It should go without saying: a breach of confidentiality could and would wind up in a bar complaint in my jurisdiction. My only other advice is to consider if there were any conversations on slack that were inappropriate. Practically everything I do in my job is confidential to some degree. They fell prey to the Its just a quick peek and it wont hurt anybody fallacy. You breached confidential information to a journalist. While it is possible the line could be actively tapped/monitored by someone else, even if it was an unsecured line it would be reasonable to assume the home phone number on file for GSAs dad would lead to the dad. I feel LWs pain. It doesnt matter if your friend is a journalist or not; thats a total red herring. As Alison said, its a lot like DUI; even if no one gets hurt, theres a reason we shouldnt take those risks. So, the implication is actually the opposite of giving your feelings 100% credence its saying, separate how you feel from what you do. If you are facing much trouble, look for job in domains where confidentiality is not too critical and the employer is not paranoid about it. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. @bent in my experience most companies view the data leaving their possession as the real concern, anything else is secondary. We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. 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? . Or the surrounding land if its something that will raise property values. I was then let go but will be extremely vigilant in the future to never let this happen again. I know there are cases where someone might fear retaliation etc, but with a higher up getting a subordinate into (deserved sorry OP!) If *you* got that carried away, you cant guarantee that she wont, either. Sometimes people screw up and they still really need their jobs. Also, its not clear from your response Do you understand how serious what you did was? Especially in banking! Yes you can. If someone told me something that I know Id have to report, I would report it. So, I can talk about it, I can say Omg, there was one scene that I was just like SuperCheese! and rolling my eyes. If you cant keep your mouth shut then you need a new line of work. 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. they dont owe it to you to offer that opportunity, That reminds me of the guys who say, I know I cheated on you, but I want a second chance.. Because I can almost guarantee that your reputation in that organization would never recover, even if you had remained employed. I doubt she had it out for you and rather was worried you confided a big breech to her which could adversely affect the company. And there are reasons the rule is dont leak, rather than dont leak (except to people youre *really sure* wont tell any one else (except people who they are really sure they wont tell anyone else (except people theyre absolutely positive wont tell anyone else))). Maybe OPs workplace does the same? You may ask them to delete the email before they read it. Really? But I had a boss who always used to try to cover his ass 110%. As I said below, that may be why you werent given a second chance. Its also totally understandable that youre disappointed about losing your job, but they might have just considered that kind of confidentiality breach too much of a risk going forward. I also wanted to address a couple things that jumped out at me in this part: Also, am I even allowed to bring up the fact that someone ratted me out? 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. Fortunately, I was not fired for the mistake, but my employer did call me on the carpet for a very serious discussion on why we cant share any information that we only have access to because we work there, regardless of how sensitive or not sensitive we think it is on a case-by-case basis. When it came up during her interview, the candidate said it was complex and that shed learned from it. A fine of up to $100,000 and five years in jail is possible for violations involving false pretenses, and a fine of up to $250,000 and up to 10 years in jail is possible when HIPAA Rules have been violated for malicious reasons or for personal gain. If anyone required training to answer FALSE! The Solicitors Regulation Authority has also issued a written rebuke to Christopher Gossage, of Russells solicitors, who confided to his wifes best friend that Robert Galbraith, author of The Cuckoos Calling, was really one of the most famous and wealthy authors in the world. Yikes. Yes, some employer will bin you, others might give you a second chance. But I agree that reporting coworkers for actual errors that actually affect the company isnt ratting. And it doesnt sound to me as though the OPs coworker was in any way a rat. And this will definitely have an effect on how you come across to people interviewing you in future. That all strikes me as stuff someone quite young and without strong professional and personal boundaries acts. The 2nd chance is just too much risk as far as theyre concerned. If yes, that is relevant to the question. Spek raised a good point- find out what your HR policy is so you know what to be prepared for in an interview. If you werent human, you wouldnt make mistakes. (For the record, I always told people I was interviewing as a source that there was no such thing as off the record with me its not a requirement of our field, theres no law saying we have to follow that request if asked, so if the subject didnt want me to print something, they shouldnt tell me. That way, the Address box of every reply starts out empty. 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. 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. So I guess maybe it is a generational thing? People leak or share things to journalists they know all the time, with agreements by those journalists on how to share it. All we can do is learn, rest, and go on another day. That will go over much better with future employers. (Obviously it would have been best not to give her journalist friend the info to begin with.) They must always assume the worst case anyway. [Well-known bad person] is going to be fined/punished/arrested. The LW blabbed, why would her friend have more self-control? Not just confidential, but confidential from *journalists*!! At the end of your explanation, look your interviewer in the eye, and dont say anything else. Note: You dont want to frame this as It would have been made public eventually so I did nothing wrong. Your tone is still very much acknowledging that you messed up. And if it is a part of that, the coworker was obligated to report it! How do I explain to those potential future employers that the only reason I got fired was because I was ratted out by a coworker for a victimless mistake and was fired unfairly, without sounding defensive? Im not understanding how OPs update comment reads as defensiveit shows significant progression from deflection to ownership, to me. When dad got on the phone he explained to the person that he understood the situation and that he was going to have to report him because he gave my mother classified information. This reminds me of the story of the Apple employee who left a prototype iPhone in a bar by mistake, before the official release. Thats the person were gonna call the blabbermouth in this situation? The awareness that anything sent in your work email is subject to FOIA and open records requests really varies. I always appreciate your combination of kindness and firm clarity. It was a couple of telling E-mails that helped bring down Bear Stearns with the subprime loan mess crashing . An example: More commonly it means that you either cant share anything, or you cant share parts that someone could connect to a particular client. You believe your friend is trustworthy but, wow, the optics of sharing with a friend who is a journalist are really bad, and . Other agencies will provide title and dates, and whether you are eligible for rehire. That guilt is because you KNEW you did something that was explicitly not allowed, and you went to your coworker in the hopes theyd absolve you of your guilty conscious. Request a personalized demo to see how Egress Prevent will help you prevent data breaches over email. How is an ETF fee calculated in a trade that ends in less than a year? 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. End of story. Only behaviors are right or wrong. Youre heading in the right direction, and youve also gotten some really good advice. I have accidentally terminated people, messed up HRIS changes that prevented people from getting their paycheck, and scanned/sent confidential information to an employee instead of myself. This just wasnt the place for you in the end. Sorry, Im tired and I think that metaphor got away from me. OP notes that she is a government employee. If you had stayed they would have never trusted you again.. Minimizing it will make it harder for future employers to trust OP, whereas frank ownership and an action plan will read as much more responsible and accountable. Not advising you to lie, but you can present the circumstances in as flattering manner as you like. If you talk about sensitive stuff in public you best be sure youre actually anonymizing what you have to say. Thats the one that needs to learn to keep things to herself? You did wrong, fessed up, and got fired anyway. 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. Its was exciting and you couldnt wait?! I encourage you to spend some time really thinking about this and absorbing the very good feedback you have generally received here. 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. They care a little more in the last 2 years, but not much. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. But Im a journalist whos covered federal agencies, so I know super exciting to agency employees does not necessarily equal huge news for everyone else. 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. Much safer. Your employer lost control of this information, even in a very small way, and thats a big deal. He shared it with one person, telling them it was a joke. You wrote, The only reason I got fired was because I was ratted out by a coworker for a victimless mistake and was fired unfairly. But you werent fired because your coworker reported you; you were fired because you broke a serious rule. For excellent reasons. Sometimes were lucky and there arent any repercussions. If you had to process the cool news, it may have been better to process with the mentor instead. You said it yourself that you were working on client confidential information, and sent it to your personal mailbox. (Or maybe the coworker did fabricate it, but I feel like thats a massive assumption itself. A federal appeals court recently addressed whether employees had standing to bring a lawsuit when their personally identifiable information (PII) was inadvertently circulated to other employees at the company, with no indication of misuse or external disclosure. Or does it only matter that I broke a rule?, For #1, Youre certainly allowed to bring up anything you want in an interview, the question you should really be asking is, Will it help or hurt my candidacy to bring this up?. If someone preempts that, theyre not happy about it generally. and the agency lost control of the information. And you did it over company lines. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship. Government tends to operate differently. Or, maybe they totally overreacted, who knows its impossible to say from here. It can depend on what mechanisms are in place to protect the content of the email, who is sending the email, who it is being sent to, the content of the email, and whether the subject of the HIPAA information has provided their written authorization for unsecured PHI to be . Since this incident, Ive taken steps like [saving journalist friends as contacts in a different phone, deleting my Slack channel, etc. The letter makes it look like you only told one person out of turn, but actually you told two people. 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. First, you need to be able to frame what you did for yourself. I think if the OP had framed the situation as, how can I get another job after being fired for being a whistleblower after I shared important but unfortunately confidential information with a journalist because the public has a right to know, these comments would be very different. 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. If you stay in comms, good to always remember the optics. And if we do, well tell them not to tell anyone.. This. Journalists get embargoed or off-the-record information all the time and are able to play by those rules. Loved your opening act for Insolent Children, btw. 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. Possible scripting adjustment: I mistakenly shared some non-public information with a friend outside the agency before it was officially released to the public. If you got the launch codes for the missiles, thats a big no no to share. Second chances arent a foregone conclusion in any aspect of life or work; your expectation that there should have been one at all suggests a level of entitlement that needs to be examined. She probably felt she had a duty to disclose it and she may well have. And Im pointing out that it wasnt a record at all. Where the investigation uncovers evidence of divulging confidential information, then the employer should take formal action. my boss read my Skype conversations, parental involvement with employees under 18, and more, my manager and coworker are secretly dating, boss will never give exceeds expectations because he has high standards, and more, update: I supervise a manager who falsified an employee write-up but I dont think she should be fired, stolen sandwiches, disgusting fridges, dish-washing drama: lets talk about office kitchen mayhem, interviewer scolded me for my outfit, job requires an oath of allegiance, and more, update: a DNA test revealed the CEO is my half brother and hes freaking out, my entry-level employee gave me a bunch of off-base criticism. Since that didnt happen Im not surprised you werent given a second chance. Its no fun to be fired. LW I encourage you to ask yourself why you wrote this: Your actions showed you were not trustworthy with confidential information. You hear something genuinely classified and blab it too because its so cool? The first job will be the hardest but gradually you are less and less likely to be asked about an older job. Employees can't just post anything they want on Facebook or anywhere else. How do you approach company policy in general? 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. Same applies here as you stated. I arrived in 69. The penalty for breach of confidentiality isn't restricted to employees who have . 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. If a member of your staff violates this explicit. You might add to Alisons script, I knew immediately that I needed to report my indiscretion, and I did so right away. Unauthorized Emails: The Risks of Sending Data to Your Personal Email Accounts. Bye. It was a big enough thing that they gave you a 1st chance. Recently, the National Guard was hit with a data breach, where files containing personal information were unintentionally transferred to a "non-DoD-accredited data center by a . 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. True story: in my last job someone mistyped an email address by a single letter and instead of going to a related government org it went to a journalist. As a sidenote: *Even if* you think it *wasnt* a big deal, when you get hauled into the boss office and told it. Doesnt matter if it was a friend. 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. Thats the wrong lesson to learn. 1) Broke a rule Interpretations, justifications, conceptualizations can also be wrong, surely. 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. How should I explain that I'm looking for a job because my employer may be shutting down? What video game is Charlie playing in Poker Face S01E07? She should have just sat with that feeling and let it fuel her resolve to never share confidential info with an outside party again. In other words, dont assume the information only went to the person you sent it to. On Monday, I was called into a fact-finding meeting with HR. There are different levels of confidentiality for different circumstances. . 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. And, of course, some agencies dont have a policy and, when contacted can provided whatever info they feel is relevant. Understand the true risk of accidentally hitting send to the wrong person. Or maybe one of those people isnt quite as trustworthy as the person who told them thought they were, and they tell the wrong person, or tell multiple people, or write an article about it because theyre also a journalist. A few weeks ago I worked on a medical chart for A Big Rockstar, but not only do I get fired if I tell anyone which one, I get fired if I open up a single page of his chart that I cant explain, if asked, what the exact and specific work-related reason for opening that page was. In such cases, the employee should be given the benefit of the doubt. Im in Chicago so I read about those firings with interest. Are you being GDPR compliant in your marketing? Right. What am I doing wrong here in the PlotLegends specification? OPs best bet is to stop blaming their coworker or minimizing what happened. She would have learned a valuable lesson and still kept her job. Where I work, there are policies that state an employee that finds out about certain kinds of misconduct is mandated to report it or face consequences if it comes out that they knew and didnt report it. Gossage said he believed he was speaking in confidence to someone he trusted implicitly, but the story subsequently appeared in the Sunday Times, to the dismay and rage of the author of the Harry Potter books.. She already got that advice from Alison. 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. So Id do what Alison says here, and save your OMG I cant keep this in confessions for your pets. The first person needs to understand that most of the time, you arent entitled to negotiate a yes, because the answer is no. This is a much more fulsome explanation of what I meant! This kind of reaction from the company screams 'serious laws broken' and there aren't many other possibilities on what these laws maybe. Getting fired sucks. She screwed up, and they fired her because thats what she deserved. The issue of whether HIPAA information can be emailed is complicated. No. It can feel like the end of the world but I promise you it isnt. Access rules are very, very strict, and there are reminders all the time. Thats another instant firing, even if the information isnt ever misused. Even innocuous-sounding information, like the name of a database, can be a huge security risk. As soon as someone has decided you're not a team player, or are a problem employee, then even tiny things get seen as evidence that you should be fired. ), Im guessing it was something more like: I hope you mean it when you say you understand the magnitude of this mistake and why you were fired for it. Even if they knew she used Slack to talk to journalists in general, its a massive enough leap from I told a friend via text that Im side-eyeing the coworker and HR a little. how did HR and OPs boss come to the conclusion that this information was spread through Slack (!) Im also miffed by the fact that the coworker kinda blind sided OP. Certainly not an electronic blog. And that doesnt even take into account that I could be prosecuted for divulging any private information. He was employed elsewhere within a few weeks. Im not sure you can conclude that it was publically disclosable. The mistake was breaking company policy not that they announced to a coworker they broke company policy. Absolutely! "Even if it were, transmitting some personal data by email does not of itself breach data protection laws in any jurisdiction" Actually in the UK the Data Protection Act would apply as it is being transmitted outside of the company without the express authorisation from the data subject. someone in another department saw the post, reached out to the person who made it and asked for information about the person they had heard it from. I playfully made a sexual remark about a female coworker. I am assuming you had a clearance of at least Secret. Actually advertising is not going to be any better. Best of luck with your search. It may be unfair to assume a journalist is cutthroat and would kill for a lead. Training in this area is important generally, but a communications/ PR person should not need to be reminded to keep sensitive information confidential thats a very basic aspect of the job. Non-public just because it hadnt been announced yet isnt the same as the location of the emergency bunker. Ive represented or advised friends, friends of friends and the occasional famous person, and nobody else knows anything about it nor will they ever. 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. Period. 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. 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. Pro tip: when working in mental health residential treatment, do not have clients write your staff logs. OP if I was part of an interview for you, and you brought up this situation the way its phrased here, Im sorry to say it would be an immediate pass. She just needs to learn discretion. It simply means that your employees are not to disclose proprietary information or data about your company to another person without your consent. OP, you truly buried the lede: you leaked to a journalist. I actually think this was a little rough of her mentor. Contact the unintended recipient It's a good idea to contact the unintended recipient as soon as you realize the error. 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. Had OP not made the initial mistake and then compounded it by telling the coworker, shed still be employed. Firing you was probably not what they wanted to do, and Im sorry. 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. OP can come up with steps to fix the real problem in their future jobs, but they cant really fix an evil coworker. If it was more time than 6 months, thats a resume gap that a recruiter will ask about, and if the OP lies about the gap, an experienced recruiter will hear it in her voice. Is there a solution to add special characters from software and how to do it. Leaking information can actually be the right thing in some cases. But your wording indicates that you dont yet have insight into just how much you breached the trust of your company. Replying to the sender is a good thing to do for a couple of reasons. 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. And honestly, you broke an embargo for your own company. I know Id be pissed at you. and that person did what they were told to do and reported it. Draft your UI forms and pre-write your objection to his unemployment on the grounds of "good cause" firing for willful misconduct- Then after all that you can fire him. The secretary is going to be featured at [cool upcoming event]!
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