If you break certain unspoken rules, you can lose your job or ruin your career. Yep, I think its worth LW remembering that while she knew shed never leak anything again, her boss and co-workers dont. The z department is not allocating the staff they promised. It might just be that the scanners caught it and notified security. Keep your chin up are you not getting any extra help? 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. If anyone required training to answer FALSE! Perhaps Archie neglected to mention it. It doesnt matter if theyd trust this person with their firstborn child. 9 Posts. Think of speaking with a colleague like speaking with your boss. A supervisor discovers that an employee has recently downloaded thousands of pages of confidential Company billing and financial information, and e-mailed it to her personal e-mail address. Yeah, I think CA meant, the message was only sent to the friend/journalist, but you dont know where she opened it: if shes in an open newsroom or something, someone could have seen it on her screen over her shoulder. First coworker punched second coworker. And even now you sound defensive. 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. 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. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship. Unless things have changed since I was in j-school (which is a possibility), off-the-record arrangements are basically the journalistic equivalent of a pinky swear. How to you ensure you're aware of it, and following it? Does your company know she could have called the police? But you see that now I hope. This is a solvable problem. Yep, I have a friend whose grandmother was a codebreaker and took loose lips sink ships seriously till her dying day. Ill add one point: You dont know that she didnt leak it. I ran across an old letter recently where someone had negotiated themselves into a poor position, and hit on dragging some subordinates out there on the plank with her. Candidate must then come up with a good reason why former employer wont re-hire given they merely eliminated the position. I would not immediately snap into how can I report this? My guess is thats where some of the defensiveness in the initial letter comes from that no one would have known if not for the self-report. Im more curious about what KIND of exciting information it was. But it absolutely does not mitigate it AT ALL. If the coworker said that when that wasnt communicated to her, that was wrong as hell. Im a fed and we have annual mandatory training out the wazoo on these kinds of rules, as well as frequent reminder emails from the ethics folks and/or the IGs office. Or it could be about a broader picture like if youd had performance issues or other problems that made it easier for them to decide to just part ways. As this was almost the entirety of your job they really couldnt keep you around. No, no, no, no, no. We were interviewing someone who had broken the #1 cardinal ethical rule in our industry (a branch of health care). Thank you for saying that feelings are never wrong. Ethically, you dont have to do anything. Its no fun to be fired. In this situation, I reported myself is simply false, given OPs expectation that her mentor wouldnt pass along what she knew to anyone else. If that is so, there is nothing you can do to avoid the termination and you should be looking for new employment. I work in the auto industry in media communications. Then what? She would have learned a valuable lesson and still kept her job. I actually think your big mistake was telling your coworker, not telling a trusted friend. If you had the same role in a public company, you could have have been fired because of regulations preventing insider trading. I understand that you get that what you did was a very big deal as a single event, but I think you might need to spend some more time examining for yourself why you would describe this as a victimless crime. The fact that your friend didnt as far as you know tell anyone else about your bombshell doesnt meant that nothing happened. In fact, think of it this way: you put your journalist friend in a situation where she was potentially sitting on a scoop but she actually kept mum to protect you. Why is it so hard for people to just keep their (figurative) mouth shut? Oh, so LW cant keep a secret from her reporter friend or her coworker, but were ragging on the coworker for not keeping LWs secret? 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. You take this as a hideously painful lesson, and change your behavior across the board, and most people could see that as a learning moment, from which you learned. I previously worked as a journalist. The misrepresentation of what happened is my concern. 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. I know this is pedantic, but as someone raised by a mother with BPD, I feel like its important to say that no ones feelings are wrong. You might not immediately get the same job you had before and might have to accept something more junior but be clear in your communications and you'll get there. It was a big enough thing that they gave you a 1st chance. Training in this area is important generally, but a communications/ PR person should not need to be reminded to keep sensitive information confidential thats a very basic aspect of the job. The first job will be the hardest but gradually you are less and less likely to be asked about an older job. OP needs to learn the art of discernment. I am now going to assume that its exactly that. Are you being GDPR compliant in your marketing? I get why maintaining confidentiality is important, and I understand why the OP was wrong in this particular situation, but balance is also needed. Im glad youve learned from your mistake, and I really hope you take this experience to heart as you continue your communications career. You hear something genuinely classified and blab it too because its so cool? can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information. OP can come up with steps to fix the real problem in their future jobs, but they cant really fix an evil coworker. My adviser listened to what was going on and was like we have to tell. If someone preempts that, theyre not happy about it generally. That functions differently from confidential information in government sectors and sounds closer to your examples in your original comments, but it would still be a really bad idea to share that information. Doesnt matter if it was a friend. The consequences are serious and could have legal implications if youre representing a government or publicly traded company. Just wanted to point out that OP said they worked in the government, so while yours might be the public understanding of confidential, it wouldnt apply to anything their job considered confidential. Finally I decided to own it at the next interview and I got the job. Where did you go from here? 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. That makes the violation much worse. 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.). In no time you will have your next job lined up and all this will be just a post earning you rep. Same here (investing). Only hope going forward is own up flatly and without defensiveness . Ive represented or advised friends, friends of friends and the occasional famous person, and nobody else knows anything about it nor will they ever. What if another journalist saw the email over your friends shoulder? (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.). That has an impact on real estate values and could make a government employee excited. Granted, it was to your older co-worker rather than your boss, but that still shows you felt uncomfortable with your actions. And sometimes at shows they dont identify themselves as press immediately. 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. And if I tell anyone, including a coworker ,that I processed said claim, my butt could very well get in a lot of trouble. Yes, but lets face it, theres no way its as exciting as what any of us are imagining it to be. I personally just try to forget that I know until the information becomes public. But thats where having friends in the same workplace comes inyou can expend the impulse by gushing to them and then zip your lips once you leave the building. My only other advice is to consider if there were any conversations on slack that were inappropriate. Some of the stuff I handle is really interesting logistically and historically but I just do not have the right to get carried away and share it. 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. Its also true that people do break confidentiality for a variety of reasons, but people who are really really REALLY aware that they are breaking confidentiality and how big the consequences of it are, are also on top of not leaving a footprint that can be traced back to them. I wouldnt be surprised if there was a state or federal regulation that she violated by sharing that information. It could also end poorly if the employer actually sees a job opening posted for the position the LW claims was eliminated. OP, I join Alison in wishing you the very best of luck! I think in both cases, part of the concern is this retroactive removal of risk. the coworker? Yes, if you're sending a mass email, BCC makes sure no-one else sees each other's emails and therefore reduces the risk of a breach. No one was allowed to approach her and her desk for the week and every night she locked up the removable ribbon from her typewriter because it could be unspooled and read. OP has been mature about admitting fault, lets not undermine that by implying it was no big deal. Practice talking about it until you can truly pull it off. Medical too. It shouldnt happen but Id understand if it did. Is there a single-word adjective for "having exceptionally strong moral principles"? You might add to Alisons script, I knew immediately that I needed to report my indiscretion, and I did so right away. Its a common occurrence, especially within a large business where autocorrect can incorrectly select people with similar names. Once info is out in the community, you have no control over where it goes and any and all ramifications. Thats the very last reporting step for something illegal/dangerous. 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. Its not their call. Thank you it was getting boring to read everyones outrage. This is why you never ever confidentially share work-related things with colleagues. And then that coworker did tell someone, and she was fired. How to not get fired from work for what you post or send online: Make sure your Facebook and social media accounts are locked down. Sure, its not going to be easy, but being honest and upfront will serve them a whole lot better than a potential employer finding out from a different source (and its not unlikely that they will find out). As much as I love some of my coworkers, Im not taking one of the team. Yes and thats the consequence they now have to live with. OP I dont want to pile on, many people have made the point that this would be a very big deal in many industries, and that your coworker was not responsible for your being fired, and indeed may have been obligated to report the violation. This technique requires extra steps, but it . Theres no context where calling a stranger honey doesnt feel condescending (whether someone intends it to or not!). And thats still very unrealistic / way off-base, if OP truly gets why this was a slam-dunk decision, in that particular circumstance. Leaking to the press can come with criminal penalties and you need to be very careful with how you report illegal/dangerous information for your own protection. It can take down evil people who mean to do others harm. I was new, too eager to please, naive and I let the client rush me instead of following established protocol. Can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information? Where I work, there are policies that state an employee that finds out about certain kinds of misconduct is mandated to report it or face consequences if it comes out that they knew and didnt report it. 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. Hopefully whatever she disclosed doesnt violate a public access law, since the information was released publicly shortly afterward, but wow did she dodge a bullet. The best workplace I ever saw in this regard was a law firm that specializes in foreclosure (I am not a lawyer, but I worked there in another capacity). Even if this person had not turned her in, there was this bomb just sitting there waiting to go off. The actual problem is that OP shared confidential information. Yeah, this is an excellent point. Even when it doesnt require them to report it, it still could have consequences they dont want to be a part of! 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. Penalizing or firing such employees may lead to the loss of good talent and even create a negative impact on employee morale. I do have to wonder if the hospital failed to educate its employees on how freaking serious that kind of breach was, although Id still put the failure on the feet of the violators. Or, heck, for all I know he didnt actually work on anything that interesting. Accidents happen inadvertently but this is not the case here. Yeah, thats a good point. Youll also want to double-check any attachments. Im not cleared for it. Or when she builds a pattern of sharing harmless information until suddenly it isnt harmless? All people, of all ages, are capable of errors in judgment. LW best of luck! That may not be the right wordbut Im having trouble finding the right one. 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. Does that matter? 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. I feel like this misses the overall lesson Allison is trying to impart here. I think she got paid in sandwiches and the knowledge she was the only woman to neck with Nero Wolfe, though. I dont think you have to be Catholic.). It doesnt matter if your friend is a journalist or not; thats a total red herring. Perhaps something like the announcement of the new Amazon HQ? You can get through this, but be honest with yourself! Misdirecting an email can be awkward. This was also my thought. Your employer lost control of this information, even in a very small way, and thats a big deal. Me too. 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. So, if you find out that company X is going to be reporting a surprising drop in profits next week, the person in the company who told you this is gone. read something out loud THEN realize that it wasnt public information. 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. can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information ninkondi prime stance 3d parallax background mod apk latest version take me to st ives cambridgeshire can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information. Understand the true risk of accidentally hitting send to the wrong person. The co-worker absolutely had a responsibility to bring this information forward. Plus, I think part of it was that it was exciting BECAUSE it was secret, and now its apparently common knowledge. In such cases, the employee should be given the benefit of the doubt. You texted proprietary information to a journalist. They thought it was funny and shared it with a couple more. I work in a field (not government) where some nonpublic is newsworthy but only in the arts and style sections. You need to be ready to show that you understand that you have responsibility to understand and comply with policy, and that you're willing to do that.

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