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Also to prevent someone who might be a bit dangerous, from hurting you. The co-workers obligation is to the employer, not to the OP. the coworker? In such cases, the employee should be given the benefit of the doubt. And being mad at them is an effort to dodge responsibility and ownership of the actions that WERE at fault. I arrived in 69. Once youve actually done the thing, its out there. As a communicator, youre likely to be privy to confidential information on a regular basis during the course of your career, and if that information leaks for any reason, it could have serious repercussions for the organization especially if its a government body. 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. While irritating, email from mass marketing lists dont require a response and you probably wouldnt get an answer anyway. 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. Im literally barred by policy from opening up my own files unless theres a work related reason I could lay out to do so. LW told a human known to be a journalist about The Thing. The main problem is that 'copying data in a very insecure way to be able to bring those data. The communications team is often brought on board to develop strategy for organizational decisions that may not be public for weeks or even months. 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. 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. We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. This is a solvable problem. Thats how a lot of people get found out in the end, it doesnt just stop with telling that one friend. If the policy says people who tell information to non authorized individuals must be fired they could have been fired for not firing you. Oh yeah, my response wasnt to you it was just to continue what Alanna said. Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been. I had friends who would jokingly-semi-serious ask me if I was poking around their accounts and such while I was working there and I would deadpan look at them and say your finances and personal information isnt interesting enough to lose my job over and then change the subject. You simply let the sender know you've received it by accident, then they can rectify their mistake and you can delete the email. A member of the public wants some data, they contact anybody in the agency they can think of, the internal employees bounce it around because somehow they dont know who to send data requests to, and finally it gets to us and we respond. Second coworker only was put on an improvement plan. Build sneaky protections into your life so you get away with violating important rules is NOT what LW needs to learn. Can I Get Fired for Private Texts or Email Messages? | Money I imagine theres a section in the manual and training (possibly annually) about the great responsibility they bear around confidentiality and how people will try to scam them into breaching security, yet OP does not appreciate the weight of this. Youre not in a gang or on a schoolyard playground or fighting with your sibling in the backseat of the family station wagon. This was all public information, but the original report was work product of Company A even if it had originally been created by the coworker. (I think, I never worked in government communications so Im not positive of this.). can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information If I happened to expose that to my BIL who runs the comic book store and has a bunch of media and arts and entertainment contacts? 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. As someone who works in PR/comms, my recommendation is to tell future employers the truth and emphasize what youve learned: Its completely understandable that you were upset about it when you wrote in (and upset about it now). Ive had the occasional day when Ive really wanted to tell someone I met X today! In jobs that require non-disclosure, active disclosure is a very big deal. That oh honey is so unnecessary, and questioning LWs age is just rude. And I did use Slack on my work computer, and I did interact professionally with some journalists who covered my area over Slack. 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. Unfortunately, a lot of times people mistake the first for the second. Its definitely not a spur if the moment decision. It was a big enough thing that they gave you a 1st chance. You are right. While that obviously wasnt the result Id have wanted, I learned an important lesson about confidentiality, and its not a mistake Ill ever repeat.. This is incredibly condescending. ), You also werent fired for technically breaking a rule. You were fired for actually breaking a rule, and a serious one. The first person needs to understand that most of the time, you arent entitled to negotiate a yes, because the answer is no. If you were fired for an embarrassing reason that would torpedo your chances in an interview, say that your position was eliminated. For excellent reasons. Policy change that is a big deal to staff that works on it, but very in the weeds for the general public (regulation is going to be changed in a way that is technically important but at most a medium-sized deal), Fairly real examples that would be much bigger deals: In my experience, a FOIA request can come from anywhere. trouble, it doesnt seem applicable. Understand the true risk of accidentally hitting send to the wrong person. That may not be the right wordbut Im having trouble finding the right one. Privacy Policy and Affiliate Disclosures. If she had been doing something perfectly acceptable, seen by someone who misunderstands the situation, and fired because of that, then she would be an innocent victim of a very unfair employer. Maybe a different (and appropriately mortified) approach from the OP in those meetings would of had a different result or maybe not! but the approach in the letter definitely would have convinced me to let her go if I was on the fence. Occasionally our clients have been in the media and have shared part of their story. You can get through this, but be honest with yourself! Absolutely! how did HR and OPs boss come to the conclusion that this information was spread through Slack (!) If the email involves sensitive information, this could be a serious problem for the people involved. Click the "Settings" icon (the wheel/cog) and click "See all settings". She could have been a secretary or a spy; no one knows because she went to her grave never telling anyone, not even her husband. I had to learn the hard way, Im afraid, but I did learn. Of course. One Employee's Accidental Email Leads To A Significant Data Breach So, you've accidentally sent an email to the wrong person. how do employers know if you're answering "have you ever been fired" honestly? I doubt she is the only person that has ever done anything like this. Also, if your mentor went through the trouble of having a conversation with you about your duties and seemed concerned, I doubt she was out to get you she probably felt it was her duty and to her best interest to report now that you have made her an accomplice-after-the-fact in any potential breach (say, your friend was the one out to get you and it leaked before your department had any plans for dealing with a leak, this mentor would also be in trouble for not reporting it as soon as she knew if they found out she did), OP I want to comment on one aspect that I didnt see anyone mentioning directly. If a member of your staff violates this explicit. 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. The OP actually committed a fairly serious breach. Perhaps something like the announcement of the new Amazon HQ? 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. My employer lost a lawsuit where they had been sued for violating open records and meetings laws. 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. But the other person she spoke to, her coworker, told others, and somehow that message (of who and how she leaked it) got twisted into something much worse. Concepts like snitching, tattling, and ratting out dont apply in the workplace. It doesnt matter if theyd trust this person with their firstborn child. If you werent human, you wouldnt make mistakes. The employer has a policy against this and everyone working there has signed that they read the policy. A major penalty for breach of confidentiality is termination of employment. Actually advertising is not going to be any better. 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. "Compose the email, and only then go back and enter the address (es)," he says. When they took the only course of action they could have taken and still kept their job and notified your employer of your actions, you became defensive of your actions. I stopped when my boss had a stern talk with me about it, but also because I noticed that I was getting the bad news later, too (other people at my level were told about layoffs the night before, I was told shortly before the companywide announcement) and I realized I was getting a reputation as someone who could not be trusted to keep my mouth shut. You arent entitled to a second chance to screw this up. That doesnt seem to be you, which is a great sign. But, its important for an employer to know that you understand the need for reporting and would report things yourself if needed. In other words, dont assume the information only went to the person you sent it to. 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. And then that coworker did tell someone, and she was fired. Taking full responsibility isnt just the better moral choice, its the more effective one. 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. 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. You are almost certainly an at-will employee so you can be discharged at anytime and for any reason or even no reason at all. Yes! Don't worry, you're not alone. For a market where most of this stuff lives in a big way for one season, and then only has some ongoing staying power? Have you learned from your mistake? I dont believe this falls under inadvertent, though OP deliberately gave that information to her friend. Take full responsibility. Regardless of what word you use when you disclose what happened, understanding that difference, owning up to it, and showing how you've changed as a result is your best hope of gaining future employment. And theyll be first with the story. What if there was another leak and someone found out that OP had told Coworker that she had leaked info previously, but didnt report it as she was supposed. how else could you have met that need?) Third, with bright line rules, we cannot adopt situational ethics where its ok to disclose to close-trusted-journalist-friend because we trust them. Well, it has been released now, so technically we could. Thats a good friend but you put her in a bad position. We cannot do our job with our leaders if they cannot trust us. I am replying under Engineer Girl for a reason. 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. Firing you was probably not what they wanted to do, and Im sorry. If the answer is Yes then say that. On other occasions, you might accidentally receive a confidential email with information meant for one person (or a few people) you know. Regulation people have heard of is going to be changed/repealed and its a big deal The coworker did nothing wrong that we can see from the letter. Passing it off as a mistake, or trying to portray ignorance (in the sense of saying "oh, I didn't realize it was wrong when I did it") is just going to make it sound like you don't bother understanding or following policies. Sometimes the news is a dreadful burden to bear (staff reductions of people you know, elimination of services you think are important) and sometimes the news is exciting, you have the inside scoop and cant wait to share it. 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. This was actually a very kind way to get this point across. Send the attachment in a follow-up email and, in the future, attach the document before you even begin writing your email. In government, keep this confidential almost always means never share ever on pain of serious legal sanctions.. I think its fair for you to be upset that you didnt have another chance, but also understandable that your employer felt it couldnt give you one. Of course, its your fault but it is only human to be annoyed with someone, especially someone who seemed to completely misrepresent what happened. 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. 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. Share information about a Harry Potter book before it being officially released? Agreed, that immediately got on my nerves. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. 1. The financial firm I worked for had mandatory quarterly compliance meetings with examples of Dont Be This Guy Because He Doesnt Work Here Anymore. Say I have a friend working on a presidential campaign, and she tells me theres a bunch of debate about the candidates strategy, I have to decide whether to mention that to my colleague who covers the candidate. It's hard to answer this question without specifics, but it strikes me as very important to differentiate between an accident or mistake in the sense of "oops, I did that by unintentionally" versus misconduct, as in "this was against policy and I deliberately did it anyways" regardless of whether you knew about the policy or had a good reason to do it or not.