can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information

It was a big enough thing that they gave you a 1st chance. And if we do, well tell them not to tell anyone.. She was an employee of the agency, who shared it with the journalist. And especially in the field youre in, leaks are a big deal, and ESPECIALLY leaks to a member of the press. Heres what to do. Ive represented or advised friends, friends of friends and the occasional famous person, and nobody else knows anything about it nor will they ever. He was very good about keeping track of his boundaries, and we got very used to finding ways of being politely interested in how his work was going for him without putting pressure on him about the details. 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. Yes, own it. Re-evaluating my original comment, Id still consider lying if attempts to explain the firing in interviews end up in disaster. how do I tell employers I was fired for a video I put on YouTube? Or at least, I can. Unfortunately there are certain positions where you dont get a second chance when the error knowingly breaking a rule. If you open a phishing email and it results in your company's confidential information being compromised, your employer may fire you. OP, take a deep breath. Really? Once you told your coworker, you dragged her out there on the plank with you. Its no worse than our organization doesnt protect classified information no matter how badly an employee disregards policies. They know it happens. Animaniactoo is right that folks who have to manage confidential information begin to cultivate the skill of sharing without making an unauthorized disclosure. Instead, youre better off with something like, The truth is, I was fired. The coworker did nothing wrong that we can see from the letter. Theres no context where calling a stranger honey doesnt feel condescending (whether someone intends it to or not!). PRSA is an excellent suggestion! I had the same thoughtthat was very unwise. Also, am I even allowed to bring up the fact that someone ratted me out? LW is undisciplined and has a big mouth. Why is it so hard for people to just keep their (figurative) mouth shut? 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. That functions differently from confidential information in government sectors and sounds closer to your examples in your original comments, but it would still be a really bad idea to share that information. But you should try to understand how this happened (why that friend? When you are genuinely accept the error, analyze why you made it and address how to alter yourself to not be vulnerable to this kind of mistake again, it will naturally come across when you talk about it in interviews because youll be genuine and not trying to find a strategic angle and that genuine quality will land well with other mature professionals who have made their own mistakes. 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. So while the OP can feel what the OP feels, the sooner she can get rid of any hostile feelings about the coworker, the better it will be for the OP. If you told, you breached confidentiality, no matter what the other people did. Acidity of alcohols and basicity of amines, Using indicator constraint with two variables. Thank you. The mistake was breaking company policy not that they announced to a coworker they broke company policy. Im literally barred by policy from opening up my own files unless theres a work related reason I could lay out to do so. 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. It made it seem like some part of OP still feels hard done by, rather than really getting it. how did HR and OPs boss come to the conclusion that this information was spread through Slack (!) The anger I hold for my coworker is something I will deal with over time. Shes never even heard any of the names of our clients, except for a couple she met once at an adjunct social function. Possible scripting adjustment: I mistakenly shared some non-public information with a friend outside the agency before it was officially released to the public. LW, we are all human. The emotion is neutral; its what you do with it that counts. 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. @bent in my experience most companies view the data leaving their possession as the real concern, anything else is secondary. Policy change that is a big deal to staff that works on it, but very in the weeds for the general public (regulation is going to be changed in a way that is technically important but at most a medium-sized deal), Fairly real examples that would be much bigger deals: I guarantee you that somewhere in the company handbook for the Government Agency where you worked there is a paragraph about the obligations of an employee who learns of a data breach. Why is there a voltage on my HDMI and coaxial cables? And honestly, you broke an embargo for your own company. If you go in there going "my. Fwiw the journalist agreed to destroy the info. When they call for a reference, many employers will absolutely say if you were fired or laid off, and they will give detailed references. That makes the violation much worse. A very long-term employee who did excellent work, as a joke, made up a fake news release that indicated we got the contract. 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. In my job I often get embargoed advance copies of speeches that politicians are going to give they send them out to press to help us start working on getting most of a story written and cleared so we can just drop in a few quotes and crowd reactions and publish the story within 5-10 minutes of the speech ending. They sound far more serious than what happened. And I dont think it helps the OP to say that she doesnt have the right to have feelings of resentment toward the coworker. The client can, of course, prevent such disclosure by refraining from the wrongful conduct. Government tends to operate differently. Finally I decided to own it at the next interview and I got the job. In this situation, I reported myself is simply false, given OPs expectation that her mentor wouldnt pass along what she knew to anyone else. I think it most likely would be very boring, but some stuff like the jobs report a few days early would be very interesting to unscrupulous investors. 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. 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. Accept responsibility for what you did. update: is my future manager a bigoted jerk? Sure, thered be a record in Slack of prior messages. 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. Even though I was only suspended for two weeks, it hurt so, so much. Im going to go see how they reviewed it.). Just wanted to point out that OP said they worked in the government, so while yours might be the public understanding of confidential, it wouldnt apply to anything their job considered confidential. Handling confidential information discreetly is a day to day part of working in communications, particularly for government entities (I say as someone in this field). 1) Broke a rule Coworker would let the other authorities figure that out. Ive been in the position of having the relevant information, and even if its hard, you just cant tell your journalist friends unless youre okay with them using it: its what they do, and its not fair to ask them not to. I was working on some client confidential information on my client issued laptop and I emailed this info to my personal mailbox as I wanted to continue doing work on my personal laptop; I couldn't take my work laptop away whilst on extended leave overseas. 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. Maybe a different (and appropriately mortified) approach from the OP in those meetings would of had a different result or maybe not! but the approach in the letter definitely would have convinced me to let her go if I was on the fence. 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). If she tried to downplay the seriousness of the breach in the meeting (like saying it was a victimless crime) then they may have decided that they couldnt afford to give a second chance. To me, her wrong doesnt justify her mentor going behind her back. She was understandably very uncomfortable with what I did, and we had a very nice conversation about our duties as communication officers, and trust, etc. one last post-script: this person wasnt super good at their job, but was a teammate i worked closely with, and doubt they had been put on a PIP prior to this. They are pretty free with stating exactly why someone was fired. Well its possible your coworker just had it out for you, but it sounds more likely that she genuinely misunderstood or that she understood perfectly but thought leaking info to a journalist friend was serious enough to report and then it was your boss who misunderstood the details. The person is trying to make someone else feel bad about their own transgressions. I work in communications for a large organization and I see this as a trust issue with leadership. I was kinda thinking that an otherwise level headed and calm employee wouldnt punch a colleague unless the other guy had been doing something truly egregious. Theres beating themselves up, but then theres also understanding and feeling properly appalled that they did something really unconscionable. If *you* got that carried away, you cant guarantee that she wont, either. Your employer lost control of this information, even in a very small way, and thats a big deal. I will never not believe the publisher did that intentionally and threw him under the bus. It may be unfair to assume a journalist is cutthroat and would kill for a lead. That said, is there any reason you need to answer these questions? There are no legal ramifications or civil lawsuits at this stage as it wasn't trade secrets or secret IP. The issue of whether HIPAA information can be emailed is complicated. Is it possible to rotate a window 90 degrees if it has the same length and width? Im glad that youve had time to think about it and can own the mistake, thats the most important part when we mess up. This is so true. Agreed, except for this: a journalist, who by profession is at risk for leaking said confidential information. Just a bad situation. You will find another employer who will trust you and will give you that chance to shine for them. Sure but I think its highly unlikely that someone at OPs level would have access to that. I once interviewed someone with a great resume but had switched specialties within the field. I would have ratted you out too. Its also important to note that OP called it non-public and Alison was the person who called it confidential. Yeah, I wish the mentor had walked the LW directly to the boss to discuss this openly. 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. Not me. Are there any reasons why the coworker couldnt be upfront with what had to be done ? When they took the only course of action they could have taken and still kept their job and notified your employer of your actions, you became defensive of your actions. That would likely lead to your manager also getting fired (for not firing you in the first place) and also make your entire department/agency look bad to the public (whod be wondering who else still working there has done something similar without getting fired). The amount that LW trusted that friend is a small fraction of how much the government trusted LW. They would definitely see any mention of confidentiality breach as a huge red flag and drop OP from the hiring process at once. 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. Theres truly no compelling reason to break confidentiality here. OP wasnt a journalist. Unfortunately, a lot of times people mistake the first for the second. It was the wrong thing to do, and Im sorry. The info I released did not in fact cause any problems, but I tremble now because it so easily could have, in even slightly different circumstances. (And yes, the records request would come through the custodian of records, but the point of my second paragraph is that non-public information does not have special protections like confidential information and that the general public has a right to access that information as soon as it is available, and not just when the agency finds it convenient to send out a press release.). Also to prevent someone who might be a bit dangerous, from hurting you. I agree. I arrived in 69. OP has been mature about admitting fault, lets not undermine that by implying it was no big deal. Thats totally true, and when I worked for state government release of confidential information would have been grounds for immediate termination, but Alison is the only one who calls it confidential, OP calls it non-public. However, placing the blame on the coworker for the entire situation, even just in her own head, is likely to come though when she talks about why she was fired.



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