We all developed what we called the [cityname] twitch of looking over our shoulders before we talked about work stuff in a public place. The government takes this stuff very very seriously. Doesnt matter if it was a friend. Its to prevent covering of tracks or retaliation or extinction bursts (Im about to be caught for X may as well make the punishment worthwhile and do Y and Z too, or if they are acting with deliberate malign intent Im caught, better leak as much as possible asap). how else could you have met that need?) 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. But despite how liberal weve gotten with sharing information, you really do have to be very strict about upholding confidentiality policies without making any exceptions. 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 feel your pain. I did something similar over 20 years ago. The coworker did nothing wrong that we can see from the letter. But if I found out a coworker was sharing this information with just anyone it would be a probably HIPAA violation and, yes, I would need to tell my boss. OP erred, which she knows, but I dont think that means her mentor no longer has the obligation to be honest with her. A large part of this is creating the interest that will drive The Thing, and the market/desirability of The Thing. Keep rewriting what happened in the most factual, dispassionate way possible. Period. She should have told her this is serious and Im going to have to report you. Then at least OP could have avoided the slack room full of journalists escalation. If you are still defensive or dismissive about this, it will come through in an interview. Theres a difference between wishing you had a second chance (acknowledges they arent entitled to one) and being upset you didnt have one (expected that there would be one). Per my story above, when I made the mistake that I was fired for, I did take responsibility at the time, and they fired me anyway. This was supposed to be a stand-alone comment. Choose your time limit (you can only choose from between 5, 10, 20, and 30 seconds) Hit save changes at the bottom of the page. Having worked in communications and journalism for the past 15 years, I think this ishonestly really bad. While that obviously wasnt the result Id have wanted, I learned an important lesson about confidentiality, and its not a mistake Ill ever repeat.. In a professional context, close friendships and personal trust arent always as ironclad as they can be in personal relationships, particularly when it comes to security and confidentiality. I tell my team that if it leaks from us, they cannot work here. You shouldnt be upset at your coworker, if anything she should be upset with you for putting her in that situation. And all you learned was to avoid freshly mopped floors? Ohhhh come on. Forgetting the attachment. So you let the cat out of the bag about the cat your zoo bagged? Even though I was only suspended for two weeks, it hurt so, so much. I wanted to say, it sucks you lost your job after this one time indiscretion, but Im glad you understand the seriousness of it and with Alisons script, I hope youll find a new job soon. In no time you will have your next job lined up and all this will be just a post earning you rep. She got paid to pose as Roeders* mistress, once. Accidents do happen, we are all human but what rights you have if you share private company information by mistake really depends on a few things: the type of information that was accidentally distributed, how this impacted your company, and what the consequences were for you. My guess is that the LW was fired for a first offense because they refused to take responsibility for their breach. Click the "Settings" icon (the wheel/cog) and click "See all settings". Trying to understand how to get this basic Fourier Series, Linear regulator thermal information missing in datasheet. If the answer is Yes then say that. 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. I hope youre able to learn and move on from this, OP. Request that they email you to confirm they've done so. 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. never actually say the words Gross Misconduct. Let me be clear she did not leak it. Yep. If we receive confidential information, there are very specific and non-flexible procedures we have to follow to handle those documents/information. Clearly yall do not understand handling confidential information. You just seem to still want an answer and I picked up on this as a possible avenue to reflect on in your letter. I have absolutely no clue in your situation, but there are times when it really can be appropriate to let someone go without any second chances. Normally it can be resolved by contacting the person you wrote to by mistake, and get in writing that they have deleted it without doing anything with it. I was fired from a job and when I started interviewing for following ones, I kept trying to spin it and it did not work at it. Its always easier, at least to me, to close your mouth than open it. Nah, I think the odds of whats super exciting to a government agency being equally exciting to me are pretty slim. High-profile thing the president wanted and agency employees opposed isnt going to happen Email violations can jeopardize your job. Thats the wrong lesson to learn. As the other commenter noted, this could have been a very serious offence considering you were working for the government. If anyone required training to answer FALSE! LW, people in the comments are also ragging on you for being upset with your coworker but frankly, I would be mad too! By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. It sounds like youre taking responsiblity for your actions and are doing your best to move on. LW doesnt seem defensive at all here, and its okay to feel upset while still taking ownership of their actions. Maybe a different (and appropriately mortified) approach from the OP in those meetings would of had a different result or maybe not! but the approach in the letter definitely would have convinced me to let her go if I was on the fence. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. That OP knew it was wrong and felt guilty about it is a sign of strength. Can you explain to us what you learned? You arent entitled to a second chance to screw this up. Its like pain (heck, it IS pain); its telling you something important. I want to push back hard on this, the coworker is not a rat. Thats totally true, and when I worked for state government release of confidential information would have been grounds for immediate termination, but Alison is the only one who calls it confidential, OP calls it non-public. 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. 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. So I guess my coworker could have misunderstood when I said I texted one friend, but I wish she would have talked to me about that first? If you want to work in comms, you need to be crystal clear that the TIMING of disclosure is a crucial issue. was. Fortunately, I was not fired for the mistake, but my employer did call me on the carpet for a very serious discussion on why we cant share any information that we only have access to because we work there, regardless of how sensitive or not sensitive we think it is on a case-by-case basis. Wouldn't employers just throw my application to the bin once I declare I have been dismissed for gross misconduct? Unfortunately, a lot of times people mistake the first for the second. That said, I am curious if theres other context that explains why they fired you for a first offense without warning you first. (Obviously it would have been best not to give her journalist friend the info to begin with.) She showed no contrition or reflection. Id say forgive that coworker NOWyou put her in a terrible position by being a big blabbering blabbermouth. I just wasn't thinking at the moment I sent the information. You can never rely on people to be 100% trustworthy, no matter how long youve known them. I think youd be in trouble for sharing that kind of information over the phone, regardless of who he was talking to. You colleagues are often the closest people to you, so it makes sense to want to tell them about your problems (which include work screw-ups), but you cant. 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. 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. I definitely learned my lesson, and it was a hard one, and one that I will regret for a very, very long time. And you might know that you trust that friend 100% to keep it confidential but your employer would prefer to make that call themselves, and thought theyd done so when they told you the information couldnt be shared. Youre heading in the right direction, and youve also gotten some really good advice. 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. Don't worry, you're still qualified to be Secretary of State. When we think about misdirected email, we often put ourselves in the shoes of the sender. People do stupid or extreme things all the time; their lives dont end, but they *can* be turning points for a downward spiral. So- bad judgement buddies? This is awkward to frame as apparently it would have passed unnoticed if you hadnt taken aim at your own foot and then pulled the triggerit would be better if you were fired after fessing up to your superiors, rather than involving anyone else. I think that speaks to exactly why this was such a breach, though. He had a fairly high security clearance and was stationed at NORAD for a time. If theyd covered up for her/not removed her access to confidential info and she did it again, their jobs would be on the line too the next time. If you go in there going "my. LW used Slack at work (and was not supposed to) Trying to tell the OP otherwise is to minimize the impact of a serious offense. She had no idea whether the friend would blab or not. If Jane knows, then it cant be too bad.. [important person 1] and [important person 2] are coming to my office for a press conference. Perhaps Archie neglected to mention it. I understand the issue had to be reported, but why this way ? |. I mean, yeah, absolutely! The mistake was breaking company policy not that they announced to a coworker they broke company policy.. Of course. 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. But they took confidentiality very seriously, and I signed an extremely ironclad NDA, so I never told anyone any of the interesting tidbits I found out about from working there. Maybe you let them know more then they should even without meaning too? To be clear, you were fired for admittedly breaking confidentiality not because of your coworker. I work as a contractor on a program that just announced 10 new cities will be joining. The advance knowledge of something pending going public is a very powerful position. And most of the real socialising happened at house parties and dinner parties, not restaurants or bars. Not so here because what she did was wrong, just not quite as bad as the misunderstood version. the coworker probably was obligated to report it I agree with you! This is just an opportunity to choose words that allow for the most generous possible interpretation (similar to how you say with a friend rather than with a journalist). Oh, its possible to be a rat in the workplace. You added nuance that I hadnt thought about. And that wasnt even technically confidential. My adviser listened to what was going on and was like we have to tell. I realize you want to minimize your mistake! I am not falling on the sword or putting my job on the line for a coworker. I meant inadvertently as they were confiding in a friend not willfully giving information to the press. Goes a long way to being the right way to describe this. 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. Yes, own it. I suspect youre referring to a case where a patient was put in danger, but where no obvious harm occurred like a psychiatrist consensually sleeping with their patient, which an unscrupulous psychiatrist might see as a victimless crime, but which is incredibly risky behavior. Theres no such thing as blind-siding once youve committed an infraction and people have to act on it. 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. You undertook those actions while working for (1) A Large Governmental Organization, who is answerable to Congress and to the general public for the actions undertaken by their employees, in the (2) Communications department, which is a department where employees will specifically, systematically, regularly be exposed to confidential information that should be kept confidential until such time as it is explicitly said to be something that can be shared publically. The answer hinges in part on what constitutes truly private communication, says Christine Walters, an independent consultant with FiveL Company and author of Helping Leaders Limit their Liability by Learning the Law. A person who is aware of a breach is required to report it. you get to a point where you just really really need to share. Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been. An employee who doesn't know about a policy important enough to fire someone over is just a ticking time bomb to an employer. the coworker had an obvious physical feature that the poster mentioned, so the company was able to figure out who was discussing it in a public place and *fired* them for it. She already acknowledged that its 100% her fault. "Compose the email, and only then go back and enter the address (es)," he says. (Especially since termination hearings and the related records are often public records once the employee is terminated, so any concerned employer could just do a records request and get the whole story.). If we think about this, not only did she trust her journalist friend, she trusted her coworker not to tell anyone either. Yeah, this is an excellent point. Sometimes they go so far as tell the bearer of the news that they now have to soothe them bc its their fault they feel bad. 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. On the other hand maybe they didnt listen to her or believe her, and in that case shes been fired based on a misunderstanding but that doesnt help her because what she actually did wasnt OK either. I work in the auto industry in media communications. it doesnt count as they reported themselves if they later say they were ratted out by the person they reported it to. As a former journalist, I can assure you journalists dont leak information, unless its something confidential about their own employers. 1. 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. Well, you certainly can do that, but its one hell of a risk, and a continuation of poor ethics. And maybe you should go next week, because the slots love you and you always win. That oh honey is so unnecessary, and questioning LWs age is just rude. I was wondering the same thing. He was employed elsewhere within a few weeks. However, at the time, I did feel guilty so I confided in an older coworker who I considered a mentor. and sent to multiple people (!!)? Youll get another job. A few weeks ago I worked on a medical chart for A Big Rockstar, but not only do I get fired if I tell anyone which one, I get fired if I open up a single page of his chart that I cant explain, if asked, what the exact and specific work-related reason for opening that page was. For excellent reasons. Which is actually good most of us get making a mistake when were young, and really learning from it. I have news from my job that I cannot share with some coworkers. It doesnt matter if your friend is a journalist or not; thats a total red herring. Its to LWs friends credit that she didnt pass on the info to a journalistic colleague who DOES work in that area; its not to LWs credit. Completely unrelated to the topic at hand, love the username! That may not be the right wordbut Im having trouble finding the right one. I agree. I was talking about this upthread before I saw this discussion. As easily as one of them knowing OP uses Slack to contact reporters and assuming I told a journalist friend or I told Rain (who they know is a journalist, possibly on that channel), anything but I texted a (journalist) friend meant OP went the usual Slack route. This reminds me of people whose response to hearing no is well, how do we get to a yes? LWs response to this was unacceptable and we cannot have a person on our staff who would do this, was Oh, okay, well, next time I have a similar opportunity here I wont do this.. Im a journalist, so, yes. A senior UK diplomat has resigned over the matter. Perhaps the way you feel (felt?) I reminded him that anything sent in our work email is subject to FOIA and not really completely private from our employer, so if he was going to continue to work against the plan, use personal email. They fell prey to the Its just a quick peek and it wont hurt anybody fallacy. I would have been fired if I did any one of the things OP did when I worked for the feds (e.g., using Slack, speaking to a journalist without authorization even if they were a long-time friend, disclosing soon-to-be-public information before it was publicly available). Thats real life. Fired. Appropriately so, but still, wow. Confidentiality is not just an issue in communications. Instead, youre better off with something like, The truth is, I was fired. They thought it was funny and shared it with a couple more. You broke a rule and you have to take responsibility. OP notes that she is a government employee. In the worst cases though, businesses can lose clients and employees can lose jobs. Extremely good advice! I think thats a ridiculous overreach but whatever). Frequently there would be confidential news like, The tiger had her baby and its a girl! or Were getting hippos! that we couldnt share with the public for a few days (to be sure the baby was healthy and would survive past a critical period, or so the news could be shared in the way the marketing department deemed appropriate, or whatever.) Still wondering why there was no second chance, though. 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!) 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. What exactly do you want her to do so you feel satisfied that shes recognizing and acknowledging the seriousness of what happened? +100. Not necessarily for the leaking but for the way youre talking about it. Negative emotions are a learning toolfeeling guilty is very uncomfortable, so we dont repeat the behavior that led to the feeling guilty. I agree, but its been called out and I dont want to derail on it. I personally just try to forget that I know until the information becomes public. 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 wanted to add to the part about putting your friend in a bad position: shes a journalist its a competitive industry and being first with the story matters a lot. How should I explain that I'm looking for a job because my employer may be shutting down? I wonder LW, would your interactions with the higher ups have been different if your co-worker/mentor had given you the heads up that she was going to have to report this? One of my friends is working on projects that she cannot list on her resume now that shes applying to jobs and I only know that because Im looking at it and she told me shes frustrated because she has good work that she can quantify but cant talk about yet. An in-person meeting might be more appropriate if you accidentally sent information about your plans to find another job to your manager. 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. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. For the other 2 questions, I would simply urge you to remove the phrase ratted out from your professional vocabulary. Maybe you get a 2nd chance IF you were contrite enough and blamed your excitement at the new teapot program. Where did you go from here? 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. 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. So the judgment on trustworthiness is flawed. Removed a long string of comments about the condescension in the honey remark. In my job I often get embargoed advance copies of speeches that politicians are going to give they send them out to press to help us start working on getting most of a story written and cleared so we can just drop in a few quotes and crowd reactions and publish the story within 5-10 minutes of the speech ending.
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