While it's not always easy to identify the cause for leakage of information, it's important to try to find the security vulnerabilities that make your information less secure. Well, you certainly can do that, but its one hell of a risk, and a continuation of poor ethics. 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. Some offenses are serious enough that a single incident is enough to fire someone. This may have been part of why the manager took the steps she did. [important person 1] and [important person 2] are coming to my office for a press conference. 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? I remember the line of people walked out the door for looking at OJ Simpsons records when he was arrested. journalists dont leak information, unless its something confidential about their own employers. I think youd be in trouble for sharing that kind of information over the phone, regardless of who he was talking 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. It was bad. Yeah, I once got fired and I have always framed it as being fired for one thing I said in a meeting, but the truth is, I really got fired for not apologizing for saying the one thing. MUCH stronger. Compare someone in law enforcement happening to find out the (secret) address and phone number of their friend-groups favorite celebrity, or finding the contact information for the cutie in the convertible, after their roommate catches the license plate numberand sharing. Dont reveal confidential information and fully own up to your shit are good lessons. I dont know whether you meant it this way, but the co-worker is not untrustworthy for reporting this. This reminds me of the story of the Apple employee who left a prototype iPhone in a bar by mistake, before the official release. Received someone elses confidential email? To be fair Jules, I was making the assumption that it had been, in effect, sexual assault, which may not have been the case. Ah! Yes you can. Honestly, I got the impression that the writer was on the younger end, just in their self-reported actions and reactions. So in regards to the tell an imaginary friend idea, I have also: openly disclosed highly confidential information to a) my cats and b) Jesus. I found out accidentally.) 3) The recipient was a journalist thats super relevant, even if its not in their area My only other advice is to consider if there were any conversations on slack that were inappropriate. I am very, very lucky. And even now you sound defensive. I replaced someone who had embezzled from the (small) company. There are different levels of confidentiality for different circumstances. For example, a lot of insider trading is based on the TIMING of someone finding out information. While I was working there, I started dating an entertainment journalist who then covered some Marvel projects, and there were definitely things that happened at work which I did not share with him because of my NDA. Of course, it wasnt your mistake and youre under no legal obligation to do anything at all. Those usually come out the morning of the speech. 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. I have been fired for a dumb mistake. Which means have to vet things like your friend is a journalist, but doesnt cover your area? Shell lose credibility in the hiring process, and even if she did slip through and get hired, its automatically grounds for a dismissal if the truth ever came to light (even in Canada, where it is harder to let people go from roles than in most of the US states). Find somewhere else to tell it in order to release the steam valve. I thoughtlessly mentioned an embargoed announcement to a longtime friend in journalism before it was public. While they may not state why someone was fired, Ive found it pretty common to state that someone was fired (or laid off etc) and if the person is eligible for rehire. I work within the tech/analytics field. Learn how to protect your investment management firm through intelligent email DLP. Nah. Accidental disclosure of PHI includes sending an email to the wrong recipient and an employee accidentally viewing a patient's report, which leads to an . "You can call or text and say, 'Call me, you were sent the wrong information.' " She recalls one time when a co-worker accidentally sent an email calling a client a "tough cookie" to the. If there was no record, then there is no possible sanction under FOIA or sunshine law (because that only pertains to records). 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. Basically, I was fired for X mistake. 27 April 2021. Ive had to fire someone in a one-strike situation for what I genuinely believe was an honest mistake because it was too big a risk to keep that person on staff going forward. We all make stupid mistakes. I used to work in a one-industry town. The company would have thought everything was hunky dory, but they would have employee on staff who did not understand confidentially requirements. That is exactly what could have happened to her government agency with the info that she leaked in the first place. While most organisations take measures to prevent and protect against external cyber-attacks, many don't protect themselves against accidental leaks by their internal staff. 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. They thought it was funny and shared it with a couple more. They also rely on constant prompting that can give even the most diligent employees click fatigue after a while. I think she was trying to lessen some of the guilt she felt, but really she should have just sat with that feeling and let it fuel her resolve to never share confidential info with an outside party again. Yeah, I wish the mentor had walked the LW directly to the boss to discuss this openly. I was often privy to non-public information because I was designing media campaigns around them. And even more so in ballistic missile submarines! Dang! We cannot do our job with our leaders if they cannot trust us. Yeah, we dont want to go down the road if encouraging the OP to continue acting unethically that will ensure she stays unemployed. This is to prevent LW from trying to destroy any evidence. But at that very moment, I was in a personal email back-and-forth with another female coworker. "It is likely not private if the employee used the employer . 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. 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. But I dont think this applies in any case since it was on her personal cell. That said, I am curious if theres other context that explains why they fired you for a first offense without warning you first. This comment comes across as quite clueless I work for a government entity where nonpublic information often affects peoples day-to-day lives and pocketbooks and people put a lot of money (lobbying) into knowing whats happening. We let him go for incredibly poor judgmentlike putting me as a reference, for example.. Even though he loves the MCU and would have enjoyed the anecdotes. Other agencies will provide title and dates, and whether you are eligible for rehire. I dont want to beat up on the LW, but I do think they fundamentally need to understand that the loss of trust made it impossible for the agency to give you a second chance in this position. Because a) LW broke confidentiality. 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. I think she got paid in sandwiches and the knowledge she was the only woman to neck with Nero Wolfe, though. However, were only human. Was this alone enough to be fired, or is there a history? You made a mistake. It doesnt matter if your friend is a journalist or not; thats a total red herring. Dec. 17, 2009 -- You probably don't think twice about sending personal messages through your work e-mail. The emphasis on how not harmful the infraction was is totally hurting your case, OP. The best case scenario is former company only verifies employment. She would ask every rep if they were using TEAPOT o service accounts, and would proudly exclaim, My daughter built TEAPOT! She thought she was connecting with the people who helped her. Because I can almost guarantee that your reputation in that organization would never recover, even if you had remained employed. So have a lot of other people who have managed to find other jobs. Really? Heres what to do. Agreed. LW, I work under some pretty hefty NDAs (currently, Im working on a project where the security protocols themselves are considered to be non-shareable with anyone who doesnt have a business need for them and hasnt also signed an NDA. As the other commenter noted, this could have been a very serious offence considering you were working for the government. There are, unfortunately, many things I am doomed to not know even though I would really like to find out. It can take down evil people who mean to do others harm.