None of this makes you a bad person, untrustworthy, or unemployable. The type of sanctions that Contract Killer is talking about would only apply to confidential records, not non-public records. A very long-term employee who did excellent work, as a joke, made up a fake news release that indicated we got the contract. I totally get how it can be really exciting to hear about cool things, and the impulse to tell the people close to you. No, shes a person with ethics who plays by the rules. Coworker Dorcus, who used to write down what time the rest of us got in each morning so she could report to our supervisor when the rest of us were late, even though he hadnt asked her to, even though Dorcus had no idea when wed left the night before, how late we were working that day, or what arrangement we had with our supervisor? 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. See Rule 1.2 (d). If I were you, I would examine WHY I decided to tell my journalist friend the info. I can imagine all kinds of things that wouldnt be that exciting to the world but that I would still want to tell a friend. I feel LWs pain. Like, its so obviously wrong that people dont even talk about it. Thank you for following up with Alison and here in the comments, and Im sorry for what youre going through. Im assuming the LW plead their case and filled in relevant information. Your feelings are wrong, in this context means,Your feelings arent *morally* wrong.. Employees also. Whether she is under FOIA or a state public records law, there are a lot of rules about non-disclosure of certain information. Theres a difference between wishing you had a second chance (acknowledges they arent entitled to one) and being upset you didnt have one (expected that there would be one). as a manager, should I not wear a childless shirt in my off-hours? If you lean over a cubicle and whisper I broke the rule! As far as I know, he held the highest security clearance a civilian could have. If you feel uncomfortable about a work rule you are clearly violating, your coworkers are not going to be thrilled that you get them out there on the plank with you. I think that is also part of the lesson that OP needs to learn. You arent entitled to a second chance to screw this up. They may. Or did you double down on not my fault, not a big deal, and co-worker shouldnt have said anything? Especially in banking! So. Interpretations, justifications, conceptualizations can also be wrong, surely. And that doesnt even take into account that I could be prosecuted for divulging any private information. Good luck! And even more so in ballistic missile submarines! But when youve broken someones trust, they dont owe it to you to offer that opportunity and shouldnt offer it unless they sincerely believe that you could meaningfully repair the breach quickly and comprehensively. Most companies will not say so-and-so was fired for doing x in a reference check. Im very aware of that reality, so I confine my work email to work stuff only. A senior UK diplomat has resigned over the matter. It simply means that your employees are not to disclose proprietary information or data about your company to another person without your consent. I think youd be in trouble for sharing that kind of information over the phone, regardless of who he was talking to. Your coworker was not at all in the wrong here, OP. Breaking certain rules in the workplace, whether written or unwritten, may get you fired. (For example, my BFF works at the Pentagon. That, and I never slapped another plucky again. So I guess my coworker could have misunderstood when I said I texted one friend, but I wish she would have talked to me about that first? Oh, dear. This. But fairly often it was classified to some degree, and he could only talk about how his project was going but not about what it was. That all strikes me as stuff someone quite young and without strong professional and personal boundaries acts. This just wasnt the place for you in the end. I am very sure they didnt want to fire him. But at that very moment, I was in a personal email back-and-forth with another female coworker. We were interviewing someone who had broken the #1 cardinal ethical rule in our industry (a branch of health care). Later when I moved on, it became my absolute best interview topic when asked about a mistake and how I handled it. I empathize I LOVE being a person who is in the know and I can be impulsive. 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. Same here! Its good to hear from you! 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. Me too. Yes, this was a fireable offence, but Im less interested in the nuances of violating confidentiality than in the bigger picture question I have done something where I really screwed up how do I move on? (Someone above mentioned someone bringing a gun to work (Dwight? As the other commenter noted, this could have been a very serious offence considering you were working for the government. But despite how liberal weve gotten with sharing information, you really do have to be very strict about upholding confidentiality policies without making any exceptions. Every bit of what Ive said is probably hearsay. We are not in kindergarten. I think thats a ridiculous overreach but whatever). They sound far more serious than what happened. Best wishes! We asked them why they did it. 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. Request that they email you to confirm they've done so. I used to work at a government agency and it was super hard to get fired so I can understand your consternation. Resist the temptation to gossip about fellow employees and don't express your disdain for your. Your coworker then followed proper procedure when learning of this data breach- their actions were not ratting you out, their actions were following proper protocol for what an employee who is working at a company that frequently deals with sensitive data is tasked with doing once they learn of a data breach. Never mind firing for leaks, they dont even hire people who appear to have poor judgement about confidential information. Weve all made mistakes. If you can trust someone, you can trust them, journalist or not. When you don't know the sender, but the email is clearly confidential and sensitive, things are little more complicated and you have a decision to make. Doesnt matter if it was a friend. It's difficult to prevent a leak from happening again if you don't know how it occurred in the first place. Im sorry this happened to you, OP, Im sure it feels devastating, and it sounds like some of the details were inflated but there is a good reminder here for all of us as some things cant be undone. Feelings are frequently conflated with facts in our minds and it can take some work to separate them. OP has been mature about admitting fault, lets not undermine that by implying it was no big deal. I always appreciate your combination of kindness and firm clarity. If theres anything else you can say about your work there to put this in context like that you had received a glowing performance review, were taking on increasing levels of responsibility, etc. Dont disagree feelings arent wrong but the way we think about them often is. Fascinating (and fun!) Embarrassing or inappropriate communications sent via company email can damage professional credibility, reputations, and careers. When I worked for the bank in the security investigation department, we had systems in place that monitored Famous Peoples accounts and would flag them if they were opened/touched. December 15, 2009, 1:05 PM. They have absolutely no obligation to keep secrets for government agencies or private companies. 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. 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. If the email involves sensitive information, this could be a serious problem for the people involved. These comments seem harsh for the most part. Received someone elses confidential email? 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. Youll also want to double-check any attachments. LW I encourage you to ask yourself why you wrote this: Your actions showed you were not trustworthy with confidential information. In the real world, it happens often enough that I think its more realistic to talk about the practical ways to do it that keep you on the safe side of the boundaries. Life may not look better in 6 months but I bet it does in 3 years. Any message that starts with Oh honey is going to read as rude and condescending unless its followed by a sincere Im so sorry in response to something terrible happening. He had a fairly high security clearance and was stationed at NORAD for a time. I think particularly since its the government, they couldnt take the risk of it happening again and it becoming public that not only was their a breach of confidentiality but that the person responsible had done it before. Log the incident in an 'cyber accident book'. I feel like this misses the overall lesson Allison is trying to impart here. I wish I lived in your country. Not me. If when when LW talked to their boss, they conveyed the sense that theyre thinking Whats the big deal, its all fine, the coworker who ratted me out sucks, I did it once and Id do it again but next time I wouldnt self-report to my coworker the boss would probably be unwilling to give a second chance, whereas a oh shit I screwed up, heres what Im going to do to make sure this never happens again could have gotten one. Ultimately, its your choice to make. You didnt have a right to privileged information once you demonstrated that you werent trustworthy. And Im not saying it was fair or unfair or whether your previous employer made the right call. I dont think your coworker ratted you out. One of my favorite shows had a plotline about a sibling not liking someone not breaking doctor confidentiality. Cringe. Im not sure what the best way is to address this, but were trying! If there was no record, then there is no possible sanction under FOIA or sunshine law (because that only pertains to records). 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. 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.. 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. Thank you for explaining this! Thank you for saying that feelings are never wrong. And I think you can share your excitement with others, just not the information. They are designed to trick the recipient . Like X candidate is running for president!. update: how can I turn down training requests from my clients? Oh my. 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. I have also had to recommend the firing of a personal friend. 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. Its not the end of the world as long as you adjust your thinking going forward and really try to understand why confidentiality policies exist. Yes, this is the way to do it: Friend, I just got the best news at work, I am so excited! I was in tech there and had worked on a new interface for agents, lets call it TEAPOT. Don't worry, you're not alone. Then the second paragraph said Do not release this information to anyone outside of the office because the press are not to know about these changes until the morning of the event. 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. 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. 1. And maybe you should go next week, because the slots love you and you always win. If you say, My coworker ratted me out, an interviewer hears, My coworker reported my misconduct. Youre the one who comes off looking poorly there, not the coworker. The point still stands, however, that Contract Killers proposed sanctions likely dont appear to apply here. Fired. 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. 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. If it comes across like you dont think it was a big deal or that you blame the coworker for alerting your employer, thats not going to go over well. Can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information? Egress Intelligent Email Security is an example of human layer security, as its able to adapt to your individual behaviour through machine learning. Disclosing Government information to a journalist (even a friend in confidence) without permission is a major breach of confidence and Im not surprised it resulted in a significant sanction. If its the government, theyd be defending Area 51 unless its a false flag operation, and the point is for the invasion to occur, but show nothing suspicious, because the government already relocated all the aliens! Even in the private sector, there is information that is classified, sensitive or commercially in confidence and not to be shared. Oof this is so condescending! This is essential to sanction the employee and also send out a clear . You simply let the sender know you've received it by accident, then they can rectify their mistake and you can delete the email. (IE: if they think you f*cked up, then respond like you did, however you actually feel). Thats how a lot of people get found out in the end, it doesnt just stop with telling that one friend. I was sent home, and then fired over the phone a few hours later. An in-person meeting might be more appropriate if you accidentally sent information about your plans to find another job to your manager. You can avoid finding yourself in this position by double-checking the recipient email address (especially when autocomplete is involved), the cc field, and the Bcc field. was. In a job interview, how do I explain why I was fired? Spek raised a good point- find out what your HR policy is so you know what to be prepared for in an interview. But I now realize that I had no business sharing my bad behavior with colleagues it put them into a completely untenable position. In this situation, I reported myself is simply false, given OPs expectation that her mentor wouldnt pass along what she knew to anyone else. Best of luck in your next job! The LW actually had a responsibility to keep the info confidential, and the friend doesnt. 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! They are pretty free with stating exactly why someone was fired. This issue recently came up for me as an interviewer. Messages like this can simply be ignored and deleted. In a couple of hours, the news agencies were calling the federal government, to verify the news. But she also would not tell me if she spent a day at work planning for a war!). OP is in a pickle for sure. And Im happy to report that I have never shared that news (still remember it bcs this was so hard that first time!). If it was the 2nd option then, yeah, they were going to let you go. But I think in order to talk about this with future employers, youve got to take more responsibility for it. They looked at themselves as an organization and realized that the damage was irrevocable. I am assuming you had a clearance of at least Secret. Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been. I didnt read it that way, its not a question of the coworker being Untrustworthy, its a matter of the OP not being able to judge who she can trust to keep things quiet. For me, it was like OK, she shared embargoed information something she shouldnt have. In McMorris v. What I find interesting in the original letter is LWs insistence that it was a victimless crime because nothing bad happened as a result of their leak. Im still learning Slack, so maybe being naive. OP notes that she is a government employee. Even though shes made the same mistake 2 times). update: is my future manager a bigoted jerk? 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. (Most companies that use these kinds of scanners dont let employees know. But, bald facts, they told you not to do the thing you turned around and did. 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. Wrong is wrong- regardless of scale of the offense, and LW has no one to blame but themselves. There are different levels of confidentiality for different circumstances. It was a big enough thing that they gave you a 1st chance. This was also my thought. So, the implication is actually the opposite of giving your feelings 100% credence its saying, separate how you feel from what you do. But folks with strong confidentiality duties often dont disclose the confidential parts of the information to their trusted confidants or partners. Have you learned from your mistake? And, to be fair, based on your language about technical leaks, victimless, and ratting out I dont think your organization could entirely trust that you understand the gravity of the situation and wouldnt repeat the mistake. and sent to multiple people (!!)? If anything went down, you could say But Older Coworker knew! While I agree that this needs to be explained in the right way. For context I work with PHI covered under HIPAA for my job. Animaniactoo is right that folks who have to manage confidential information begin to cultivate the skill of sharing without making an unauthorized disclosure. Sorry this happened, OP! Humans, in general, are not geared towards confidentiality and secrecy long-term. I was fired over the phone. I used to be a journalist, I have lots of friends who are journalists and I never tell them anything that I shouldnt, even the ones I really trust. Everyone makes mistakes at all points in our careers. This is one reason why I could only ever give a vague explanation of what my dad did. As I said below, that may be why you werent given a second chance. OP, think about your choice to share with this person. Has 90% of ice around Antarctica disappeared in less than a decade? I dont know whether you meant it this way, but the co-worker is not untrustworthy for reporting this. Obviously leaking to one journalist that youre friends with is better than leaking to a whole Slack channel full of them, but partly because its possible to do the first innocently, whereas theres no question of innocence with the latter. If it bleeds, it leads, and if its not bleeding, you might as well kick it a few times to see if itll start bleeding Nope. This has to be, and often is, done formally, with agreements to give something secret in advance so the journalist can prep a story for later, when its OK to share. What is the correct way to screw wall and ceiling drywalls? I dont feel like we need that caveat though, there of course will be exceptions, but this is kinda derailing. 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. Its not possible to catch every mistake or typo over the course of a whole career.

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