But folks with strong confidentiality duties often dont disclose the confidential parts of the information to their trusted confidants or partners. a. problem then you APOLOGIZE and APOLOGIZE rather than defend yourself. Im also miffed by the fact that the coworker kinda blind sided OP. Though there are a few that would be exciting. Heres the story: I worked for a large government agency, in communications. I had the same thoughtthat was very unwise. The latter looks more like something that could repeat under similar circumstances. Thats what I would do. I think one can be upset at not getting a second chance without feeling necessarily entitled to one. Has 90% of ice around Antarctica disappeared in less than a decade? what did you want to get out of sharing with her? Im a long time reader posting my first ever comment to tell you that this comment is incredibly condescending, unnecessary, and unhelpful. Because I can almost guarantee that your reputation in that organization would never recover, even if you had remained employed. Its not an obligation to confront. Of course, if this happens regularly there is more chance of human error being made so it's always best to use a mailing program. 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. Some things a company wouldnt want you to tell a competitor, but wouldnt mind if you told your spouse. And that wasnt even technically confidential. In a truly dangerous/vital public information sphere there are agency heads/regulators/IG offices/congressional members/even the police depending on the issue that you should contact before going to the press. Oh, thats a risky tack for OP to take if they want to stay in their field. I resent our new hires for setting better work-life boundaries than our company normally has, hairy legs at work, my office sent me a random TV, and more, heres an example of a great cover letter with before and after versions, my employee cant handle even mildly negative feedback, my new coworker is putting fake mistakes in my work so she can tell our boss Im bad at my job, insensitive Diversity Day, how to fire someone who refuses to talk to us, and more, weekend open thread February 25-26, 2023, assistant became abusive when she wasnt invited to a meeting, my coworkers dont check on people who are out sick, and more. If her friend never told anyone it never would have gotten out. can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information If *you* got that carried away, you cant guarantee that she wont, either. Its hard though, and its a skill thats learnt over time. My first thought was of the whole JK Rowling / Robert Galbraith fiasco. Perhaps the way you feel (felt?) Then both OP and Coworker could be out of a job. I work in communications for a large organization and I see this as a trust issue with leadership. And by becoming the must fanatically trustworthy discreet person. Embarrassing or inappropriate communications sent via company email can damage professional credibility, reputations, and careers. A true 100% owning of what you did. Companies (and governments) want to carefully manage the messaging and strategy around information that is released in order to bring the biggest buzz and the best information to the public. Are you being GDPR compliant in your marketing? At the same time, though, its a program the average American would likely never have heard of and would give less than a crap about. Everything from whats going to be on sale for Black Friday, to customer financial data. The coworker is not a rat or at fault here. The only thing an employer may not do is make employment decisions based upon you being a member of a protected class. (And even then, the existence of the record has to be disclosed even if the actual record is not disclosed. Preventing email data loss in Microsoft 365. This incident was a huge violation of trust. 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. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. What am I doing wrong here in the PlotLegends specification? When we accidentally receive a confidential email from people outside our own organisations, things are a little trickier. Ferry carrying 183 people catches fire in the English - Daily Mail Im not feeding a narrative, Im expressing my opinion. I wouldnt be surprised if there was a state or federal regulation that she violated by sharing that information. Calling this victimless shows OP still doesnt have insight into their behavior. Yes and thats the consequence they now have to live with. And if I tell anyone, including a coworker ,that I processed said claim, my butt could very well get in a lot of trouble. I agree that its ok to be upset with people, even if its irrational or illogical, as long as we ultimately let it go and refrain from mistreating someone because of our illogical emotional response. 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. I think its also something to do with the fact that if you tell a journalist something newsworthy, youre not just talking, youre offering a thing of (potential) value, which is an entirely different action from sharing news with a friend. 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). I have news from my job that I cannot share with some coworkers. (It also might be notable that you didnt originally mention that your friend was a journalist until I asked about it which makes me think youre underestimating how much that matters.). My late dad worked for a government defence research agency for most of his career. In this case you will get a second chance it will just be with another employer. Its like pain (heck, it IS pain); its telling you something important. My employer lost a lawsuit where they had been sued for violating open records and meetings laws. If someone preempts that, theyre not happy about it generally. (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.). It simply means that your employees are not to disclose proprietary information or data about your company to another person without your consent. Its no fun to be fired. 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. Having a natural, human reaction doesnt mean shes in the wrong field. Removed a long string of comments about the condescension in the honey remark. And that doesnt even take into account that I could be prosecuted for divulging any private information. A little time isn't unreasonable. Back in the dinosaur era (early 80s) the directors secretary was the only one tasked with typing up yearly evaluations on high-level staff. 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. Im sorry this happened to you OP, yeah, in communications at nearly any company this in indeed A VERY BIG DEAL. The ex-coworker reached out to me asking if I could send them a copy of the report so they didnt have to start from scratch and repeat the same work they had already done. Don't be me, is what I'm saying I guess! Im glad that youve had time to think about it and can own the mistake, thats the most important part when we mess up. Right? We cannot do our job with our leaders if they cannot trust us. And calling this victimless isnt a helpful framing; if you do something thats clearly forbidden and could result in real harm, thats a problem even if no harm resulted this time. still cant believe that happened. Im not saying the employer didnt do these things or even if they didnt that its anybodys fault other than LW that this happened, but its a good way to stop situations like this before they happen. I wonder if OP ever got the chance to correct the misunderstanding. I think interviewers will pick up on the equivocation in your language here. You are fortunate to get the opportunity to learn it early when it hasnt resulted in severe long term consequences. Yes. I question that there are no details about your Monday meeting with HR here. You didn't accidentally email the material to yourself, you did it on purpose. 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. Breach of confidentiality can be described as an act of gross misconduct, so deal with issues that arise in a timely manner, in line with your procedures and look at any previous cases to ensure fairness and consistency. Sometimes people screw up and they still really need their jobs. Yeah, thats a good point. I had friends who would jokingly-semi-serious ask me if I was poking around their accounts and such while I was working there and I would deadpan look at them and say your finances and personal information isnt interesting enough to lose my job over and then change the subject. 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. picture of male guinea fowl . That guilt is because you KNEW you did something that was explicitly not allowed, and you went to your coworker in the hopes theyd absolve you of your guilty conscious. 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. When I was a journalist I did not appreciate people giving me tips I couldnt use! 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. But I now realize that I had no business sharing my bad behavior with colleagues it put them into a completely untenable position. Hard disagree. I work in patents, and regularly see information that can definitely not be made public and has to be sent back and forth with extra security measures, but would also be tremendously boring to everyone but the IP team for a few specific rival companies in a very tiny field. The fact is, its just not their secret to share. Also ratty. So, either way my point remains. Plenty of folks are friends in my business lobbyists, journalists, staffers you cant lose control of your impulse to share information. (For the record, I always told people I was interviewing as a source that there was no such thing as off the record with me its not a requirement of our field, theres no law saying we have to follow that request if asked, so if the subject didnt want me to print something, they shouldnt tell me. But I cant talk about the specifics of that scene. Instead, you gossiped about it and risked an announcement before things were ready. Ive worked in the banking industry for a couple decades and this would be a fireable offense on the first instance, no ifs, ands, or buts. Youre not in a gang or on a schoolyard playground or fighting with your sibling in the backseat of the family station wagon. 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. Those who work in circumstances that require them learn how to filter through multiple layers of risk when they get to a point where they come up against that need to share. 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 in Chicago so I read about those firings with interest. It can, should, and does happen, depending on the details of what all happened. Ive heard complaints from folks who arent allowed to give positive references to former coworkers who earned them. Im not curious at all, but Im different. I would not immediately snap into how can I report this? you get to a point where you just really really need to share. Many types of information are protected only during specific time frames insider trading comes to mind as a particularly nasty one disclosing inside information about a pending large contract award or trade is absolutely firable. All people, of all ages, are capable of errors in judgment. From a government point of view, the only thing that matters is this: LW was trusted to handle confidential information and keep it inside the agencys control; instead she passed that information to someone outside that permission (whose job is to disseminate information to the public!) OP, I can understand why you would want to talk to someone who was mentoring you about something like this, but when you tell someone you work with that you committed a pretty serious breach of duty and sharing nonpublic information is pretty much always a serious breach!! 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. How do you approach company policy in general? Can you get fired for a PERSONSAL email accidentally sent to a coworker You seriously violated your privileged access to confidential information. It happens. OP notes that she is a government employee. 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. I dont / cant post it publicly, but I can share all kinds of stuff with people close to me even friends in journalism, though I always specify off the record before i dish and my employer doesnt care because the concerns about confidentiality arent strict NDA / security issues. (I mean, I think its a great program, but Im realistic about things lol.) If I happened to expose that to my BIL who runs the comic book store and has a bunch of media and arts and entertainment contacts? Forgetting to attach a mentioned attachment is common, but still embarrassing. It was super not personal, it was just a situation were second chances were not given, period. What if I accidentally sent a work email to my personal email? Will I If asked specifially try to describe in detail what happened and what you learned from it, for example: ask if the new employer has clear guidelines on data handling. I arrived in 69. Its not their call. You Sent an Email to the Wrong Person. Now What? - Tessian But your friends profession means you often cant share these types of things with her because of other peoples perceptions about it they dont know your friend, and while she may take off the record seriously, some journalists dont and your coworkers have no way of knowing which type of journalist she is. Once you realize that you are likely on the road to employment termination, you need to know that there are options: Responding To The Red Flags. If you embezzle from the company and tell a coworker who then reports it, the mistake is embezzlement, not telling a coworker about it. about your coworker reporting you, betrayed and hard done by, is the way your employer feels about you. The coworker could have totally done the right thing and the LW would still have a right to be annoyed and hurt by the action. @MarkAmery OP said themselves that what they sent was 'client confidential information' but ruled out trade secrets/IP being involved. Yup, landline. At the time, I thought it would be ok since it wouldnt cause a problem, but I realize it was not up to me to make that judgement. It being Silicon Valley, not only was the phone found, it was immediately identified for what it was. I dont think you have to be Catholic.). Regardless of what the coworker did, ideally we want to nudge OP toward exercising greater impulse control and discretion if OP wants to have a successful career in the same sector/field. Oh, this is all interesting, and I appreciate all the responses. The information was work i was working on at the moment and I emailed it as I needed to do work on my personal laptop ; I couldn't take my work station away whilst on extended leave overseas. 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! Having worked in communications and journalism for the past 15 years, I think this ishonestly really bad. Count your blessings that you just got fired. Id had excellent feedback up until then (if this is true), but I mistakenly shared some non-public information with a friend outside the agency, and they let me go as a result. But you see that now I hope. 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. and that person did what they were told to do and reported it. Maybe you let them know more then they should even without meaning too? Not just confidential, but confidential from *journalists*!! A recent Harvard Business Review article indicated widespread use in the workplace, with over one third of the US . Telling the trusted friend was the fireable offense. 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. never actually say the words Gross Misconduct. This is an issue in most fields. 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. 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). Egress Intelligent Email Security is an example of human layer security, as its able to adapt to your individual behaviour through machine learning. You can bounce back! Thats the wrong lesson to learn. Concepts like snitching, tattling, and ratting out dont apply in the workplace. Hi LW, I agree with Alison the best way to approach with is by taking full ownership of what happened. For many fed and state agencies, non-public records _must_ be released on a records request despite their non-public status unless they fit into a narrow set of explicit exemptions. Also, no matter how good a friend someone is, if they are a journalist you need to zip your lips. She screwed up, and they fired her because thats what she deserved. Remember to be kind to yourself: youre human, you made a mistake and, as you said, youve learned from it. Reacting to being fired for that as if being personally persecuted over some piddly technical rule violation and not being given a second chance? Some agencies will only provide title and dates of employment, which is a lucky break for you. We dont even know where the LW is; Alison has gotten letters from outside of the United States before. And in fact, NOT getting that second chance with them might mean that you take it more seriously and handle the next relationship in a trustworthy manner. I was an HR coordinator at a hospital and even though I did not deal with patient records or patients or anything remotely health care-y, I was required to take the annual training and accept compliance as a mandatory part of my employment. Other agencies will provide title and dates, and whether you are eligible for rehire. (Even if its not an area she covers, she likely knows the person who does, and journalists share tips/info all the time.). When I finally came clean about it an interview, the response from the hiring manager was thats ridiculous, I would never fire anyone for that.. But if I did, itd basically just be gossip (I hear Senator Ys staff is really frustrated) that they could choose to report out in detail or not, and definitely wouldnt be traced back to me. Finally I decided to own it at the next interview and I got the job. The company I work for uses keyloggers and text scanners on our computers to catch these kinds of issues. Its definitely not a spur if the moment decision. you can include that in there too, not as a way to cast doubt on their decision but as a way to indicate this was a fluke, not a pattern of bad judgment.