As a damage control, should I (as the manager responsible) send a message to all employees explaining what occurred and asking them to respect the confidentiality of the information and not open nor forward the information to anyone else or should I just not bring additional attention to this message? If that is so, there is nothing you can do to avoid the termination and you should be looking for new employment. 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. FIFTY?! Our grant program is going to be fully funded by Congress! I used to work at a public Zoo that was owned by the state, and so we were all state government employees. We will always be privy to confidential information in our roles, its the nature of what we do. Sometimes were lucky and there arent any repercussions. No. A very long-term employee who did excellent work, as a joke, made up a fake news release that indicated we got the contract. Whether nor not anyone got fired might depend on context, but somebody would at the very least get a serious talking-to. Many types of information are protected only during specific time frames insider trading comes to mind as a particularly nasty one disclosing inside information about a pending large contract award or trade is absolutely firable. Request a personalized demo to see how Egress Prevent will help you prevent data breaches over email. UK officials are bound by the provisions of the Official Secrets Act and people have gone to prison for giving information to journalists before now. how do I get out of an active-shooter drill at my office? But reasonable minds can certainly differ. The hospital I was working for last year had the best of this kind of presentation that Ive ever seen. You cant let yourself act out of emotion. 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. Rather than leading you on and allowing you to continue to work for them under a cloud of mistrust (and all the downsides that come with that), they made a clean break and released you to get a fresh start elsewhere. Because a) LW broke confidentiality. They must always assume the worst case anyway. We got [Celebrity Y] to promote a big public health initiative! I definitely learned my lesson, and it was a hard one, and one that I will regret for a very, very long time. Sometimes they go so far as tell the bearer of the news that they now have to soothe them bc its their fault they feel bad. No! You said in your letter that you were so excited that you wanted to share it in celebration. However, if the message appears urgent to somebodys life or career, its likely youll want to consider stepping in. The consequences are serious and could have legal implications if youre representing a government or publicly traded company. Of course, its your fault but it is only human to be annoyed with someone, especially someone who seemed to completely misrepresent what happened. Or they might have a zero-tolerance policy for leaks as a deterrent. 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. 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. The advance knowledge of something pending going public is a very powerful position. These policies are sometimes written down in employee handbooks. Examples that most journalists would find pretty snoozy (although journalists who cover the agency super-closely for trade publications, Politico Pro, Bloomberg Gov, etc, would still be interested): It was a really bad decision on my part and I have learned a lot from the experience. Its sounds like you are pretty young and people tend to be a slightly more forgiving when you are young a make a mistake like this as long as you take ownership of it. Fwiw the journalist agreed to destroy the info. I used to work at a government agency and it was super hard to get fired so I can understand your consternation. This is a GREAT way to position it. And then that coworker did tell someone, and she was fired. It might just be that the scanners caught it and notified security. On other occasions, you might accidentally receive a confidential email with information meant for one person (or a few people) you know. I know there are cases where someone might fear retaliation etc, but with a higher up getting a subordinate into (deserved sorry OP!) Im sorry but it would definitely be a good idea to recognise that this is a really big deal and learn from it. 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. For context I work with PHI covered under HIPAA for my job. Contact the unintended recipient It's a good idea to contact the unintended recipient as soon as you realize the error. Appropriately so, but still, wow. Clearly yall do not understand handling confidential information. Im pretty sure the information wasnt actually confidential in the legal sense. Im sorry, what? I previously worked as a journalist. I have absolutely no clue in your situation, but there are times when it really can be appropriate to let someone go without any second chances. Im very aware of that reality, so I confine my work email to work stuff only. I am in this place when I read OPs response. 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. (Obviously dont tell any potential employer that but its my personal opinion). Did you apologize profusely and then explain that there was some miscommunication here? This comment comes across as quite clueless I work for a government entity where nonpublic information often affects peoples day-to-day lives and pocketbooks and people put a lot of money (lobbying) into knowing whats happening. would be frustrating if she had a good relationship with them, or if she cared a lot about the reputation of her publication as a whole. More commonly it means that you either cant share anything, or you cant share parts that someone could connect to a particular client. The Census Bureau does NOT play with that sort of thing, and you would indeed be given the boot as soon as the breach was uncovered. These comments seem harsh for the most part. 9 Posts. One of the things your field requires is to be able to think and act dispassionately about the information you have custody over. It's a good idea to own it and let your management know. Yes, but lets face it, theres no way its as exciting as what any of us are imagining it to be. 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 didnt agree with it myself, and knew that it wasnt really possible without raising a lot of money, something my organization just isnt that good at doing. Or it could be about a broader picture like if youd had performance issues or other problems that made it easier for them to decide to just part ways. 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. Accept the responsibility for your actions and it will make life a lot easier going forward. 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). 2007-2023. It doesnt matter if your friend is a journalist or not; thats a total red herring. RIGHT NOW it is totally privileged information and it needs to be treated that way. People tend to share with trusted confidants/partners/etc. Im sorry, but I think you were fired with pretty good cause and it would be important to own that or you wont be able to spin the story for future employers. We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. When you accidentally receive a confidential from someone within your own organisation, things are pretty simple. how did HR and OPs boss come to the conclusion that this information was spread through Slack (!) I think that speaks to exactly why this was such a breach, though. In my experience, it was highly effective. 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 have personally learned that if you never want coworkers to find out something embarrassing or private about you, never ever tell them. I have a whole bunch of very personal medical information swimming around my memory and I while some of it Ive wished I could share with my spouse, I never have. Almost every situation I know of where someone was fired for cause was presented publically as a position elimination.. Any info I pull, I have to be able to explain why I pulled it and what I was doing with it. ), You also werent fired for technically breaking a rule. You were fired for actually breaking a rule, and a serious one. They may. People dont talk about it very much but it definitely happens. Thank you. In a roundabout way, they somewhat did you a kindness by firing you. Im also miffed by the fact that the coworker kinda blind sided OP. The LW actually had a responsibility to keep the info confidential, and the friend doesnt. End of story. 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. It may be that the decision is made and it is just a matter of time before you are gone. It might possibly be seen as less bad that the information shared was intended to be made public anyway, as opposed to it being information that wasnt ever supposed to get out. Those questioners would hammer her on this. This is a good way to think about it. There is a greater issue here regarding judgement. OP erred, which she knows, but I dont think that means her mentor no longer has the obligation to be honest with her. Honestly, I got the impression that the writer was on the younger end, just in their self-reported actions and reactions. Where did you go from here? That brings us to your questions. You say that the information eventually became public, and you seem to think that this mitigates the problem. I would have ratted you out too. The phone rang in the middle of the night and my mother picked it up, before she could hand the phone to my father, the person on the other end of the phone explained everything that was going on and why he was calling. Hopefully there still something to be said for that! The heads on spikes of the modern workplace. And especially, sharing information that youre not supposed to tends to be the type of thing that will get you fired immediately without another chance. Only behaviors are right or wrong. The problem here is that the OP misjudged the level of confidentially expected in the situation, and maybe by their office/profession in general. And if it is a part of that, the coworker was obligated to report it! UK government has fired people for looking up records of contestants on reality TV series, multiple times. Itd be much safer for the LW to ask HR what theyre going to say to other employers asking for references. And you might know that you trust that friend 100% to keep it confidential but your employer would prefer to make that call themselves, and thought theyd done so when they told you the information couldnt be shared. If it was something that was a big deal to LW but not huge news externally, yeah, its not a thing. If yes, that is relevant to the question. You were wrapped up in a project and yes you messed up but no you didn't mean to. While they may not state why someone was fired, Ive found it pretty common to state that someone was fired (or laid off etc) and if the person is eligible for rehire. That being said, I think you can overcome this. Oh yeah, my response wasnt to you it was just to continue what Alanna said. Maybe OPs workplace does the same? 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. Or when she builds a pattern of sharing harmless information until suddenly it isnt harmless? A breech of confidentiality like that can land you and others in jail. I can't remember the details, but there was a point about the fact the word "confidential" added in every e-mail by such a notice wasn't actually helpful, since tools that looked for the word confidential were flagging everything up, including a large number of false positives. You can get past this, if you learn from the experience. and sent to multiple people (!!)? 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. I work for a public universitys PR office and I 100% know Id be fired if I shared info with anyone before pub date. 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. Ive been actively observing how my more senior colleagues handle that sort of thing (we need written permission to share information about clients with people connected to their situation, and knowing how to answer questions from people who arent authorised to be told something but who are definitely going to ask is covered in training). Of course, but if you think that there arent tons of people out there whove made huge mistakes and managed to keep it from getting out, youre kidding yourself. If someone stole money from their workplace, or illegally harassed a coworker, and their colleague reported it would that person be a rat too? Rules are there because its so easy to do that thing that feels harmless, and sometimes nobody gets hurt.. I understood her to say she texted from her cell phone. All we know is that OP made a disclosure, and the coworker is aware the disclosure happened via Slack. Here are five such rules, most of which were broken by Block (who reportedly left Oracle yesterday.) In the worst cases though, businesses can lose clients and employees can lose jobs. LW, please, please look hard at what happened and how you can promise yourself first of all that this was the last time. 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. 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. Or you mistyped her email by one letter and it went to a colleague who had no reason to respect the embargo? I work as a contractor on a program that just announced 10 new cities will be joining. No matter how small the company, they trust you to safeguard the data, and you didnt do that. Ive definitely been guilty of sharing exciting but not-yet-announced news with colleagues. Oh no! 2. If someone told me something that I know Id have to report, I would report it. Send the attachment in a follow-up email and, in the future, attach the document before you even begin writing your email. And it makes sense that it is. OP, take a deep breath. From OPs comment, it seems like shes already taken responsibility for her actions and knows what she does wrong yet 95% of the comments are lecturing her about how dumb she is (not in those words, but thats undeniably the gist), which is completely unhelpful and honestly, incredibly sanctimonious and obnoxious. +100. Here are the things that OP needs to remember: First, the coworker is not a rat, even if she misunderstood the scope of OPs unauthorized disclosure and mistakenly misrepresented it. The letter writer came here and owned up to what she did and said she knows now it was her fault what do you want her to do, throw herself on a sword? Well meaning (or at least not meaning harm) maybe, but very foolish. Replying to the sender is a good thing to do for a couple of reasons. Journalists seek out and report information thats their job.. Which means have to vet things like your friend is a journalist, but doesnt cover your area? She should have just sat with that feeling and let it fuel her resolve to never share confidential info with an outside party again. Judgement errors tend to repeat themselves. nsx advanced load balancer documentation; . There are people who would refuse to acknowledge their error and go about their lives being bitter and blaming others. Unauthorized Emails: The Risks of Sending Data to Your Personal Email Accounts. I got that impression as well and have had younger coworkers who sent random, very personal info to me in texts. With all the Data Protection rules, the E-privacy Regs, yes - and sorry, GDPR, my friend was in panic mode as they still didn't really understand their situation. 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 ? All journalists are human and many of us have spouses/friends who do things that are news, and this is a situation where good boundaries can protect everyone. Heres another the state Supreme Court will probably make a decision on voting district gerrymandering soon., (This one happened to me, and was probably the most exciting confidential information I got access to my desk was close enough to the GIS employees that I could see the increased traffic out of their area and infer that Something was Happening. A recent Harvard Business Review article indicated widespread use in the workplace, with over one third of the US . Sorry that this happened to you (Ive made stupid mistakes too) but you may want to consider keeping problems like this to yourself. Also, its not clear from your response Do you understand how serious what you did was? (Even if its not an area she covers, she likely knows the person who does, and journalists share tips/info all the time.). In my role there I was sometimes privy to confidential information that was not to be shared with the public. Unless his bedroom was a SCIF and the phone secured, thats really bad. Oh, thats a risky tack for OP to take if they want to stay in their field. But folks with strong confidentiality duties often dont disclose the confidential parts of the information to their trusted confidants or partners. You are allowed to feel your feels about things, so long as you understand the reality. Im glad youve learned from your mistake, and I really hope you take this experience to heart as you continue your communications career. Separately, when you share, you have to still be oblique enough to not get yourself in trouble. 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. Someone would then check into it to see if there was a valid reason for someone to be poking at it. Cmon, it was. Instead, the employees found out by reading the news instead, which hurts morale. By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. Yes, I did filing in a small-town law office where almost every name was familiar and nothing I read or saw left the office. Can I get fired for . However, at the time, I did feel guilty so I confided in an older coworker who I considered a mentor. Some offenses are serious enough that a single incident is enough to fire someone. Theres no way your managers could safely assign other confidential projects to you after leaking the information on this project. Including their reputation being damaged.