can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information

Or at least, feeling like one should have been possible. I see it a lot and I wonder sometimes if its not sending the wrong message that its okay to break confidentiality because Friendship/Family Conquers All or something. Its going to bite someoneand this time the person it bit was herself, which gives her a good opportunity to work on discipline and discretion. 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? But when I wrote letters to the llama farmers whose llamas had bitten a client whose story about her life-threatening goat allergy was featured in the papers (obviously this is not what actually happened), I had to be sure I didnt say anything about the llama farmer letters that could link to the goat story. 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. Ive definitely been guilty of sharing exciting but not-yet-announced news with colleagues. A little time isn't unreasonable. You knew better. And if the coworker didnt tell and it somehow got out that she knew another job lost. You still have to go through the same information request as someone who doesnt work there. I used to work at a public Zoo that was owned by the state, and so we were all state government employees. +100. Examples that most journalists would find pretty snoozy (although journalists who cover the agency super-closely for trade publications, Politico Pro, Bloomberg Gov, etc, would still be interested): Assuming this is in the US, and were talking about FOIA laws, typically a records request will come through a particular channel (not likely to be some random employee in communications.). That will go over much better with future employers. Thats why your organization wants it to stay within their walls (and possibly HAVE to keep it within their walls by law)they cant control what outside people do, whether theyre only one person removed (your journalist friend, who apparently DID keep the secret in this case) or hundreds of people removed if the gossip chain goes long enough. Oh, its possible to be a rat in the workplace. 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. The details dont really matter. However, were only human. 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. Also ratty. 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. People are going think, If OP can minimize all the responsibility for this incident, she is going to be able to rationalize it away some other time in the future. The consequences are serious and could have legal implications if youre representing a government or publicly traded company. The protected classes are race, age (40+), sex, national origin, religion, or disability. My first thought was of the whole JK Rowling / Robert Galbraith fiasco. OP: Move to a sector and a position where you wont be called upon to handle confidential information, and admit that you are doing so because youve recognised your own limitations and are willing to actively avoid being a liability to your future employer. I feel LWs pain. It should go without saying: a breach of confidentiality could and would wind up in a bar complaint in my jurisdiction. Candidate must then come up with a good reason why former employer wont re-hire given they merely eliminated the position. As someone who practices public relations, calling this victimless gives me a lot of anxiety. I love my younger co-workers and value their fresh take on things and energy, but there is a clear pattern of not understanding reputation risk and liability. You breached confidential information to a journalist. If it was the 2nd option then, yeah, they were going to let you go. The info is out, the tech used to spread it is irrelevant and a distraction from the problem. Nothing got out about this before it was supposed to. Yeah, wouldnt it be possible to prove (or rather disprove) that you leaked to a slack channel full of journalists? At some workplaces, the hiring process includes security checks that even go into your social media profile, blogs, etc, to see whether your personal communications display a suitable level of discretion. 3. Its hard to imagine what at a government job could be SOOO Exciting! The thing is, its a big deal that you were given confidential information and then texted it to a friend. From the other persons perspective, its always easier to say Oh, dont worry, its not that bad than to get a half-hearted minimizing apology for something youre really stinging from. 2. LW, we are all human. The obligation to report a security breach doesnt include warning the violator. Then, when someone particularly notable would enter our database, we would get a reminder email not naming names but reminding us that no matter how interesting the information is, its private and not ok to share. According to Tessian research, over half (58%) of employees say they've sent an email to the wrong person. Or the surrounding land if its something that will raise property values. You unpromptedly wrote a message to the friend. If the answer is Yes then say that. The Smurfs have a secret colony in the woods of Maine!. How to answer question on moving to another country for job? And Im pointing out that it wasnt a record at all. So seriously, just dont tell anyone at all, fight the temptation, its an icy slope. It may be unfair to assume a journalist is cutthroat and would kill for a lead, but its also nave to assume they wouldnt let anything slip to the exact wrong person. Plenty of folks are friends in my business lobbyists, journalists, staffers you cant lose control of your impulse to share information. If there were excetions, that would be explicitly stated. This includes understanding what you did wrong and explaining how you might have approached this in future (hint: ask boss, transfer via encrypted USB if necessary and allowed. Its very dangerous to OPs professional reputation to assume OP can trust anyone who is unauthorized, including a good friend, with embargoed information. Assuming OP was correct and journalist friend never would have said anything, OP could have pretended it never happened. We will always be privy to confidential information in our roles, its the nature of what we do. Id say forgive that coworker NOWyou put her in a terrible position by being a big blabbering blabbermouth. (Im not from the US, and not in government) If I were in OPs place, I would also be upset and feel betrayed. You did a thing that caused this outcome. I feel like this misses the overall lesson Allison is trying to impart here. Hopefully there still something to be said for that! How to get feedback on application rejections sent from a noreply mailbox, Is it bad to answer "Why/how did you get into that job" with "Because I just wanted a job". Good luck! I strongly disagree with this. Dont reveal confidential information and fully own up to your shit are good lessons. As a sidenote: *Even if* you think it *wasnt* a big deal, when you get hauled into the boss office and told it. You can avoid finding yourself in this position by double-checking the recipient email address (especially when autocomplete is involved), the cc field, and the Bcc field. Thanks for sharing all of this. Or if the coworker only decided afterwards this couldnt be kept in the dark, call her and tell her this. the coworker probably was obligated to report it I have worked and volunteered at government-related organizations before. But OPs situation sounds like more of a case of I am just soooo excited about Cool Thing that I had to tell rather than something dangerous or corrupt is going on and the public should know.. . Much safer. The terminology is often not eligible for rehire., And every time Ive ever given a formal reference, that has been one of the questions: Would you hire her again? or Is she eligible for rehire?. Letter writer: If youre still dealing with this emotionally, focus on the facts. Its too difficult to know which internally-discussed information is confidential and which isnt. As a former journalist, I can assure you journalists dont leak information, unless its something confidential about their own employers. OP should be counting their blessings they only got fired and be upset with themselves for making such an obvious and preventable error, not expecting a large bureaucracy to break its own rules to accommodate them. The Census Bureau does NOT play with that sort of thing, and you would indeed be given the boot as soon as the breach was uncovered. If not, that would be an additional reason for your bosses to take the maximum option to respond. Forgetting the attachment. 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. (Also the NASA leaker didnt get fired. She could have been a secretary or a spy; no one knows because she went to her grave never telling anyone, not even her husband. 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. Every bit of what Ive said is probably hearsay. 1. can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information. This just wasnt the place for you in the end. Good luck to you I think Allisons advice for answering questions about this experience is spot on. The co-workers obligation is to the employer, not to the OP. Its ridiculous how much a speculator can get from very little information, and this is why keeping anything secret until it is announced is important. Based on the post its probably public now, so I would guess its likely not too exciting. Keep your chin up are you not getting any extra help? This is one of those very serious offenses for which there are no second chances in many organizations, even when the breach is accidental or through slop practices and not intentional. You would never want someone to find out from the news media that they no longer have a job, for example. 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. The issue of whether HIPAA information can be emailed is complicated. Are you being GDPR compliant in your marketing? Im also miffed by the fact that the coworker kinda blind sided OP. Then whenever you send a message, you'll be given an option to "Cancel" at the top of the message before it's sent. (Even if its not an area she covers, she likely knows the person who does, and journalists share tips/info all the time.). I wont get into too many details, but where I work had a plan that was controversial and there was both opposition to it, internal and external. Trying to tell the OP otherwise is to minimize the impact of a serious offense. Let me be clear she did not leak it. If you talk about sensitive stuff in public you best be sure youre actually anonymizing what you have to say. Gossage said he believed he was speaking in confidence to someone he trusted implicitly, but the story subsequently appeared in the Sunday Times, to the dismay and rage of the author of the Harry Potter books.. She got paid to pose as Roeders* mistress, once. I understand that the breach was very bad and that the organization needed to take some disciplinary action, but it seems to me that firing an employee who fessed up to something like this to a senior coworker sends the message: If you mess up bad enough, dont tell anyone. Negative emotions are a learning toolfeeling guilty is very uncomfortable, so we dont repeat the behavior that led to the feeling guilty. Don't worry, you're not alone. Ultimately, its your choice to make. If you say, My coworker ratted me out, an interviewer hears, My coworker reported my misconduct. Youre the one who comes off looking poorly there, not the coworker. I was new to the field and had no idea how dysfunctional that workplace was. Obviously leaking to one journalist that youre friends with is better than leaking to a whole Slack channel full of them, but partly because its possible to do the first innocently, whereas theres no question of innocence with the latter. I agree with you! I gossip too much, including at work. Youre heading in the right direction, and youve also gotten some really good advice. trouble, it doesnt seem applicable. Access rules are very, very strict, and there are reminders all the time. We also got early warning that legislators were encouraged to resign, a day or two before the press releases. She knew about a leak and didnt say anything, who knows what else she is helping to hide, My boss, in a well meaning way and to correct some weird barriers previously put in place by the person before him, told me openly that if Big Boss [aka the owner] asks you anything, just answer him, its all good, you dont need to filter things through me or anything., And I just tilted my head and laughed at him saying Even if you told me differently, I would tell him whatever he wants to know. Which given our relationship he just giggled and responded with of course and thats the way it should be.. And maybe they can, and maybe that chain will end with someone who doesnt forward the info on, or peter out once the information does become public in this case. Heres what to do. Also, she wasnt a journalist I ever interacted with professionally shes a friend Ive had for years. This is a tough lesson to learn. 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. 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. You might add to Alisons script, I knew immediately that I needed to report my indiscretion, and I did so right away. But if youre singling people out, or only using it in the context of chastising someone, then yeah, for sure condescending and rude. Government tends to operate differently. OP, take a deep breath. It makes me so happy that I had to tell someone is a reason to text them, OMG, huge news that I cant tell you, but you will be SOOOOO happy when its in the papers in a few days! Not to actually, yknow, tell them the private information. A true 100% owning of what you did. Thats the very last reporting step for something illegal/dangerous. And that doesnt even take into account that I could be prosecuted for divulging any private information. That said, is there any reason you need to answer these questions? Recurring theme here is that tattling isnt a thing at work. But I dont think this applies in any case since it was on her personal cell. "It is likely not private if the employee used the employer . This is so true. Whether she is under FOIA or a state public records law, there are a lot of rules about non-disclosure of certain information. All rights reserved. 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. Yeah, I wish the mentor had walked the LW directly to the boss to discuss this openly. you get to a point where you just really really need to share. And even more so in ballistic missile submarines! Im in public relations/global communications. It makes the sender aware of their mistake and less likely to bother you again in the future. Contact the GDPR manager at once. It could be that she did (and I think no employer should ever fire anyone without hearing their version of the story) but the employer still thought its bad enough that they need to fire OP. The fact that the LW just couldnt resist sharing this tidbit should have been a red flag that maybe her friend couldnt, either. It was a really bad decision on my part and I have learned a lot from the experience. Its sounds like you are pretty young and people tend to be a slightly more forgiving when you are young a make a mistake like this as long as you take ownership of it. I worked for a federal government contractor and we were awaiting news of whether we were getting a contract renewal. Even when it doesnt require them to report it, it still could have consequences they dont want to be a part of! 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. Im not cleared for it. And, of course, some agencies dont have a policy and, when contacted can provided whatever info they feel is relevant.

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