Learn that about yourself, and move on. +100 to this. Im not feeding a narrative, Im expressing my opinion. Yup! As Alison said, its a lot like DUI; even if no one gets hurt, theres a reason we shouldnt take those risks. Nothing got out about this before it was supposed to. On the non-security side of things its fascinating to learn what the folks in the booth behind me are working on as Im quietly eating lunch, but its a serious security violation to discuss that kind of thing in public and it makes me cringe so hard when it happens. We also got early warning that legislators were encouraged to resign, a day or two before the press releases. (Plus, were not sure how much of the inflation came from the coworker and how much came from their superiors. Sometimes the news is a dreadful burden to bear (staff reductions of people you know, elimination of services you think are important) and sometimes the news is exciting, you have the inside scoop and cant wait to share it. I work in a field (not government) where some nonpublic is newsworthy but only in the arts and style sections. I remember the first time (as a teen) that I had something from a volunteer position that I had to keep my mouth shut on. I realize you want to minimize your mistake! And in this case, I beleive that is correct. Whether she is under FOIA or a state public records law, there are a lot of rules about non-disclosure of certain information. Access rules are very, very strict, and there are reminders all the time. It's hard to answer this question without specifics, but it strikes me as very important to differentiate between an accident or mistake in the sense of "oops, I did that by unintentionally" versus misconduct, as in "this was against policy and I deliberately did it anyways" regardless of whether you knew about the policy or had a good reason to do it or not. There is a greater issue here regarding judgement. Take ownership and accountability of it, because for better or worse, all of us could have made OPs mistake at some point in our careers. Definitely anti-climactic to actually know at this point! He and my mother kept their noses clean. 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. It doesnt, but we still shouldnt state assumptions like facts if theyre not supported by whats said in the letter and theres nothing wrong with Michaela pointing it out. We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. A 40 year old making the same mistake would be much harder to trust later. I will never not believe the publisher did that intentionally and threw him under the bus. This makes it seem like they owe LW something, to be loving and release her to her best life. Both the affected parties were amazing clients who prided themselves on solid security practices. Its a huge risk that if discovered by the employer would likely result in being blacklisted from the company and if the LW is employed there immediate termination. how do I get out of an active-shooter drill at my office? I agree. Businesses have a term for that kind of behaviour, and that is 'data leakage'. you get to a point where you just really really need to share. Unfortunately, someone did leak the info so all the employees read about the information in a major business news website AND the local newspaper the night before the event despite the intention for the employees to hear the news firsthand at the event before it was released to the public. If it hasnt worked out yet, it isnt the end. Later when I moved on, it became my absolute best interview topic when asked about a mistake and how I handled it. 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. It simply means that your employees are not to disclose proprietary information or data about your company to another person without your consent. Its part of driving a media and product blitz where it basically shows up out of nowhere because everyone has been working on it quietly so it would all be ready for the big day. My first thought was of the whole JK Rowling / Robert Galbraith fiasco. Please banish the phrase ratted out from your vocabulary and thinking. Actually advertising is not going to be any better. Or does it only matter that I broke a rule?, For #1, Youre certainly allowed to bring up anything you want in an interview, the question you should really be asking is, Will it help or hurt my candidacy to bring this up?. ugh, no if you cant tell them the actual news, dont tease it. If I were your coworker I would have done the exact same thing. I mean in the end there is not a lot of reasons to trust either, but demonstrating ongoing cluelessness is not a good way to sell this will never happen again. I would have ratted you out too. Don't worry, you're still qualified to be Secretary of State. Sorry this happened, OP! In fact, if you are being sent overseas, you have to take a special counterintelligence training before you go that includes tips like dont wear items with your agencys name written on them while you travel and never park next to a panel van.. 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!! My company is not going to jeopardize a $500M/yr contract over my mouth. Based on the post its probably public now, so I would guess its likely not too exciting. Something LW has not seemed to understand: the fact that you worked for a governmental agency is not the issue, the fact that you leaked info early is. Pro tip: when working in mental health residential treatment, do not have clients write your staff logs. It's difficult to prevent a leak from happening again if you don't know how it occurred in the first place. It involved something the OP had learned about in confidence, but hadnt even been publicly announced and the OP blabbed about it to someone completely unrelated to her job. 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. Long since past, now.). They also rely on constant prompting that can give even the most diligent employees click fatigue after a while. I question that there are no details about your Monday meeting with HR here. Gov employee here and I would be in trouble as well for not reporting what LW told coworker. But when the guilt is deserved, its got a purpose. In a roundabout way, they somewhat did you a kindness by firing you. I missed the phrase ratted me out in the original message, but given those feelings, it doesnt really count as self-reporting. What exactly do you want her to do so you feel satisfied that shes recognizing and acknowledging the seriousness of what happened? I have information that I have kept confidential for more than a decade that I know the patients wife does not even know (think undisclosed criminal record). Journalists discuss things all the time that dont make it into published stories, or make it into stories that get killed, or get used for shaping further investigation, or even just as gossip. These policies are sometimes written down in employee handbooks. They did exactly the right thing to you. This technique requires extra steps, but it . This is so true. Remember when Beyonc lip synched at Obamas inauguration? 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. As someone who practices public relations, calling this victimless gives me a lot of anxiety. Thank you it was getting boring to read everyones outrage. Second, OP should never have told their friend, trusted or notthe problem is that OP should not ave disclosed it to anyone. Maybe thats the case in your field, but usually confidential doesnt mean that. update: how can I turn down training requests from my clients? Then both OP and Coworker could be out of a job. Confiding in an older mentor in the expectation of confession-like confidentiality? January 31, 2022 . No, shes a person with ethics who plays by the rules. OP, I join Alison in wishing you the very best of luck! She already acknowledged that its 100% her fault. You got a hard hit, and I am sorry for all the difficulty that causes. As others have noted, it probably isnt anything especially exciting. 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. Confidential information is meant to be confidential and not shared with anyone. It may be unfair to assume a journalist is cutthroat and would kill for a lead. Given how much we have learned about foreign intelligence operations in American social media in the last few years, this is yet another reason why information security of all levels is taken so seriously. Im curious about how to turn the page, and I think your advice is really good about this own it, let go of the defensiveness, be ready to talk about changes youve made so it wont happen again. Im a journalist, so, yes. Or, maybe they totally overreacted, who knows its impossible to say from here. Im not cleared for it. That makes the violation much worse. 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. So Id do what Alison says here, and save your OMG I cant keep this in confessions for your pets. Look the UK Foreign Office is currently knee deep in a police investigation into information thats been leaked to journalists and the consequences are potentially extremely serious. If we think about this, not only did she trust her journalist friend, she trusted her coworker not to tell anyone either. Youll get another job. 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. But when youve broken someones trust, they dont owe it to you to offer that opportunity and shouldnt offer it unless they sincerely believe that you could meaningfully repair the breach quickly and comprehensively. Fired for gross misconduct because I sent confidential information to personal mailbox - how do I get another job? 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.. Plus, I think part of it was that it was exciting BECAUSE it was secret, and now its apparently common knowledge. If it was something that was a big deal to LW but not huge news externally, yeah, its not a thing. Check out this article on that HERE. I think she got paid in sandwiches and the knowledge she was the only woman to neck with Nero Wolfe, though. Oh, its possible to be a rat in the workplace. Once you do it, the consequences are the consequences. Got my first job. 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. The person is trying to make someone else feel bad about their own transgressions. Giving her information relevant to her beat and asking her not to share it is basically asking her to stand on the sidelines and fail to do her job, while somebody else gets the scoop. Your assistance is much appreciated. For most cases in the US, I'd expect it to be legal. 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. Like, how did HR and OPs boss come to the conclusion that this information was spread through Slack (!) Yeah. I think the fact finding phone call cleared that up, otherwise OP would have said so? In such cases, the employee should be given the benefit of the doubt. But the judge's response to the request for a. Another point: you didnt just accidently tell about it. I agree that you can learn how to share without breaching confidentiality. Tessian Cloud Email Security intelligently prevents advanced email threats and protects against data loss, to strengthen email security and build smarter security cultures in modern enterprises. Your contract can still be terminated if you violate a lawful . Agree with this. The letter writer came here and owned up to what she did and said she knows now it was her fault what do you want her to do, throw herself on a sword? Clearly yall do not understand handling confidential information. Though there are a few that would be exciting. Thats why they told you the information was confidential. Theres truly no compelling reason to break confidentiality here. If someone used the words ratted me out or told on me in an interview, that would be pretty much an immediate DQ for me as it shows a total lack of personal responsibility and maturity. A little time isn't unreasonable. OP, take a deep breath. The emphasis on how not harmful the infraction was is totally hurting your case, OP. This was more or less what I was thinking. There wasnt any risk, my judgment was good!. 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? Oh yes. 5 Ways Your Emails Could Breach GDPR - TowerWatch Tech Like I said, very strange but its worked for me. My only other advice is to consider if there were any conversations on slack that were inappropriate. At the end of your explanation, look your interviewer in the eye, and dont say anything else. So, he learns about things at the same time as the public, and he just knows when Im extra busy because theres a big release coming, or someone messed something up, etc. Can I be fired for breaching data protection? The issue of whether HIPAA information can be emailed is complicated. Then the stories died down and the pressure with it even though there were still occasional leaks. 4) The coworker was absolutely right to report the breach in confidentiality. I understood her to say she texted from her cell phone. 1) Broke a rule I want to caveat that when I originally wrote this, it had just happened and I was still extremely emotional about it, which is probably why I chose to leave out important information in my initial question. 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.
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