That the information eventually became public is not in any way relevant. However, at the time, I did feel guilty so I confided in an older coworker who I considered a mentor. Im not feeding a narrative, Im expressing my opinion. The protected classes are race, age (40+), sex, national origin, religion, or disability. Its definitely not a spur if the moment decision. OP, think about your choice to share with this person. And they also need to have an acute understanding that the timing of disclosure makes a HUGE, TREMENDOUS difference. Me too. (I think, I never worked in government communications so Im not positive of this.). So, thats to say that I *completely* get the idea that at some point, you get to a point where you just really really need to share. Im still learning Slack, so maybe being naive. The letter makes it look like you only told one person out of turn, but actually you told two people. In an ideal world, it doesnt happen at all. And depending on the circumstances, if the co-worker knew you broke the rules and didnt report it, then THEY could be in trouble also. Im now turning my head sideways and re-reading/rethinking. Yes, this. Animaniactoo is right that folks who have to manage confidential information begin to cultivate the skill of sharing without making an unauthorized disclosure. 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. 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. I love my younger co-workers and value their fresh take on things and energy, but there is a clear pattern of not understanding reputation risk and liability. 2.) High-profile thing the president wanted and agency employees opposed isnt going to happen When you accidentally receive a confidential from someone within your own organisation, things are pretty simple. I get so exasperated with TV shows where a SO throws a tantrum about a cop/government worker not being able to tell them stuff, and turns it into a trust issue. 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. I hope you mean it when you say you understand the magnitude of this mistake and why you were fired for it. We wont tell anyone. While that obviously wasnt the result Id have wanted, I learned an important lesson about confidentiality, and its not a mistake Ill ever repeat.. 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? Agreed, that immediately got on my nerves. 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. Having said that, as a hiring manager, if you were able to talk to me about how this one-time error in judgment caused a deep shift in thinking and was a critical pivot point in your professional development I would hear you out. And that wasnt even technically confidential. Right. The 2nd chance is just too much risk as far as theyre concerned. However, if the message appears urgent to somebodys life or career, its likely youll want to consider stepping in. That was the profound breach of the OPs duty. I actually think this was a little rough of her mentor. This will suck for a long time writing this post has made me feel anxious thinking about my own lapses and consequences from years ago but it all works out in the end. 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. 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. Youve got some great feedback from Alison and I hope it all works out for you. Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. This is how old I am. (I mean, I think its a great program, but Im realistic about things lol.) Firing you was probably not what they wanted to do, and Im sorry. End of story. Request a personalized demo to see how Egress Prevent will help you prevent data breaches over email. So you let the cat out of the bag about the cat your zoo bagged? 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.. Take ownership and accountability of it, because for better or worse, all of us could have made OPs mistake at some point in our careers. I think one can be upset at not getting a second chance without feeling necessarily entitled to one. He was valuable. Im assuming the LW plead their case and filled in relevant information. Separately, when you share, you have to still be oblique enough to not get yourself in trouble. journalists dont leak information, unless its something confidential about their own employers. I think people beat themselves up enough internally without us having to do it for them most of the time. And theres a difference between feeling (sensation) and feeling (conclusion drawn from integrating sensations and information). But your framing of this does sound defensive and doesnt sound like youre taking responsibility for what happened. If the answer is Yes then say that. I question that there are no details about your Monday meeting with HR here. You will find another employer who will trust you and will give you that chance to shine for them. I understood her to say she texted from her cell phone. 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. 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. I tell my team that if it leaks from us, they cannot work here. Thats another instant firing, even if the information isnt ever misused. 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. Then whenever you send a message, you'll be given an option to "Cancel" at the top of the message before it's sent. 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.. It doesnt, but we still shouldnt state assumptions like facts if theyre not supported by whats said in the letter and theres nothing wrong with Michaela pointing it out. 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. I just want to remind people that it happened. 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. As I read it, LWs friend couldnt pass the information along at all. But how do I explain this story to future employers? Thats not really a response to the OP but more a pushback on some the comments. how do employers know if you're answering "have you ever been fired" honestly? Thats what I would do. Because I can almost guarantee that your reputation in that organization would never recover, even if you had remained employed. Concepts like snitching, tattling, and ratting out dont apply in the workplace. For the other 2 questions, I would simply urge you to remove the phrase ratted out from your professional vocabulary. Maybe thats the case in your field, but usually confidential doesnt mean that. Whether nor not anyone got fired might depend on context, but somebody would at the very least get a serious talking-to. THIS ^^^ Whether it is age or just immaturity, there is clearly a major blind spot about the big picture and the potential impact resulting from this behavior. Yeah, seconding this. it doesnt count as they reported themselves if they later say they were ratted out by the person they reported it to. 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. Even when it doesnt require them to report it, it still could have consequences they dont want to be a part of! But you should try to understand how this happened (why that friend? So yeah, confidential stuff is confidential for a reason. Forgetting the attachment. If not, an investigation would be started on which employees were poking around in Famous Persons account and why. Yes, some employer will bin you, others might give you a second chance. Its not great, but some breaches really are that serious, and employers cant always be like the library giving amnesty for late fees if people bring the books back. 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. I have a friend whose mother did work for an intelligence agency during WW2. Thank you for explaining this!
Is it illegal to read an e-mail that was accidentally sent to you? People have gotten jobs in their field after vastly more serious forkups, don't despair. Was alphabet city watching his ass, no idea. While some employers will accept the I take personal accountability and heres how I address it path, this probably does remove some employers from consideration. [Well-known bad person] is going to be fined/punished/arrested. Also, Ive seen plenty of firings that were absolutely not presented as position elimination. Even if the exact reason wasnt shared employer isnt going to say Oh, Jane took home a spreadsheet full of MNPI they will absolutely share that the ex-employee was fired for cause, not laid off. My guess is thats where some of the defensiveness in the initial letter comes from that no one would have known if not for the self-report. I would have ratted you out too. Im pretty sure the information wasnt actually confidential in the legal sense. Better to have a 30% chance than a 0% chance. Is it possible to rotate a window 90 degrees if it has the same length and width? But imagine you are the government and someone leaked information. How to handle a hobby that makes income in US. Nowadays with mobile devices, email and the cloud, it is extremely easy to share files, easy enough that we may accidentally send and share them to the wrong person. It sounds like OP is young enough that they havent learned that there are some jobs where gossiping about your workplace with your friends is okay, and some jobs where that absolutely cannot fly. I would not immediately snap into how can I report this? 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. Because they turned out to not be trustworthy. To say my friend was mortified would be an understatement. In my role there I was sometimes privy to confidential information that was not to be shared with the public. To me, her wrong doesnt justify her mentor going behind her back. Its a great professional resource with a lot of professional development around ethics. Keep your chin up are you not getting any extra help? My philosophy is that it doesnt matter what city you live in, its a small town. This is why you never ever confidentially share work-related things with colleagues. 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. This incident was a huge violation of trust. Oh, this is all interesting, and I appreciate all the responses. Changing how you feel (as opposed to what you say or do or think) is not something you need to do to solve the problem. NEVER by email unless explicitly given the go-ahead). Are you being GDPR compliant in your marketing? The fact that her co-worker actually followed the rules of her employer does NOT make her a rat. The terminology is often not eligible for rehire., And every time Ive ever given a formal reference, that has been one of the questions: Would you hire her again? or Is she eligible for rehire?. 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. Theres an element of common sense to be used. Request that they email you to confirm they've done so. You just seem to still want an answer and I picked up on this as a possible avenue to reflect on in your letter. They might tell superiors accidentally, out of frustration (e.g. This is a very important life lesson, both for your professional and personal life. Im not cleared for it. I say dont lie during any part of the job application. how trustworthy somebody actually is is never certain. (Many of these claims have to be handled by specialists who have security clearance, but not all of them.). Yes, or that appalling line by E M Forster, written just before the Second World War: if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend I hope I should have the guts to betray my country. Reacting to being fired for that as if being personally persecuted over some piddly technical rule violation and not being given a second chance? I did something similar over 20 years ago. Your coworker didnt choose to know this information and does not owe you silence. Period. Regulation people have heard of is going to be changed/repealed and its a big deal If someone used the words ratted me out or told on me in an interview, that would be pretty much an immediate DQ for me as it shows a total lack of personal responsibility and maturity. 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! Thank you for pointing this out! Or they might have a zero-tolerance policy for leaks as a deterrent. Clearly yall do not understand handling confidential information. It was spur of the moment and, as soon as I realized what Id done I circled back to her to clarify that that information was confidential. Only behaviors are right or wrong.
One Employee's Accidental Email Leads To A Significant Data Breach On other occasions, you might accidentally receive a confidential email with information meant for one person (or a few people) you know. You still have to go through the same information request as someone who doesnt work there. Even if you trust her 100%, she is still too high risk. If you shared something with me that I didnt ask you about or probe for, and just knowing it could jeopardize my reputation or career you bet your ass Id share it with our manager. It's difficult to prevent a leak from happening again if you don't know how it occurred in the first place. Maybe OPs workplace does the same? 4a) Coworker did not owe (and usually would be discouraged from giving) notification to the OP. And it could be part of the reason why the story was a bit incoherent, too she went from sort of uncomfortable to really, really uncomfortable. Hes in an unrelated field, it doesnt affect him at all, and he wouldnt really care outside of knowing whats going on in Eddies life but hes a chatterbox and theres a decent chance hed forget and say something to someone. In those cases I have to be even more careful, because minor details might get linked to the news story and suddenly its not anonymous any more. Depending on the circumstances, you can indeed get fired for sending what you assume to be a private email or text. 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? (And thats before you tack on that LW thought it wasnt SO bad because he told Journalist Jason, who can keep a secret, as opposed to Reporter Robert, whos a real sieve.). No one is trying to tell the OP that she needs to be friends with this former coworker. As I said below, that may be why you werent given a second chance. It's a good idea to own it and let your management know. First, you need to be able to frame what you did for yourself. JustAnswer is a public forum and questions and responses are not private or confidential or protected by the attorney-client privilege. I cant say any details yet, but needed to share my excitement!!. Really? I would argue if you acknowledge your error in judgment, it would work more to your benefit, then classifying it as a one-off mistake and overreaction by your company. 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. 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. I dont think it was over company lines. Even though I was only suspended for two weeks, it hurt so, so much. Privacy Policy and Affiliate Disclosures. We all make stupid mistakes. People dont talk about it very much but it definitely happens. If someone had been privy to the list of cities prior to the announcement, and leaked it, they would 100% have been fired. Candidate must then come up with a good reason why former employer wont re-hire given they merely eliminated the position. broke a rule can be trivial, even if its technically a firing offense. Then the stories died down and the pressure with it even though there were still occasional leaks. I remember the line of people walked out the door for looking at OJ Simpsons records when he was arrested. Like you said, it was a breach and thats serious on a professional level (your friend is a journalist, too! It doesnt matter if theyd trust this person with their firstborn child. Remember when Beyonc lip synched at Obamas inauguration? Agreed. 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. That OP knew it was wrong and felt guilty about it is a sign of strength. This. Im not curious at all, but Im different. OP: Move to a sector and a position where you wont be called upon to handle confidential information, and admit that you are doing so because youve recognised your own limitations and are willing to actively avoid being a liability to your future employer. Yeah, we dont want to go down the road if encouraging the OP to continue acting unethically that will ensure she stays unemployed. How to answer question on moving to another country for job? No 2nd chance especially because you knew it was a no-no before you shared. My mom worked in sunshine law for state government, and what constitutes a record is a lot broader than most people realize. What if there was another leak and someone found out that OP had told Coworker that she had leaked info previously, but didnt report it as she was supposed. What if another journalist saw the email over your friends shoulder? They know it happens. The initial complaint filed against Google is currently under seal because the judge has asked the bank to redact the Gmail account from its filings. They have absolutely no obligation to keep secrets for government agencies or private companies. I meant inadvertently as they were confiding in a friend not willfully giving information to the press. Build sneaky protections into your life so you get away with violating important rules is NOT what LW needs to learn. I playfully made a sexual remark about a female coworker. All the meanwhile you're still trying to run a successful business and handling other things that are coming up. Sometimes it can be a blessing in disguise. Dont reveal confidential information and fully own up to your shit are good lessons. This is just an opportunity to choose words that allow for the most generous possible interpretation (similar to how you say with a friend rather than with a journalist). Later when I moved on, it became my absolute best interview topic when asked about a mistake and how I handled it. It only takes a minute to sign up. Im sure the letter writer has plenty of that to deal with already. Count your blessings that you just got fired. What probably really hurt the OPs case was that the friend is a journalist. Thats the person were gonna call the blabbermouth in this situation? update: is my future manager a bigoted jerk? Phrase it as a serious learning point, because you sure as hell aren't going to do it again after getting fired. I got that impression as well and have had younger coworkers who sent random, very personal info to me in texts. ! but you just cant. I dont think your coworker ratted you out. Why is there a voltage on my HDMI and coaxial cables? [important person 1] and [important person 2] are coming to my office for a press conference. Oh honey, how young are you? I constantly have journalist friends asking for confidential tips, and there is no way I would ever give up any information. Im more curious about what KIND of exciting information it was. A selfie was reportedly taken that accidentally also showed the dispatch screen. Id spend some time processing how you felt and trying to learn to take accountability and personal responsibility for this (and seriously its something thats really uncomfortable and hard for everyone but it helps so much). 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. This is incredibly condescending. nsx advanced load balancer documentation; . You unpromptedly wrote a message to the friend. 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. Thanks for answering! Sometimes people screw up and they still really need their jobs. Everyone messes up. Thats a horrendously burdensome thing to ask! If *you* got that carried away, you cant guarantee that she wont, either. I hope youre able to learn and move on from this, OP. Except that when the reference checker asks if the candidate is eligible for re-hire (for the position they left or any other position) should the opportunity present itself, the response will be no. and the agency lost control of the information. Letting stuff out early could mean that goes off with a whimper instead of a bang and might be a financial difference in driving extra purchases for that initial season, and the implication of The Things staying power if it doesnt do well enough during that time.
How to Handle the Dreaded 'Reply All Moment' - New York Times Some offenses are serious enough that a single incident is enough to fire someone. Before someone decides to do that, I encourage them to get legal representation. It wasnt particularly kind to her friend, either. because your performance / screw-up affects them, or because they feel they are being compared to you and want to put the record straight to defend themselves), or out of a sense that they have an obligation to report (whether or not they actually do). A senior UK diplomat has resigned over the matter. Employees who violate their companies' email policies can face penalties ranging from disciplinary action to termination. Those kinds of disclosures often rise to the level of immediate termination, which is what happened, here. And Im not saying it was fair or unfair or whether your previous employer made the right call. 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. But even if there is no danger, an obligation to report is just that. Thats a flat out easy to uncover lie. 1) Slack vs text: doesnt matter. about your coworker reporting you, betrayed and hard done by, is the way your employer feels about you.
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