Maybe the information was a big deal to the agency but not externally (say getting a big grant funded), but if it was something that was legitimately important news, her friend would have been at least a little torn between loyalty to her friend and loyalty to her job. If the friend had blabbed, shed have been fired, anyway, even without confiding in the senior employee. Wait, what the friend is a *journalist*?. You would never want someone to find out from the news media that they no longer have a job, for example. 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. Yep. OP, Im sure in your excitement you truly didnt think there was anything wrong with telling your friend, someone you trust implicitly to remain discreet. Any of our PR folks would be immediately fired. I mean, yeah, absolutely! I minored in journalism and this attitude is why I never worked in the industry. So, you just caused a data breach, by CCing the wrong person in an I dont recall that Lily Rowan ever had a job. Identify the cause of the information leak. The joker on the other hand was running off at the mouth. A recent Harvard Business Review article indicated widespread use in the workplace, with over one third of the US . What probably really hurt the OPs case was that the friend is a journalist. You didn't accidentally email the material to yourself, you did it on purpose. (Obviously it would have been best not to give her journalist friend the info to begin with.) 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? Then whenever you send a message, you'll be given an option to "Cancel" at the top of the message before it's sent. You simply let the sender know you've received it by accident, then they can rectify their mistake and you can delete the email. An example: I am very sure they didnt want to fire him. Before I hired you, Id want to know you were familiar with and in agreement with our ethical code, which talks a lot about protecting our clients. Lack of impulse control. And the young comment. The anger I hold for my coworker is something I will deal with over time. One of my favorite shows had a plotline about a sibling not liking someone not breaking doctor confidentiality. Taking full responsibility isnt just the better moral choice, its the more effective one. I have a friend whose mother did work for an intelligence agency during WW2. I sent confidential documents to someone by accident via email - Google 1) Broke a rule Let me be clear she did not leak it. LW, please, please look hard at what happened and how you can promise yourself first of all that this was the last time. She got paid to pose as Roeders* mistress, once. OP, I join Alison in wishing you the very best of luck! They may very well have not had the option to give you a second chance, whether you wanted to or not. Yes of course it feels bad that you were fired. Know your workplace rights: New laws protect employees during - NBC12 Challenge them directly and be sure that when they say it's okay to start at 9.30am, make sure they actually mean it, or don't do it. (the confessional? Has 90% of ice around Antarctica disappeared in less than a decade? There could be a situation where it might be the journalists job to share the information LW thought they were telling to just a friend. This is so true. Or, she just needs to buy a journal and write the good news, and her feelings about same, down and go on with her job. I could have just sent the report and most likely no one would have ever known, but it would have been a violation of company policy. They fell prey to the Its just a quick peek and it wont hurt anybody fallacy. Thanks for answering! It was bananas. (Obviously dont tell any potential employer that but its my personal opinion). She shared it with a friend. In some cases, there can even be criminal charges for knowingly releasing certain information. You've learned from this mistake and had no malicious intent. Trying to understand how to get this basic Fourier Series, Linear regulator thermal information missing in datasheet. I agree. Point isnt that OP doesnt have a right to feel what OP feelsif OP has a sick, gut-punch feeling, thats the truth of how OP is feeling. Im glad that youve had time to think about it and can own the mistake, thats the most important part when we mess up. What happens when someone sees that message over her shoulder? Ive only had a very general idea of what my husband does since 2002, because he cant tell me. My (unclear) point is that there are some options for OP that extend beyond you can never share anything before its public with anyone ever and completely change career tracks.. She screwed up, and they fired her because thats what she deserved. 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. Never mind firing for leaks, they dont even hire people who appear to have poor judgement about confidential information. They might tell superiors accidentally, out of frustration (e.g. Later when I moved on, it became my absolute best interview topic when asked about a mistake and how I handled it. Either way, if you commit an offense, its best to never go with its not that big of a deal anyways. Owning up to your mistakes at the right time is hard and the natural instinct to defend yourself is strong, but ultimately thats the best thing to do and garners respect. If we think about this, not only did she trust her journalist friend, she trusted her coworker not to tell anyone either. Im just explaining that the information was likely a non-public record and not a confidential record. If the policy says people who tell information to non authorized individuals must be fired they could have been fired for not firing you. If I had an employee that did this, Id expect them to be mortified and I would expect to hear how seriously they were going to take embargoes from here on out, and the LWs letter and response are almost the exact opposite. Sorry, Im tired and I think that metaphor got away from me. Thats also real life. But you should try to understand how this happened (why that friend? Exactly this. 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. (Most companies that use these kinds of scanners dont let employees know. But even if there is no danger, an obligation to report is just that. 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? Fired. Not so here because what she did was wrong, just not quite as bad as the misunderstood version. If you cant maintain confidentiality, you can work elsewhere. JustAnswer is a public forum and questions and responses are not private or confidential or protected by the attorney-client privilege. Moving forward, the best way to handle it is be honest. Pro tip: when working in mental health residential treatment, do not have clients write your staff logs. Im now turning my head sideways and re-reading/rethinking. An employee who doesn't know about a policy important enough to fire someone over is just a ticking time bomb to an employer. 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. And maybe you should go next week, because the slots love you and you always win. RIGHT NOW it is totally privileged information and it needs to be treated that way. Theres no context where calling a stranger honey doesnt feel condescending (whether someone intends it to or not!). The OPs comment here didnt seem defensive to me at all, and its definitely understandable that the letter was written in the heat of the moment. My boss and I had a very serious conversation about it, and I think the only reason I was not fired was that I immediately and unequivocally took responsibility. 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. Practically everything I do in my job is confidential to some degree. If you can trust someone, you can trust them, journalist or not. The fact that the LW just couldnt resist sharing this tidbit should have been a red flag that maybe her friend couldnt, either. 2. I hope you get past this, it may bar you from future government work, but not other placed hopefully if you follow Alisons advice and really own up to the mistake. Its going to be a hurdle. Same applies here as you stated. Was the friend a journalist, or is there something else that would explain why she said that? The reply: Yes, the friend I texted happened to be a journalist but doesnt cover the area that I was working in. The fact that her co-worker actually followed the rules of her employer does NOT make her a rat. and the agency lost control of the information. This includes understanding what you did wrong and explaining how you might have approached this in future (hint: ask boss, transfer via encrypted USB if necessary and allowed. Once its out, you have no control over it. 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. Though there are a few that would be exciting. The type of sanctions that Contract Killer is talking about would only apply to confidential records, not non-public records. Is a HIPAA Violation Grounds for Termination? - HIPAA Journal Having worked in communications and journalism for the past 15 years, I think this ishonestly really bad. A person who is aware of a breach is required to report it. I once interviewed someone with a great resume but had switched specialties within the field. (Presumably easier to get caught via company comms but doesnt make the leak any different imo). Oof this is so condescending! The mistake was breaking company policy not that they announced to a coworker they broke company policy.. Yes. 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? Employee Consequences for Breach of Confidentiality Im sure the OP will find a new job. You cant even take a look at *your own* records if you are also a patient at the medical facility. Some offenses are serious enough that a single incident is enough to fire someone. I would have ratted you out too. And while you felt mad at coworker, really youre mad at yourself. exciting! I am not falling on the sword or putting my job on the line for a coworker. My guess is that the LW was fired for a first offense because they refused to take responsibility for their breach. This was more or less what I was thinking. If we receive confidential information, there are very specific and non-flexible procedures we have to follow to handle those documents/information. 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. +1000. ! but you just cant. Good luck! I always assumed the phrase meant no feelings are incorrect, and it made a lot less sense than the way youve laid it out! A while back I had a coworker/friend who created a memo, for our company A, all based on publicly available information, along with suggestions and comments by the coworker. Messages like this can simply be ignored and deleted. I was fired from a job and when I started interviewing for following ones, I kept trying to spin it and it did not work at it. The type of violation you are talking about normally only applies to confidential (shall close) records and not non-public (may close) records. Ive seen many workplaces that dont spend an amount of time discussing confidentiality that is commensurate with its importance, or that dont go into specifics about when it is and isnt ok to tell somebody something you heard at work, and a general statement tends not to hold up to the in-the-moment excitement of oooooh I know THING about CELEBRITY! or whatever. Is this the appropriate place to bring up Anthony Scaramucci not even uttering the phrase off-the-record during his bizarre call to Ryan Lizza and then being upset when his words were published? But OP gets to choose what they think the coworkers motivations may have been. No, no, no, no, no. The letter makes it look like you only told one person out of turn, but actually you told two people. Ah, no, there definitely was a record if there was any form of written communication at all about the information. In government, keep this confidential almost always means never share ever on pain of serious legal sanctions.. Thats a big deal. When they call for a reference, many employers will absolutely say if you were fired or laid off, and they will give detailed references. reading. Both of those would merit a reprimand, separately or together, but somehow in the telling it got turned into that the latter happened with the former as the method. There is no other guarantee, and yet people count on it. can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information And Im happy to report that I have never shared that news (still remember it bcs this was so hard that first time!). In a roundabout way, they somewhat did you a kindness by firing you. Theres no such thing as blind-siding once youve committed an infraction and people have to act on it. My boss wanted to press charges, but his business partner didnt, so they just fired him. They also rely on constant prompting that can give even the most diligent employees click fatigue after a while. Sharing HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL info with a JOURNALIST? I would push back slightly on the leak to press part. They did exactly the right thing to you. Here's how you fix that horrible email blunder on the job - New York Post 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. Was alphabet city watching his ass, no idea. 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. On the weekend, I was sending a personal email to a friend. I DEFinitely sometimes shared those tidbits with friends and family who were big tiger/hippo/etc fans. A non-disclosure agreement (often referred to as a confidentiality agreement), is a legally-binding contract which governs the sharing of information between people or organizations and sets limits on the use of the information. Interpretations, justifications, conceptualizations can also be wrong, surely. 7 Ways Your E-mail Can Get You Fired - US News & World Report Even if healthcare providers and business associates are compliant to HIPAA Standards, there is always a possibility of unintentional or accidental disclosure of Protected Health Information (PHI). The consequences are serious and could have legal implications if youre representing a government or publicly traded company. But if youre singling people out, or only using it in the context of chastising someone, then yeah, for sure condescending and rude. That's why employers ask employees to sign technology use policies, as it appears yours has - to ensure the employee is aware of policy. I agree, but its been called out and I dont want to derail on it. In other words, dont assume the information only went to the person you sent it to. It may be that the decision is made and it is just a matter of time before you are gone. The 2nd chance is just too much risk as far as theyre concerned. 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. But thats not what happened here. But at the end of the day, Alison is right. Ive represented or advised friends, friends of friends and the occasional famous person, and nobody else knows anything about it nor will they ever. Some of the stuff I handle is really interesting logistically and historically but I just do not have the right to get carried away and share it. 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? Is there a single-word adjective for "having exceptionally strong moral principles"? You did wrong, fessed up, and got fired anyway. Its always easier, at least to me, to close your mouth than open it. If you want to work in comms, you need to be crystal clear that the TIMING of disclosure is a crucial issue. As a sidenote: *Even if* you think it *wasnt* a big deal, when you get hauled into the boss office and told it. 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. Shes assuming the friend has more self-control than she does, which is precarious at best. Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been. > On Monday, I was called into a fact-finding meeting with HR. That all strikes me as stuff someone quite young and without strong professional and personal boundaries acts. 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! Lose that part of the defense completely, OP. Yep. "Compose the email, and only then go back and enter the address (es)," he says. So if shes genuinely surprised at this outcome, it stands to reason that its new for her, which strongly implies she just hasnt been working very long, which implies youth. I do have to wonder if the hospital failed to educate its employees on how freaking serious that kind of breach was, And also failed to inform them that the system tracks who looks up a particular patients record. 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. I encourage you to get involved with PRSA. how do employers know if you're answering "have you ever been fired" honestly? 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. (Drunk driving is an extreme example of this. Yes! For a market where most of this stuff lives in a big way for one season, and then only has some ongoing staying power? She can still apply to jobs in her field, and even in the fields you noted, shell just have to be very clear in interviews that she understands why she was fired from this job and how shell work to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. Sharing HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL info. I tell the character and imagine their response, and the urge to share subsides. Wouldn't employers just throw my application to the bin once I declare I have been dismissed for gross misconduct? I work for a state government agency and FOIA is a really big deal. Im not sure what the best way is to address this, but were trying! how do I explain being fired for sharing confidential info with a 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. Which is not how I would handle things now, but I was a lot younger and in a bad place in my personal life, so. My employer lost a lawsuit where they had been sued for violating open records and meetings laws. 2. We go through training every 6 months, that we should NOT to tell the coworker or customer that we will need to report them. 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. Accidental disclosure is the unintentional release or sharing of sensitive information. Email Mistakes at Work: How to Survive Them - CBS News 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. Thats the very last reporting step for something illegal/dangerous. Thats why they told you the information was confidential. When I read the letter, it struck me that the VERY EXCITING nature of the news was more of a reason NOT to share it. It pretty much doesnt matter what field you are in the higher up you go the more likely you are to be privy to information that you MUST NOT share no matter how excited you may be. @MarkAmery OP said themselves that what they sent was 'client confidential information' but ruled out trade secrets/IP being involved. You could say that, but itd be a lie, which would be an automatic dealbreaker for many potential employers, and theres no guarantee that the previous employer would keep the cause for firing secret. I did not get fired for the offense, but I genuinely learned a great deal from the experience and it changed the entire way I interacted with clients, for the better. People working on campaigns get to be privy to all sorts of information that is not intended to be public. No work friendship is worth putting my familys financial security on the line. It also protects the coworker from any immediate threats or retribution by LW. But the other person she spoke to, her coworker, told others, and somehow that message (of who and how she leaked it) got twisted into something much worse. Better to say in a single instance of poor judgment I let a piece of information get outside of the company to one person which I immediately knew was a mistake and I notified someone in my company. Am I likely to be rehired after being fired for misconduct? Definitely anti-climactic to actually know at this point! As others mentioned, the breach is possibly a fire on first offense potential, but since they fired you after investigating slack that makes me wonder if you had too casual and friendly of chats with the journalists whose job it was for you to talk with.