I am a veteran employee in good standing, but if I shared Material NonPublic Information I learned on the job and was found out, I would be terminated immediately and they would be right to do so. I DEFinitely sometimes shared those tidbits with friends and family who were big tiger/hippo/etc fans. Yeah, but never let anyone else see it, and absolutely still use code names in case someone does see it. Interpretations, justifications, conceptualizations can also be wrong, surely. People working on campaigns get to be privy to all sorts of information that is not intended to be public. Share information about a company merging before its publicly announced? Im sure the letter writer has plenty of that to deal with already. Especially odd because LW emphasized how trustworthy the friend is for why the friend wouldnt blab. Just keep it to yourself or youll get fired. And thatsnot great? Yeah it totally sucks but now you at least have a chance to start fresh. 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!) Unfortunately there are certain positions where you dont get a second chance when the error knowingly breaking a rule. Similar in IT in my first internship, I had access to about 40,000 social security numbers. This is what I wanted to say but you said it better. But OPs situation sounds like more of a case of I am just soooo excited about Cool Thing that I had to tell rather than something dangerous or corrupt is going on and the public should know.. People dont talk about it very much but it definitely happens. Personal info is never OK to share with anyone, or things that could lead to recognizing a person if someone happens to know that person (and you never know who knows who). Ramp up your privacy settings across all accounts. Its understandable that you feel betrayed by your coworker, but she probably felt obligated to say something. The rules are severe because people need externals to keep them motivated. how to explain you were fired, when interviewing. Some things a company wouldnt want you to tell a competitor, but wouldnt mind if you told your spouse. picture of male guinea fowl . confusedabouteverything Forumite. And by becoming the must fanatically trustworthy discreet person. Im a journalist, so, yes. 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. Is it FOUO though? It might just be that the scanners caught it and notified security. Instead, youre better off with something like, The truth is, I was fired. Its to LWs friends credit that she didnt pass on the info to a journalistic colleague who DOES work in that area; its not to LWs credit. Some agencies will only provide title and dates of employment, which is a lucky break for you. If I were you, I would examine WHY I decided to tell my journalist friend the info. 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. 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. You added nuance that I hadnt thought about. 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. They take information security and confidentiality so seriously that they make delivery people who come to the offices sign an NDA just in case they were in the elevator with Sam Jackson. Regardless of what the coworker did, ideally we want to nudge OP toward exercising greater impulse control and discretion if OP wants to have a successful career in the same sector/field. Then the stories died down and the pressure with it even though there were still occasional leaks. You may want to target less security-sensitive industries or environments until you've worked up enough of a resume after this event to show that you're reliable. It would have been nice- but Im sure the coworker was also pooping masonry. 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. Everyone messes up. There wasnt any risk, my judgment was good!. I screwed up in grad school and had to go in front of an IRB board for being sent information that I hadnt gotten full clearance for. This is so well said. Businesses have a term for that kind of behaviour, and that is 'data leakage'. Even if the coworker had malicious intentions, they were following privacy laws and regulations. In this case you will get a second chance it will just be with another employer. Employee Consequences for Breach of Confidentiality e.g. My philosophy is that it doesnt matter what city you live in, its a small town. Monitoring should not be excessive and the employee must know what will and won't be caught, for example, whether personal emails will be read. I understood her to say she texted from her cell phone. The mistake was breaking company policy not that they announced to a coworker they broke company policy. In no time you will have your next job lined up and all this will be just a post earning you rep. 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. 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. They must always assume the worst case anyway. Its going to bite someoneand this time the person it bit was herself, which gives her a good opportunity to work on discipline and discretion. So, I can talk about it, I can say Omg, there was one scene that I was just like SuperCheese! and rolling my eyes. I wouldnt be surprised if there was a state or federal regulation that she violated by sharing that information. . That makes a certain subset of people *extremely* excited. The government takes this stuff very very seriously. Good points, and good advice for anyone whos apologizing for anything. Wouldnt you ask why the govt didnt fire them the first time? So no matter what, she cant be the person that you reach out to in any kind of way to share that kind of information. Yeah, seconding this. Yep! You violated your contract so your previous employer had little choice but to let you go - your new employer will understand this but if you show them you've accepted responsibility for it and will make sure never to do that again then I think you've got a good chance of getting another position. And in the future if you really cant hold something in (that is not full on illegal to discuss) and want to share it with your spouse or something, dear God dont ever do it in writing! There is zero entitlement in saying that shes upset she didnt get a second chance. But when I wrote letters to the llama farmers whose llamas had bitten a client whose story about her life-threatening goat allergy was featured in the papers (obviously this is not what actually happened), I had to be sure I didnt say anything about the llama farmer letters that could link to the goat story. Discretion and brand protection are as critical to this role as promotion and talking to the media. Humans, in general, are not geared towards confidentiality and secrecy long-term. Which means have to vet things like your friend is a journalist, but doesnt cover your area? (Especially since termination hearings and the related records are often public records once the employee is terminated, so any concerned employer could just do a records request and get the whole story.). It was bananas. Your failure to understand the gravity of your actions is alarming. Sometimes their hands are tied too. Not to mention if you tell a lie (even by omission), its a lie you have to keep up, indefinitely. I ran across an old letter recently where someone had negotiated themselves into a poor position, and hit on dragging some subordinates out there on the plank with her. Animaniactoo is right that folks who have to manage confidential information begin to cultivate the skill of sharing without making an unauthorized disclosure. I accidentally sent the email about the female coworker to this other female coworker. update: is my future manager a bigoted jerk? Fired. Yeah, thats a good point. She already acknowledged that its 100% her fault. She screwed up, and they fired her because thats what she deserved. There is no other guarantee, and yet people count on it. It's difficult to prevent a leak from happening again if you don't know how it occurred in the first place. 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. But it sounds like it doesnt really matter that HR jumbled the details because neither was a permitted thing to do anyway. Learn how to protect your investment management firm through intelligent email DLP. 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.. We dont even know where the LW is; Alison has gotten letters from outside of the United States before. 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. Reporting misconduct is the right thing to do, and thats how an interviewer is going to see it. Ultimately, its your choice to make. nsx advanced load balancer documentation; . If I was that coworker, Id have to think shed continue to go around blabbing about this, and there is No Way I could just sit on it until *I* got called on the carpet. She cut a guys LVAD wires so that hed be bumped up to the top of the heart transplant donor list? 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. Ive only had a very general idea of what my husband does since 2002, because he cant tell me. Everyone makes mistakes at all points in our careers. Negative emotions are a learning toolfeeling guilty is very uncomfortable, so we dont repeat the behavior that led to the feeling guilty. 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. A good . Here's how you fix that horrible email blunder on the job - New York Post If youre found to be lying, thats an instant rejection in a way that a well-explained firing would not be. and that person did what they were told to do and reported it. I sent a compromising message to the wrong person. How will I ever The Workplace Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for members of the workforce navigating the professional setting. Accept responsibility for what you did. I agree. Fired. On Monday, I was called into a fact-finding meeting with HR. So, are you clear about the severity of your action and the significance of this rule? Or they might have a zero-tolerance policy for leaks as a deterrent. If someone had been privy to the list of cities prior to the announcement, and leaked it, they would 100% have been fired. Confidential Info Accidentally Sent to a Large Distribution List Fascinating (and fun!) (Many of these claims have to be handled by specialists who have security clearance, but not all of them.). 2 July 2018 at 9:11PM. 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. Im not cleared for it. One of the things that is emphasized very heavily at my agency is that your own perception of how important a piece of information is does not give you enough information to decide if its really a big deal. If that got into the wrong hands it could even result in the end of civilization. It's really just a 30 . With regards to getting a new job within the software engineering/analytics/data science field, I wouldn't lie on application form and in interviews if asked why I left my old job. Specifics dont matter, but to me, being able to explain you told your friend your employer was about to buy this farm to build a park so they bought the farm so they could raise the price and make a profit would make a huge difference in terms of making the OP aware of the consequences of their actions. I do not believe in using it for personal gain, even the minor personal gain of sharing juicy secrets with someone. Rules are there because its so easy to do that thing that feels harmless, and sometimes nobody gets hurt.. How do I go about asking for a job on another team? Confidential information is meant to be confidential and not shared with anyone. If I know that Senator Y is releasing a health care plan on Monday that would require mandatory surgery for every American, and he has bipartisan support for it, thats a much more specific news tip, and Id rather my friend just not tell me and save me the heartburn. Yep, I think its worth LW remembering that while she knew shed never leak anything again, her boss and co-workers dont. I previously worked as a journalist. They know it happens. This seems unnecessarily condescending, and I dont think the LW sounds defensive here at all. Accidents happen inadvertently but this is not the case here. I think interviewers will pick up on the equivocation in your language here. But at that very moment, I was in a personal email back-and-forth with another female coworker. That will go over much better with future employers. 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. Yes, you can get fired for opening a phishing email. Ive had the occasional day when Ive really wanted to tell someone I met X today! You cant even take a look at *your own* records if you are also a patient at the medical facility. They are designed to trick the recipient . Even though shes made the same mistake 2 times). All three have kept their mouths shut, at least to the best of my knowledge, and I can talk it over without worrying that I will cause a problem with my disclosing. Or at least, I can. And there was no social media then, so 100+++ times that now. I would push back slightly on the leak to press part. If you talk about sensitive stuff in public you best be sure youre actually anonymizing what you have to say. But given the kind of convo LW describes.while the LW really should not have been surprised they got reported and then fired, and does seem to be downplaying the severity, I wonder if something about the convo led them to believe it was somehow less serious than the mentor clearly understood it to be, and mentor didnt seem to do anything to help the LW understand how big a deal this is, which is kind of a bummer. We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. They are pretty free with stating exactly why someone was fired. Check out this article on that HERE. My adviser listened to what was going on and was like we have to tell. You can -and often should convey emotion in your official public statements. I wont lie, Im tremendously curious, but I also know this is just one of those things I will never get to know. I think it most likely would be very boring, but some stuff like the jobs report a few days early would be very interesting to unscrupulous investors. Is a HIPAA Violation Grounds for Termination? - HIPAA Journal Noooooo. Completely unrelated to the topic at hand, love the username! 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. The fact is, its just not their secret to share. The communications team is often brought on board to develop strategy for organizational decisions that may not be public for weeks or even months. Which is actually good most of us get making a mistake when were young, and really learning from it. Im also miffed by the fact that the coworker kinda blind sided OP. Something LW has not seemed to understand: the fact that you worked for a governmental agency is not the issue, the fact that you leaked info early is. Hi LW, I agree with Alison the best way to approach with is by taking full ownership of what happened. Theres no such thing as blind-siding once youve committed an infraction and people have to act on it. Since that didnt happen Im not surprised you werent given a second chance. This is a much more fulsome explanation of what I meant! I work for a charity that offers a telephone service nationwide, and I take a lot of calls from people in quite distressing situations. No checking out salary information permitted! Feelings are frequently conflated with facts in our minds and it can take some work to separate them. Now, hopefully that would never happen, but if you consider reporting serious breaches to be ratting out, narcing or even tattling, your (potential) employers are going to know that you cant be relied on to report when its necessary. Further, the laws/regluations dont actually make allowances for how many people are told the confidential information, or how much you, the employee, trusts the person they told. Agreed, except for this: a journalist, who by profession is at risk for leaking said confidential information. While it's not always easy to identify the cause for leakage of information, it's important to try to find the security vulnerabilities that make your information less secure. I strongly disagree with this. They got caught. All people, of all ages, are capable of errors in judgment. First coworker was fired in spite of the fact that he was a brilliant and (normally) even tempered guy with years of work at the corporation. The coworker is not a rat or at fault here. And while you felt mad at coworker, really youre mad at yourself. What OP did was incredibly serious and, as happened, a fireable offense. But I cant talk about the specifics of that scene. Take this to heart in your next position and deal with sensitive information. Employees who violate their companies' email policies can face penalties ranging from disciplinary action to termination. Unless this job was the bulk of your experience, I would leave it off your resume. Good luck! This is to prevent LW from trying to destroy any evidence. Unless his bedroom was a SCIF and the phone secured, thats really bad. All rights reserved. The OP was not entitled to be making calls on who outside the org could be trusted with this information. Well meaning (or at least not meaning harm) maybe, but very foolish. Im thinking of the Elizabeth who went on a 20-email rage about being called Liz, or even the old 1970s memos from the Tiger Oil CEO that found new viral life in the digital age. But thats where having friends in the same workplace comes inyou can expend the impulse by gushing to them and then zip your lips once you leave the building. Any of them. I was reading the email at home and after reading the first paragraph I exclaimed out loud (so my spouse could hear) Ooooh. Are there any reasons why the coworker couldnt be upfront with what had to be done ? Loved your opening act for Insolent Children, btw. 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. 7 Ways Your E-mail Can Get You Fired - US News & World Report It may be a requirement of employment regarding compliance. That the information eventually became public is not in any way relevant. And it is so hard! We will always be privy to confidential information in our roles, its the nature of what we do. Im not sure whether this is something they can move on from or not, but they absolutely need to get themselves out of the mindset that their coworker ratted on them, because thinking that reporting things like that is tattling and childish is how corruption grows. Yeah, I wish the mentor had walked the LW directly to the boss to discuss this openly. i think we often send the message (societally) that making someone feel bad is a mean thing to do; its not. As the other commenter noted, this could have been a very serious offence considering you were working for the government. Calling this victimless shows OP still doesnt have insight into their behavior. On the other hand maybe they didnt listen to her or believe her, and in that case shes been fired based on a misunderstanding but that doesnt help her because what she actually did wasnt OK either. As far as I know, he held the highest security clearance a civilian could have. Thank you it was getting boring to read everyones outrage. All mom did was hand dad the phone. 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? I dont believe this falls under inadvertent, though OP deliberately gave that information to her friend. The HIPAA Rules require all accidental HIPAA violations, security incidents, and breaches of unsecured PHI to be reported to the covered entity within 60 days of discovery - although the covered entity should be notified as soon as possible and notification should not be unnecessarily delayed. When youre put in a position of trust like that and then abuse that trust, you really leave the organization with no other option but to let you go, even if it is your first offense. I work for a state government agency and FOIA is a really big deal. LW best of luck! If she hadnt told the superiors, she could have been on the hook as well if it came out that you told a journalist confidential information and then told her about it. No one ever called for a reference. Extremely good advice! To be clear, you were fired for admittedly breaking confidentiality not because of your coworker. Once you do it, the consequences are the consequences. 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. But at the end of the day, the reputational risk to my company, versus the relatively low-level risk of having to replace someone entry-level, was just too great to bear. Our newspapers report quite frequently on gossip of whats happening behind the scenes. Nah. 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. 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. 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. Yup, landline. The anger I hold for my coworker is something I will deal with over time. Accidental disclosure of PHI includes sending an email to the wrong recipient and an employee accidentally viewing a patient's report, which leads to an . Even innocuous-sounding information, like the name of a database, can be a huge security risk. 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! 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. Yeah, if the LW is in the US or things operate the same way in their country, theres no point in trying to lie or even waffle about what happened. 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 . It doesnt matter if it was text or Slack, a single journalist or a whole group. Companies (and governments) want to carefully manage the messaging and strategy around information that is released in order to bring the biggest buzz and the best information to the public. Having worked in communications and journalism for the past 15 years, I think this ishonestly really bad. Depending on their responses it ranged from retraining, to suspension, to immediate dismissal.. I dont know that I agree she should have thought twice (since going to a mentor is a good thing to do when youre in a difficult situation), but I think thats absolutely the lesson some people will take away! (For your job search, this might be obvious, but steer clear of medical, legal, PR, or any other field that deals with privacy.). And that wasnt even technically confidential. I dont think we fired anyone but the need for absolute confidentiality was reiterated. I had not thought about this issue via this lens, but I think youre 100% right. I will be in so much trouble if anyone finds out! your blindsided coworker is not required to enter into a cover-up conspiracy with you. 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. Employees also. 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. Journalists get embargoed or off-the-record information all the time and are able to play by those rules. Sometimes I see stuff that is cool to nerds of that particular field, but 95% of my Secret Information from clients is not even interesting to them. 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. But that was the right response to what you did. Almost every situation I know of where someone was fired for cause was presented publically as a position elimination.. If you are still defensive or dismissive about this, it will come through in an interview. They have absolutely no obligation to keep secrets for government agencies or private companies. A majority of those who work from home would use their own personal digital devices such as laptop, tablet or mobile to perform their daily work tasks and it is also convenient for employees to. the coworker had an obvious physical feature that the poster mentioned, so the company was able to figure out who was discussing it in a public place and *fired* them for it. In such cases, the employee should be given the benefit of the doubt. So yeah, confidential stuff is confidential for a reason. In government, keep this confidential almost always means never share ever on pain of serious legal sanctions.. Its not their call. Yet, the subordinates were not pleased! 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. 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.
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