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ugh, no if you cant tell them the actual news, dont tease it. My boss wanted to press charges, but his business partner didnt, so they just fired him. And Im happy to report that I have never shared that news (still remember it bcs this was so hard that first time!). We can think things without saying them out loud. Ive been actively observing how my more senior colleagues handle that sort of thing (we need written permission to share information about clients with people connected to their situation, and knowing how to answer questions from people who arent authorised to be told something but who are definitely going to ask is covered in training). Journalists seek out and report information thats their job. On other occasions, you might accidentally receive a confidential email with information meant for one person (or a few people) you know. If you told, you breached confidentiality, no matter what the other people did. Yup. 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). 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. It made it seem like some part of OP still feels hard done by, rather than really getting it. e.g. 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. And most of the real socialising happened at house parties and dinner parties, not restaurants or bars. Including their reputation being damaged. Or they might have a zero-tolerance policy for leaks as a deterrent. It wasnt particularly kind to her friend, either. Ive had the occasional day when Ive really wanted to tell someone I met X today! Those questioners would hammer her on this. The HIPAA Rules require all accidental HIPAA violations, security incidents, and breaches of unsecured PHI to be reported to the covered entity within 60 days of discovery - although the covered entity should be notified as soon as possible and notification should not be unnecessarily delayed. I think youd be in trouble for sharing that kind of information over the phone, regardless of who he was talking to. And sometimes at shows they dont identify themselves as press immediately. I felt as defensive and upset as you. Why are Suriname, Belize, and Guinea-Bissau classified as "Small Island Developing States"? The fact that you were surprised and angry (to the point of calling her a rat, essentially) speaks to the fact that you actually do NOT know who you can expect to keep things secret, at least not as well as you think. should I tell my coworker about our colleagues criminal record, I deeply regret joining my companys leadership program, and more, my company is cutting my overworked teams pay as punishment for mistakes. As Alison said, its a lot like DUI; even if no one gets hurt, theres a reason we shouldnt take those risks. Unfortunately accepting responsibility doesnt always work in some workplaces, it just digs your hole. If OP had confessed to their manager, it would make sense for the manager to say, I have to report this to such-and-such, but the coworker was right not to warn OP. I reminded him that anything sent in our work email is subject to FOIA and not really completely private from our employer, so if he was going to continue to work against the plan, use personal email. I am not falling on the sword or putting my job on the line for a coworker. 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 dont know if the OP explicitly said off the record, but its not like journalists dont handle that all the time when people do.). In my first job out of college in the insurance industry I reinstated someones coverage without verifying that they had had no claims in the lapsed period they immediately called claims and filed a $40,000 claim. Its also important to note that OP called it non-public and Alison was the person who called it confidential. They fell prey to the Its just a quick peek and it wont hurt anybody fallacy. I empathize, having both been in government service where the people can let the boundaries get too loose and, separately, had a career-breaking moment in a toxic workplace. 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. LW, please, please look hard at what happened and how you can promise yourself first of all that this was the last time. It was super not personal, it was just a situation were second chances were not given, period. Also, legally email addresses themselves dont typically count as 'personal information' as they are contact addresses and are treated in similar ways to phone numbers legally, as opposed to, say, identifying information like full name, DOB and home address all in one document. OP, its worth examining whether trying to assuage your guilt by sharing this with your mentor, rather than with some outside person who doesnt touch on your industry, was a version of getting post-mortem permission. The LW actually had a responsibility to keep the info confidential, and the friend doesnt. The fact that her co-worker actually followed the rules of her employer does NOT make her a rat. Im sure they thought she was a fruit cake. I mean, mayyyyyybe but the OP put the coworker in a really uncomfortable position here, and while Im sure she didnt mean to, thats what she did. Unfortunately these days a lot of the regulators are crooked and will never do anything about problems without a lot of public pressure (and sometimes not even then). The best solution for avoiding misdirected email altogether is through human layer security. It doesnt matter that its a good friend of yours who happens to be a journalist shes a journalist, and her JOB is to tell people about things she finds out about. So to summarize, while an individual in your circumstance can be fired for the accidental dissemination of confidential employment information, their employer cannot press criminal charges against them, both because a private entity lacks the authority to make that decision and more fundamentally because the accidental dissemination of . 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. It would have been better if she had told you first that she was going to tell someone What OP did was incredibly serious and, as happened, a fireable offense. You said it yourself that you were working on client confidential information, and sent it to your personal mailbox. Or that might not make a difference on how its interpreted. There are people who would refuse to acknowledge their error and go about their lives being bitter and blaming others. OP: A supervisor discovers that an employee has recently downloaded thousands of pages of confidential Company billing and financial information, and e-mailed it to her personal e-mail address. I dont know if shell do it again, but Im certainly not going to take the risk on someone who doesnt even seem to be sorry. If that puts it in perspective. It helps you to catch context-driven mistakes such as adding the wrong recipient, attaching the wrong file, or forgetting to use Bcc instead of cc. Its unfortunate that LW lost her job over it but the coworker isnt to blame for LWs decision to disclose information they werent supposed to. You might not immediately get the same job you had before and might have to accept something more junior but be clear in your communications and you'll get there. Plus, I think part of it was that it was exciting BECAUSE it was secret, and now its apparently common knowledge. Like I said, very strange but its worked for me. 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.. Sometimes its because someone could obtain an unfair benefit from early access to what will later become public information (e.g., think analogous to insider trading). Id like to know what LW said at the two meetings they gave her before firing her. 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? While that obviously wasnt the result Id have wanted, I learned an important lesson about confidentiality, and its not a mistake Ill ever repeat.. She knew about a leak and didnt say anything, who knows what else she is helping to hide, My boss, in a well meaning way and to correct some weird barriers previously put in place by the person before him, told me openly that if Big Boss [aka the owner] asks you anything, just answer him, its all good, you dont need to filter things through me or anything., And I just tilted my head and laughed at him saying Even if you told me differently, I would tell him whatever he wants to know. Which given our relationship he just giggled and responded with of course and thats the way it should be.. 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. And it is so hard! Yeah, I wish the mentor had walked the LW directly to the boss to discuss this openly. There are offenses, especially regarding releasing items, that would be serious enough to warrant immediate dismissal. How to you ensure you're aware of it, and following it? Where the investigation uncovers evidence of divulging confidential information, then the employer should take formal action. Has 90% of ice around Antarctica disappeared in less than a decade? The org needed to know in order to assess potential damage and limit future opportunities. (I thought Al Frankens apology to the fellow entertainer was pretty good, actually. Perhaps the email was intended for a client in which case the clients data is at risk and the sender has inadvertently committed a data leak. Since you touched on it in your follow-up, OP, dont look at this as not getting a second chance. You are its just going to happen at another organization. I can see a manager getting pressure from the top to reduce leaks choosing to fire someone over even a minor leak. Just keep it to yourself or youll get fired. And thatsnot great? It was bananas. Her best chance of moving forward and looking as good as possible in an interview is to accept full responsibility and say that she made a mistake and learned from it. Between that and having family members who have been laid off and lost access to their work account that they used for personal use as well, I have learned to keep work and personal email accounts separate. Its not their call. Besides the stuff that has already been discussed upthread like potential for insider trading, unfair advantage in things like competing for federal contracts or grants, or derailing a communications strategy, one of the biggest reasons to keep work information private is due to counterintelligence concerns. The company I work for uses keyloggers and text scanners on our computers to catch these kinds of issues. This is how old I am. He had a fairly high security clearance and was stationed at NORAD for a time. MUCH stronger. Thanks for sharing all of this. The details dont really matter. You undertook those actions while working for (1) A Large Governmental Organization, who is answerable to Congress and to the general public for the actions undertaken by their employees, in the (2) Communications department, which is a department where employees will specifically, systematically, regularly be exposed to confidential information that should be kept confidential until such time as it is explicitly said to be something that can be shared publically. All this said, I think Alisons approach is the best one when youre applying for jobs. Please keep us updated and let us know how things work out for you. Now I just leave and cry and deal with the long-term consequences, like never moving up. This seems unnecessarily condescending, and I dont think the LW sounds defensive here at all. The emotion is neutral; its what you do with it that counts. I stopped when my boss had a stern talk with me about it, but also because I noticed that I was getting the bad news later, too (other people at my level were told about layoffs the night before, I was told shortly before the companywide announcement) and I realized I was getting a reputation as someone who could not be trusted to keep my mouth shut. They are pretty free with stating exactly why someone was fired. 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. Monitoring should not be excessive and the employee must know what will and won't be caught, for example, whether personal emails will be read. Hopefully there still something to be said for that! The awareness that anything sent in your work email is subject to FOIA and open records requests really varies. No matter how small the company, they trust you to safeguard the data, and you didnt do that. Our newspapers report quite frequently on gossip of whats happening behind the scenes. Its ridiculous how much a speculator can get from very little information, and this is why keeping anything secret until it is announced is important. Cut to a couple hours later, and Im called into my bosss office because she has heard that I leaked this information to a SLACK CHANNEL FULL OF JOURNALISTS. Thats a big deal. This reminds me of the story of the Apple employee who left a prototype iPhone in a bar by mistake, before the official release. ), You also werent fired for technically breaking a rule. You were fired for actually breaking a rule, and a serious one. Its going to be a hurdle. If it was something that was a big deal to LW but not huge news externally, yeah, its not a thing. Medical too. 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. I dont even share work release information (good or bad) early with my spouse. Lack of rigor. On Monday, I was called into a fact-finding meeting with HR. They take information security and confidentiality so seriously that they make delivery people who come to the offices sign an NDA just in case they were in the elevator with Sam Jackson. Heres another the state Supreme Court will probably make a decision on voting district gerrymandering soon., (This one happened to me, and was probably the most exciting confidential information I got access to my desk was close enough to the GIS employees that I could see the increased traffic out of their area and infer that Something was Happening. Agreed, except for this: a journalist, who by profession is at risk for leaking said confidential information. People find new jobs after being fired all the time. It would have been nice- but Im sure the coworker was also pooping masonry. It may be that the decision is made and it is just a matter of time before you are gone. JustAnswer is a public forum and questions and responses are not private or confidential or protected by the attorney-client privilege. 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. Having a mentor at a different organization in a similar role might be a good idea for the future. When we think about misdirected email, we often put ourselves in the shoes of the sender. If you own your mistake, meditate on it, learn from it, and learn to tell the story of how you learned from it, then you might be able to get another job in the communications industry working for a company that does not handle sensitive client data, or in another industry where there are no potential confidentiality issues with your job. This is an actual security headache/nightmare for my government department as its so common for people to go out to lunch and start discussing what theyre working on while eating. I see a lot of people saying that its always wrong to share confidential information with the press, and thats not necessarily true. And even now you sound defensive. LW I encourage you to ask yourself why you wrote this: Your actions showed you were not trustworthy with confidential information. That makes the violation much worse. It all comes down to the nature of the data you are handling. +100. Its so very context and field dependent. And Im not saying it was fair or unfair or whether your previous employer made the right call. Because she knows other journalists who do cover your area and one of them just might need a serious break right when she knows this information. 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! First coworker punched second coworker. "Compose the email, and only then go back and enter the address (es)," he says. Likewise, they would have fired you anyways regardless because they now feel that they cannot trust you with information. Was alphabet city watching his ass, no idea. Its good to hear from you! 100%? But at the end of the day, the reputational risk to my company, versus the relatively low-level risk of having to replace someone entry-level, was just too great to bear. 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. Thank you for explaining this! I understand your irritation with your former coworker. Sometimes I need to talk about what Ive heard or am excited about something I did which made a significant improvement to someones life, but I have to talk about that in a way that doesnt risk identifying the person at all. I was trying to disagree with the idea that it puts journalists in a terrible position to receive off-the-record info, not that it would ameliorate the employers concern.