An in-person meeting might be more appropriate if you accidentally sent information about your plans to find another job to your manager. First, you need to be able to frame what you did for yourself. Confidentiality is a big deal for a lot of reasons, and people in those types tend to respect that. Thanks for answering! You will find another employer who will trust you and will give you that chance to shine for them. End of story. Its so very context and field dependent. For most cases in the US, I'd expect it to be legal. 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 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. That response will likely impress an employer that she has grown and learned, that she is honest and has some self-awareness, and that she would be worth trusting. "I made a dumb mistake and misjudged the sensitivity of some data" is both more accurate and less severe. Im in Chicago so I read about those firings with interest. I have worked and volunteered at government-related organizations before. I DEFinitely sometimes shared those tidbits with friends and family who were big tiger/hippo/etc fans. Agreed. and the agency lost control of the information. The details dont really matter. Its a common occurrence, especially within a large business where autocorrect can incorrectly select people with similar names. That OP knew it was wrong and felt guilty about it is a sign of strength. LW best of luck! ), Im guessing it was something more like: When theres something I really want to share with my wife, I mask it, pretty much what we do here talking about how the client invested in llama shearings, or called up asking about rumours of purple llamas, or asked us to sell all their teapots that kind of thing. In sending that information to your own mailbox, you transmitted the data to a number of machines, any number of which could be intercepting the data for reading, and many do albeit for legit purposes of scanning for advertising relevant stuff or scanning viruses. I want to push back hard on this, the coworker is not a rat. Thats a good friend but you put her in a bad position. 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. We cannot do our job with our leaders if they cannot trust us. Sometimes it can be a blessing in disguise. This x 1000 to the comment by ENFP in Texas. Accidents happen inadvertently but this is not the case here. So- bad judgement buddies? can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information. To me, her wrong doesnt justify her mentor going behind her back. Some agencies will only provide title and dates of employment, which is a lucky break for you. trouble, it doesnt seem applicable. There are different levels of confidentiality for different circumstances. Has 90% of ice around Antarctica disappeared in less than a decade? Like, firing on the spot if I access my own chart. You say that the information eventually became public, and you seem to think that this mitigates the problem. I would have ratted you out too. You just seem to still want an answer and I picked up on this as a possible avenue to reflect on in your letter. Its also something that happens in a business relationship rather than a personal one, because the assumption is that personal relationships are entirely off the record. A majority of those who work from home would use their own personal digital devices such as laptop, tablet or mobile to perform their daily work tasks and it is also convenient for employees to. Yes, some employer will bin you, others might give you a second chance. What I ended up doing is learning to avoid mopped floors as much as possible and warning people to be careful around them. Some offenses are so serious that you immediately get fired. Its what you do with what you learn that is important. Its not a victimless crime and you have to understand the seriousness of what you did, even unintentionally. Fired for gross misconduct because I sent confidential information to personal mailbox - how do I get another job? OP if I was part of an interview for you, and you brought up this situation the way its phrased here, Im sorry to say it would be an immediate pass. Hopefully there still something to be said for that! My philosophy is that it doesnt matter what city you live in, its a small town. Recurring theme here is that tattling isnt a thing at work. The LW actually had a responsibility to keep the info confidential, and the friend doesnt. Yep. I had not thought about this issue via this lens, but I think youre 100% right. But Im a journalist whos covered federal agencies, so I know super exciting to agency employees does not necessarily equal huge news for everyone else. The embargoes I deal with are not earth-shaking (or even quivering), but the people involved are dead serious about not publicizing the information before a specific time. The OPs comment here didnt seem defensive to me at all, and its definitely understandable that the letter was written in the heat of the moment. It might not seem to be that big a deal to you, but depending on what the information you shared was its really easy to use seemingly trivial information for profit. It could be that the info you leaked was especially confidential, or that theyve been concerned about other leaks and are taking a hard-line stance. Yup! You are disappointed you didnt get a second chance. As a communicator, youre likely to be privy to confidential information on a regular basis during the course of your career, and if that information leaks for any reason, it could have serious repercussions for the organization especially if its a government body. I agree with you! This is probably not a feasible strategy, unless the OP was at the job for only a few months. But sending e-mails about a seemingly innocuous hobby cost one . 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!! Im now turning my head sideways and re-reading/rethinking. How do I politely turn down the call for an interview by another employer? Just keep it to yourself or youll get fired. And thatsnot great? I come across soooo much incidental information about people I know in the course of this job. Having a natural, human reaction doesnt mean shes in the wrong field. Don't be me, is what I'm saying I guess! If you live in a place where its illegal to shoot guns into the air, and you shoot a gun into the air and the bullet does not actually kill anyone in its fall, you have still broken the law and placed others in danger. OP thinks she was super discreet in texting her friend. Im still pretty upset that I had no second chance, but I suppose I just lost their trust. Pay secrecy is a workplace policy that prohibits employees from discussing how much money they make. Lack of rigor. Even though I was only suspended for two weeks, it hurt so, so much. No, shes a person with ethics who plays by the rules. There could be a situation where it might be the journalists job to share the information LW thought they were telling to just a friend. Loved your opening act for Insolent Children, btw. This is NOT a myob type situation at all. They are pretty free with stating exactly why someone was fired. Or at least, feeling like one should have been possible. Well, this is both unkind and off-base. Im not sure you can conclude that it was publically disclosable. When dad got on the phone he explained to the person that he understood the situation and that he was going to have to report him because he gave my mother classified information. Yes, when I worked at a financial firm I believe that exact question was on a privacy training test: If I run across the name of a celebrity in the client management system while performing my duties, its okay to tell friends and family about it, True or False?. But from there you can talk about what you learned from the experience and how this makes you a better employee/candidate now. I just wasn't thinking at the moment I sent the information. Fired. I used to work at a public Zoo that was owned by the state, and so we were all state government employees. Yes, the ratted me out thing is probably not a fair assessment of what actually happened here. OP wasnt a journalist. But doing so would likely out the department LW worked for, and probably LW herself. read something out loud THEN realize that it wasnt public information. In that case its not so relevant that there was a misunderstanding. 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: So this. I dont know the OPs financial status but if she needed the $$$ its not that easy to look at it as a kindness in the moment. They know it happens. Best of luck, and believe us all when we tell you that if you sound at all dismissive of the seriousness of this, prospective employers will (rightfully) worry that you may have a similar lapse in judgement again. Nothing I said contradicts this. Oh yes. 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. She was an employee of the agency, who shared it with the journalist. And by becoming the must fanatically trustworthy discreet person. Thats also real life. Sorry that this happened to you (Ive made stupid mistakes too) but you may want to consider keeping problems like this to yourself. A selfie was reportedly taken that accidentally also showed the dispatch screen. Were considering opening ours up to partner agencies, and I spent a good two hours cleaning up the old messages in the general chat. Non-public just because it hadnt been announced yet isnt the same as the location of the emergency bunker. These policies are sometimes written down in employee handbooks. should I be so emotionally drained by managing? 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. Yup, landline. Thats the real clincher here for me) and on a personal level with management your position is one of trust and you violated the basis of your work. The advance knowledge of something pending going public is a very powerful position. If each person tells just one person it can end up being a lot of people. As soon as someone has decided you're not a team player, or are a problem employee, then even tiny things get seen as evidence that you should be fired. Resist the temptation to gossip about fellow employees and don't express your disdain for your. I doubt it was the plan to storm Area 51. OP, there is another thing to keep in mind. I think that is also part of the lesson that OP needs to learn. Well meaning (or at least not meaning harm) maybe, but very foolish. And Im not saying it was fair or unfair or whether your previous employer made the right call. 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. my boss read my Skype conversations, parental involvement with employees under 18, and more, my manager and coworker are secretly dating, boss will never give exceeds expectations because he has high standards, and more, update: I supervise a manager who falsified an employee write-up but I dont think she should be fired, stolen sandwiches, disgusting fridges, dish-washing drama: lets talk about office kitchen mayhem, interviewer scolded me for my outfit, job requires an oath of allegiance, and more, update: a DNA test revealed the CEO is my half brother and hes freaking out, my entry-level employee gave me a bunch of off-base criticism. In most reporting policies i am aware of it would be considered tipping off and get the person reporting in trouble. 2. I just want to remind people that it happened. At the risk exposing my identity to a reader who knows me offline, two big things Ive leaked without running afoul of any organizational trust are: Such and such church is giving away their building and my nonprofit is under consideration to be the recipient and Were going to be filing a lawsuit against X because of Y., To clarify, Im not trying to minimize the gravity of OPs mistake or the seriousness of strict confidentiality in other contexts. 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. And the coworker, well, this was information that was a major conduct infraction, not just embarrassing or private if a coworker told me theyd done this, Id have promptly reported it, not to humiliate them, but to start the process of damage control. If you want to work in comms, you need to be crystal clear that the TIMING of disclosure is a crucial issue. 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. But even if there is no danger, an obligation to report is just that. Why is there a voltage on my HDMI and coaxial cables? "Compose the email, and only then go back and enter the address (es)," he says. This mixed with the coworkers inflated story, I would be more than annoyed by this coworker too. 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 . 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? Personal info is never OK to share with anyone, or things that could lead to recognizing a person if someone happens to know that person (and you never know who knows who). Gov employee here and I would be in trouble as well for not reporting what LW told coworker. Definitely anti-climactic to actually know at this point! 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. I think people are reading defensiveness from the qualifiers probably and suppose. I can sympathize that this is still very raw for OP and perspective will only come with more time. A breech of confidentiality like that can land you and others in jail. You can -and often should convey emotion in your official public statements. Especially odd because LW emphasized how trustworthy the friend is for why the friend wouldnt blab. That the information eventually became public is not in any way relevant. Some offenses are serious enough that a single incident is enough to fire someone. Your comment above is much closer to an effective track. So please think about that aspect when youre thinking about how she ratted you out. 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.. Im confused about the fact-finding meeting. 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. In this situation, I reported myself is simply false, given OPs expectation that her mentor wouldnt pass along what she knew to anyone else. Its completely understandable that you were upset about it when you wrote in (and upset about it now). Then your story isnt just I did something wrong, they found out, and I got fired, its I did something wrong, I knew it was a mistake and told a senior member of my team about it, and as a result I got fired. The more you can acknowledge that you took responsibility for your mistake, the better it sounds for a potential employer. You certainly don't need to blurt out a 5 minute monologue unprompted, but you do want to be ready to answer these questions because they will come up if you disclose what happened as you intend to. 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. a coworker at my company was discussing a future potential release at a bar loud enough that someone heard it, and then posted it on a public forum. Long since past, now.). Sometimes people screw up and they still really need their jobs. 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. Yes, but lets face it, theres no way its as exciting as what any of us are imagining it to be. I do not believe in using it for personal gain, even the minor personal gain of sharing juicy secrets with someone. Even when it doesnt rise to the level of legal shenanigans might happen, it can be pretty serious. If yes, that is relevant to the question. Challenge them directly and be sure that when they say it's okay to start at 9.30am, make sure they actually mean it, or don't do it. It should go without saying: a breach of confidentiality could and would wind up in a bar complaint in my jurisdiction. Well, it has been released now, so technically we could. 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. Note: You dont want to frame this as It would have been made public eventually so I did nothing wrong. Your tone is still very much acknowledging that you messed up. I hope youre able to learn and move on from this, OP. 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. Im sorry it happened to you, though, and it definitely stinks. There was no warning, no suspension, nothing. I think particularly since its the government, they couldnt take the risk of it happening again and it becoming public that not only was their a breach of confidentiality but that the person responsible had done it before.
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