if the new employer has clear guidelines on data handling. And I did use Slack on my work computer, and I did interact professionally with some journalists who covered my area over Slack. We all make stupid mistakes. Other agencies will provide title and dates, and whether you are eligible for rehire. If that puts it in perspective. Gov employee here and I would be in trouble as well for not reporting what LW told coworker. The obligation to report a security breach doesnt include warning the violator. OP needs to learn the art of discernment. The Workplace Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for members of the workforce navigating the professional setting. FOIA and open records requests are really big deals. As a former journalist, I can assure you journalists dont leak information, unless its something confidential about their own employers. But reasonable minds can certainly differ. End of story. And it seems like you do. This is an issue in most fields. The LW actually had a responsibility to keep the info confidential, and the friend doesnt. And in this case, I beleive that is correct. +1 Messages like this can simply be ignored and deleted. No, no, no, no, no. Its your actions that are right, wrong, or in that confusing gray area, and what you feel doesnt have to dictate what you do. I would not immediately snap into how can I report this? But I think in order to talk about this with future employers, youve got to take more responsibility for it. Id like to know what LW said at the two meetings they gave her before firing her. 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. I hope you mean it when you say you understand the magnitude of this mistake and why you were fired for it. Well, this is both unkind and off-base. We were interviewing someone who had broken the #1 cardinal ethical rule in our industry (a branch of health care). That makes a certain subset of people *extremely* excited. The thing is, its a big deal that you were given confidential information and then texted it to a friend. The rules are severe because people need externals to keep them motivated. 4. So, I can talk about it, I can say Omg, there was one scene that I was just like SuperCheese! and rolling my eyes. 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 was an HR coordinator at a hospital and even though I did not deal with patient records or patients or anything remotely health care-y, I was required to take the annual training and accept compliance as a mandatory part of my employment. was. And Im pointing out that it wasnt a record at all. The point of the story is the funny way people behave. In such cases, the employee should be given the benefit of the doubt. Thank you for explaining this! It was bananas. But also to say that when you work with confidential info, the impulse to share is a common one, and managing it is something you need to be on top of from every angle. The best solution for avoiding misdirected email altogether is through human layer security. super! Yes you can. If I ever texted a journalist about nonpublic information Id be fired. Find somewhere else to tell it in order to release the steam valve. This was also my thought. Situations like this are one reason I think workplaces with confidential/sensitive information should regularly remind their employees of what confidentiality means for them, rather than leaving it as a blanket statement or only discussed during new employee training. (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.). Thank you for pointing this out! 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). Box-ticking SA&T wont change security behaviors. Right. how did HR and OPs boss come to the conclusion that this information was spread through Slack (!) I strongly disagree with this. You could say that, but itd be a lie, which would be an automatic dealbreaker for many potential employers, and theres no guarantee that the previous employer would keep the cause for firing secret. Journalists are very charasmatic and will fish for info its their job. All this said, I think Alisons approach is the best one when youre applying for jobs. Best wishes! I just wasn't thinking at the moment I sent the information. If you talk about sensitive stuff in public you best be sure youre actually anonymizing what you have to say. And there was no social media then, so 100+++ times that now. The fact that her co-worker actually followed the rules of her employer does NOT make her a rat. Like I said, very strange but its worked for me. And then THAT person got so excited that they just had to tell someone Each person thinks theyre only telling one other person, and that they can trust that person. *(assuming that you did so)* She covers a totally different subject area so it never even crossed my mind that her career would be an additional conflict. ^^. You didn't accidentally email the material to yourself, you did it on purpose. That really set the tone for the reference she gave. When we make mistakes, they are impactful, but we're human and it happens. Yeah, wouldnt it be possible to prove (or rather disprove) that you leaked to a slack channel full of journalists? There are, unfortunately, many things I am doomed to not know even though I would really like to find out. Im still learning Slack, so maybe being naive. Or well often hear from contacts on the Hill about something going on behind the scenes, like that a bill is about to be introduced. The fact is, its just not their secret to share. If you cant maintain confidentiality, you can work elsewhere. 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. I went to my boss explained the situation and let me boss make the decision if we wanted to share the report. Im very aware of that reality, so I confine my work email to work stuff only. I was coming to the comments section to say the same thing. 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. Just because a story wasnt published about it doesnt mean it wasnt discussed internally among coworkers. 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. 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. A senior UK diplomat has resigned over the matter. Journalists seek out and report information thats their job. That will go over much better with future employers. Yes, if you're sending a mass email, BCC makes sure no-one else sees each other's emails and therefore reduces the risk of a breach. The penalty for breach of confidentiality isn't restricted to employees who have . I want to caveat that when I originally wrote this, it had just happened and I was still extremely emotional about it, which is probably why I chose to leave out important information in my initial question. when we had a high school shooting, a student I knew (10 y old) and who got into it (gladly uninjured) got a visit from his own uncle who was a journalist that very evening, who came to visit the parents and then proceeded to try to get his nephew to talk about the details. (For example, my BFF works at the Pentagon. Accidents or mistakes are bound to happen. It was the wrong thing to do, and Im sorry. The info I released did not in fact cause any problems, but I tremble now because it so easily could have, in even slightly different circumstances. Im also miffed by the fact that the coworker kinda blind sided OP. Yes, when I worked at a financial firm I believe that exact question was on a privacy training test: If I run across the name of a celebrity in the client management system while performing my duties, its okay to tell friends and family about it, True or False?. Noooooo. I was reading the email at home and after reading the first paragraph I exclaimed out loud (so my spouse could hear) Ooooh. And even now you sound defensive. 1964 is what I remember. The message there is dont violate confidentiality policies. In fact, if you are being sent overseas, you have to take a special counterintelligence training before you go that includes tips like dont wear items with your agencys name written on them while you travel and never park next to a panel van.. Theres no mitigating circumstance here. (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.). I dont want to beat up on the LW, but I do think they fundamentally need to understand that the loss of trust made it impossible for the agency to give you a second chance in this position. You didnt have a right to privileged information once you demonstrated that you werent trustworthy. In other words, this whole line of discussion is moot. You made a mistake. That OP knew it was wrong and felt guilty about it is a sign of strength. 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. Also to prevent someone who might be a bit dangerous, from hurting you. While I dont think the LW should be endlessly flagellating herself, this was her fault, not the co-worker. All mom did was hand dad the phone. How do I go about asking for a job on another team? Completely unrelated to the topic at hand, love the username! I am really jaw-on-the-floor stunned at people taking aim at the coworker. Learn that about yourself, and move on. Understandably, the agency had to let me go. Something to show that you didnt get caught you confessed. I supervise a manager who falsified an employee write-up but I dont think she should be fired. They sound far more serious than what happened. I dont love not being able to tell her things (even though we are each others I promise not to tell anybody (but Friend) person), the way we share this information is by forwarding press releases once the information is public. Its a common occurrence, especially within a large business where autocorrect can incorrectly select people with similar names. I agree with you that its ok for OP to feel resentful (at least in the short-run)! Or even if you sit at the bar and the llama design keeps crossing your mind and you talk before you think. If youre found to be lying, thats an instant rejection in a way that a well-explained firing would not be. This isnt breaking a rule; its potentially putting your organization in jeopardy. I work in the auto industry in media communications. You know thats not how that works. Sure, thered be a record in Slack of prior messages. 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. (And thats before you tack on that LW thought it wasnt SO bad because he told Journalist Jason, who can keep a secret, as opposed to Reporter Robert, whos a real sieve.). It might not be that the coworker reported you. He had a fairly high security clearance and was stationed at NORAD for a time. This mixed with the coworkers inflated story, I would be more than annoyed by this coworker too. I think the wider point is that anyone can make that mistake at any age, and speculating about this part of it is irrelevant and not helpful. 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. How did you talk to your boss about the slack channel full of journalists? Were you able to correct the factual mistake in context, and what phrasing did you use? This is a very important life lesson, both for your professional and personal life. (For your job search, this might be obvious, but steer clear of medical, legal, PR, or any other field that deals with privacy.). It is ok to be upset at the coworker but it is important to recognize that she did nothing wrong and is not a rat. All rights reserved. No, no, no, no, no. End of story. (sorry for all the theys. English has a pronoun problem.). One piece of information I learned (that has since been announced publicly, but hadnt been at the time) was SO EXCITING that in a weak moment, I texted one friend about it in celebration. Its a huge risk that if discovered by the employer would likely result in being blacklisted from the company and if the LW is employed there immediate termination. 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. OP, think about your choice to share with this person. Oh my. You really think a lawyer would publicly (extremely publicly) admit to doing something he hadnt done, for which he was sanctioned and fined by regulators, and permanently ruin his own reputation in the process? Penalizing or firing such employees may lead to the loss of good talent and even create a negative impact on employee morale. Oh, so LW cant keep a secret from her reporter friend or her coworker, but were ragging on the coworker for not keeping LWs secret? But what might walk that back to a performance plan would be a sincere, unqualified apology showing understanding of the gravity of the error. I fully expect that whenever they find the source of the leak the people involved will face some pretty serious consequences up to and including dismissal and possible criminal proceedings. Its not possible to catch every mistake or typo over the course of a whole career. The OP was not entitled to be making calls on who outside the org could be trusted with this information. the coworker probably was obligated to report it Then both OP and Coworker could be out of a job. I sent confidential documents to someone by accident via email I need the file completely removed - Gmail Community Gmail Help Sign in Help Center Community New to integrated Gmail Gmail Stay on. You will bounce back! Separately, when you share, you have to still be oblique enough to not get yourself in trouble. Another engineer girl here, at a place where people have been fired for leaks and it hits the news when it happens: theres a warning during New Hire Orientation, and between that and our reputation, youre expected to know it. 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. can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information. When an employer says something is confidential, take it seriously If a breach is proved, the employee may be liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages Howard Levitt Published Aug 01, 2019 Last updated Oct 28, 2019 4 minute read Join the conversation Interpretations, justifications, conceptualizations can also be wrong, surely. This x 1000 to the comment by ENFP in Texas. 4a) Coworker did not owe (and usually would be discouraged from giving) notification to the OP. In those cases I have to be even more careful, because minor details might get linked to the news story and suddenly its not anonymous any more. 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. I think people beat themselves up enough internally without us having to do it for them most of the time. Like X candidate is running for president!. However, it is unlikely that the circumstances of your firing will be able to be overlooked by an employer who needs to trust your judgment with sensitive data, definitely for the foreseeable future, possibly for many years into your career. whatever you think is appropriate] to make sure it doesnt happen again.. Or does it only matter that I broke a rule? update: how can I turn down training requests from my clients? How to handle a hobby that makes income in US. 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. Thanks for sharing all of this. Really? Agreed. a. problem then you APOLOGIZE and APOLOGIZE rather than defend yourself. My guess is thats where some of the defensiveness in the initial letter comes from that no one would have known if not for the self-report. In my role there I was sometimes privy to confidential information that was not to be shared with the public. Sometimes its because someone could obtain an unfair benefit from early access to what will later become public information (e.g., think analogous to insider trading). Damn, thats hard core. Its also possible that the way you talked to your boss about it cost you a second chance too- if you were anything other than mortified and taking 100% responsibility, they likely thought it wasnt worth trusting you again.