But that was the right response to what you did. 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. I think if the OP had framed the situation as, how can I get another job after being fired for being a whistleblower after I shared important but unfortunately confidential information with a journalist because the public has a right to know, these comments would be very different. I have been fired for a dumb mistake. However, if the message appears urgent to somebodys life or career, its likely youll want to consider stepping in. how trustworthy somebody actually is is never certain. Confidentiality, especially in government, is no joke and should be taken very seriously. I was coming to the comments section to say the same thing. I question that there are no details about your Monday meeting with HR here. (IE: if they think you f*cked up, then respond like you did, however you actually feel). Sharing HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL info. Spek raised a good point- find out what your HR policy is so you know what to be prepared for in an interview. Including their reputation being damaged. How should I explain that I'm looking for a job because my employer may be shutting down? All we can do is learn, rest, and go on another day. It being Silicon Valley, not only was the phone found, it was immediately identified for what it was. The LW actually had a responsibility to keep the info confidential, and the friend doesnt. I always wondered if they remained friends after that fiasco. I see a lot of people saying that its always wrong to share confidential information with the press, and thats not necessarily true. Until the boys parents threw the uncle out. But you should try to understand how this happened (why that friend? Feelings can be irrational though, or overblown, or immature, or any number of shades of wrong that means you shouldnt give them 100% credence. If she really understood or valued confidentiality, she would not be trying to convince us of how victimless this was. The focus moving forward should be about realizing how serious a problem it was, how badly you feel about it, and how youre committed to not making the same mistake again. If youre excited that your agency is moving into a new building or buying land someone could buy up the new building or land ahead of time for profit. Sorry that this happened to you (Ive made stupid mistakes too) but you may want to consider keeping problems like this to yourself. Also, she wasnt a journalist I ever interacted with professionally shes a friend Ive had for years. Its not a victimless crime and you have to understand the seriousness of what you did, even unintentionally. The company would have thought everything was hunky dory, but they would have employee on staff who did not understand confidentially requirements. Its good to hear from you! Accept responsibility for what you did. How do you approach company policy in general? Agreed. I get so exasperated with TV shows where a SO throws a tantrum about a cop/government worker not being able to tell them stuff, and turns it into a trust issue. But I now realize that I had no business sharing my bad behavior with colleagues it put them into a completely untenable position. Honestly this feels well intentioned but not right. This was not the coworker telling the boss that OP left 5 minutes early, took a personal call during work hours but OP violating a strict rule even if they trusted the friend. Right. As a damage control, should I (as the manager responsible) send a message to all employees explaining what occurred and asking them to respect the confidentiality of the information and not open nor forward the information to anyone else or should I just not bring additional attention to this message? Yes! If not, that would be an additional reason for your bosses to take the maximum option to respond. Maybe you let them know more then they should even without meaning too? Also, legally email addresses themselves dont typically count as 'personal information' as they are contact addresses and are treated in similar ways to phone numbers legally, as opposed to, say, identifying information like full name, DOB and home address all in one document. and that was interestingthey had criticisms I hadnt thought of. Yep, we regularly are reminded about FERPA requirements (academia) and staff members have gotten in hot water for not promptly picking up student transcripts from the printer (for instance). I used to be a journalist, I have lots of friends who are journalists and I never tell them anything that I shouldnt, even the ones I really trust. Learn how to protect your investment management firm through intelligent email DLP. It goes through a game of telephone and the person at the end of the line gets mad that the first person would say such a thing. Good luck! Employees can't just post anything they want on Facebook or anywhere else. Its a great professional resource with a lot of professional development around ethics. Firing you was probably not what they wanted to do, and Im sorry. Yes, some employer will bin you, others might give you a second chance. How could you have felt defensive about getting disciplined for that? (Im a journalist, there are only a few specific cardinal sins in our industry, so lets euphemistically call this a case of inadequate attribution.) 2007-2023. Just *looking* at the account would get you noticed and your hand slapped (if you were lucky). The actual problem is that OP shared confidential information. They are pretty free with stating exactly why someone was fired. 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. Youll also want to double-check any attachments. 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. I agree that you can learn how to share without breaching confidentiality. 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?. In some cases, those policies . Yes, this is the valuable lesson about how precarious trust is and how breaking it can have swift painful consequences! (I mean, I think its a great program, but Im realistic about things lol.) But thats not what happened here. Or, maybe they totally overreacted, who knows its impossible to say from here. Say I have a friend working on a presidential campaign, and she tells me theres a bunch of debate about the candidates strategy, I have to decide whether to mention that to my colleague who covers the candidate. I would go through the channels to fire someone immediately over this, because it would make me lose all trust in them and if I can no longer be confident in their abilities to do their job effectively without spillage, theyre of no use to my team. Yup. 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? Not because my coworker ratted me out, but because I came to her for guidance and instead of being straight with me, she made me think it would be OK only to be questioned hours later. ), Because honestly, the more I thought about this letter as I read it, the more uncomfortable I got, too. I do not believe in using it for personal gain, even the minor personal gain of sharing juicy secrets with someone. 3) The recipient was a journalist thats super relevant, even if its not in their area I didnt agree with it myself, and knew that it wasnt really possible without raising a lot of money, something my organization just isnt that good at doing. Yeah. Any of them. Your first step should be to contact your old HR department and ask about their policies for reference checks. journalists dont leak information, unless its something confidential about their own employers. 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. It also protects the coworker from any immediate threats or retribution by LW. Everyone absolutely everyone employed at a hospital has to undergo annual HIPAA compliance training. This was supposed to be a stand-alone comment. I would push back slightly on the leak to press part. But doing so would likely out the department LW worked for, and probably LW herself. 2) Multiple people is relevant, but its easy to misunderstand 3rd hand stories. It pretty much doesnt matter what field you are in the higher up you go the more likely you are to be privy to information that you MUST NOT share no matter how excited you may be. Does your company know she could have called the police? 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.. [duplicate]. Its no fun to be fired. Dont blame your colleague she may have been obligated to report this. Yes. So this. Dont reveal confidential information and fully own up to your shit are good lessons. That makes the violation much worse. If you had stayed they would have never trusted you again.. (Also the NASA leaker didnt get fired. Everyone in the workplace has an equal obligation and responsibility to ensure that rules are upheld because thats what keeps the company operating smoothly and in business and able to provide jobs to you all. Letter writer, it sounds like youre new to our field and may not understand the importance of keeping confidence. Letting stuff out early could mean that goes off with a whimper instead of a bang and might be a financial difference in driving extra purchases for that initial season, and the implication of The Things staying power if it doesnt do well enough during that time. The fact that her co-worker actually followed the rules of her employer does NOT make her a rat. Where the investigation uncovers evidence of divulging confidential information, then the employer should take formal action. A good . Re-evaluating my original comment, Id still consider lying if attempts to explain the firing in interviews end up in disaster. But it sounds like it doesnt really matter that HR jumbled the details because neither was a permitted thing to do anyway. 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. Yeah, this is an excellent point. Because a) LW broke confidentiality. 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. The z department is not allocating the staff they promised. Agreed. Why are Suriname, Belize, and Guinea-Bissau classified as "Small Island Developing States"? Especially in banking! And that wasnt even technically confidential. It is not clear at this stage whether the 911 caller will be pursuing a civil claim for damages as a result of the privacy violation. It can be exciting to know whats going to happen before it happens, even when the news itself isnt *that* thrilling. While irritating, email from mass marketing lists dont require a response and you probably wouldnt get an answer anyway. 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. You know thats not how that works. 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. I was under the impression that most big companies had a policy against telling a reference checker anything beyond dates of employment. She has to protect her job and reputation as well in the end, she shouldnt have to risk her own job stability due to your choices! In addition to 100% needing to own it when asked about it, I think OP may also benefit from focusing the job search on jobs that dont involve handling sensitive or high profile information. Things can be the way they are for understandable reasons and you can still feel like crap about it. This is a tough lesson to learn. Lose that part of the defense completely, OP. So mention it only if explicitly asked. Your understanding of confidential is not mine. Dec. 17, 2009 -- You probably don't think twice about sending personal messages through your work e-mail. Unfortunately, a lot of times people mistake the first for the second. But, bald facts, they told you not to do the thing you turned around and did. Telling the trusted friend was the fireable offense. In addition to Alisons script, I think it also reflects well on you that you reported what you had done. I have personally learned that if you never want coworkers to find out something embarrassing or private about you, never ever tell them. My (unclear) point is that there are some options for OP that extend beyond you can never share anything before its public with anyone ever and completely change career tracks.. And that is a hard pill to swallow, for sure. LW, please, please look hard at what happened and how you can promise yourself first of all that this was the last time. One piece of information I learned (that has since been announced publicly, but hadnt been at the time) was SO EXCITING that in a weak moment, I texted one friend about it in celebration. Plus, I think part of it was that it was exciting BECAUSE it was secret, and now its apparently common knowledge. There are no legal ramifications or civil lawsuits at this stage as it wasn't trade secrets or secret IP. Or at least, I can. You can get past this, if you learn from the experience. While that obviously wasnt the result Id have wanted, I learned an important lesson about confidentiality, and its not a mistake Ill ever repeat.. She can come to value the lesson while seeing it all clearly. Depending on the circumstances, you can indeed get fired for sending what you assume to be a private email or text. Many employers monitor emails, and some employees . President issuing an executive order on (issue the agency deals with) How to handle a hobby that makes income in US. Third, with bright line rules, we cannot adopt situational ethics where its ok to disclose to close-trusted-journalist-friend because we trust them. Which means have to vet things like your friend is a journalist, but doesnt cover your area? (They could be facing prison time.). People have gotten jobs in their field after vastly more serious forkups, don't despair. [important person 1] and [important person 2] are coming to my office for a press conference. 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. As a sidenote: *Even if* you think it *wasnt* a big deal, when you get hauled into the boss office and told it. I work in the auto industry in media communications. The misrepresentation of what happened is my concern. You are right. 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. 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. Clearly yall do not understand handling confidential information. She can still apply to jobs in her field, and even in the fields you noted, shell just have to be very clear in interviews that she understands why she was fired from this job and how shell work to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. I agree. Thank you for explaining this! Best of luck in your next job! If someone preempts that, theyre not happy about it generally. Even if this person had not turned her in, there was this bomb just sitting there waiting to go off. Sure but I think its highly unlikely that someone at OPs level would have access to that. Coworker would let the other authorities figure that out. Feelings are frequently conflated with facts in our minds and it can take some work to separate them. If OP doesnt recognize and own up to that, thats going to be a bigger red flag for potential employers than if OP said, I made a mistake, learned from it, and it wont happen again.. I think its fair for you to be upset that you didnt have another chance, but also understandable that your employer felt it couldnt give you one. Theres truly no compelling reason to break confidentiality here. Now were just nitpicking the OPs words here. 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. No one ever called for a reference. And by becoming the must fanatically trustworthy discreet person. Within hours, there were writeups on tech blogs about the new iPhone before its official release. ! but you just cant. How do I go about asking for a job on another team? If you are still defensive or dismissive about this, it will come through in an interview. However, I will agree that, per OPs statement, the information appears to be unsolicited and doesnt seem like it would have been considered a records request (who knows, we dont have a lot of information and what we have has been proven to be distorted). But what might walk that back to a performance plan would be a sincere, unqualified apology showing understanding of the gravity of the error. You technically did something, your friend happened to be a journalist, victimless mistake, and so on. Nah, I think the odds of whats super exciting to a government agency being equally exciting to me are pretty slim. how to explain you were fired, when interviewing. And depending on the circumstances, if the co-worker knew you broke the rules and didnt report it, then THEY could be in trouble also. And calling this victimless isnt a helpful framing; if you do something thats clearly forbidden and could result in real harm, thats a problem even if no harm resulted this time. We dont even know where the LW is; Alison has gotten letters from outside of the United States before. She had no idea whether the friend would blab or not. Dang! Every bit of what Ive said is probably hearsay. You hear something genuinely classified and blab it too because its so cool? I just want to remind people that it happened. The damage from most leaks isnt visible until much later, but it can be massive. OP has been mature about admitting fault, lets not undermine that by implying it was no big deal. Or the surrounding land if its something that will raise property values. You are allowed to feel your feels about things, so long as you understand the reality. 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. I think thats misunderstanding the severity of why what OP did was not ok. Theres any number of non-confidential matters that are embargoed prior to their public announcement. I get that youre trying to take responsibility here, but your Im still pretty upset that I had no second chance, I suppose suggests to me you still have a long way to go toward recognizing and acknowledging the seriousness of what happened. I wouldnt lead with it, but I wouldnt hide it either if it ever comes up, and folks will likely ask about why youve left past jobs. Learn that about yourself, and move on. Sorry this happened, OP! I work for a charity that offers a telephone service nationwide, and I take a lot of calls from people in quite distressing situations. (And even then, the existence of the record has to be disclosed even if the actual record is not disclosed. I have a whole bunch of very personal medical information swimming around my memory and I while some of it Ive wished I could share with my spouse, I never have. They may. Besides the stuff that has already been discussed upthread like potential for insider trading, unfair advantage in things like competing for federal contracts or grants, or derailing a communications strategy, one of the biggest reasons to keep work information private is due to counterintelligence concerns. I thought it was over. My employer lost a lawsuit where they had been sued for violating open records and meetings laws. 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. And in this case, I beleive that is correct. This is a much more fulsome explanation of what I meant! Second coworker only was put on an improvement plan. Coworker Jean who would CC her boss and her grandboss when Jean thought shed caught somebody in an errorbut would then cease CCing once she realized that there was in fact no error? True, but youre talking more about deciding to become a whistleblower over something potentially dangerous to the public. Practice talking about it until you can truly pull it off. I dont think we fired anyone but the need for absolute confidentiality was reiterated. This reminds me of how Northwestern Hospital had to fire 50 employees back in March for violating HIPAA by accessing Jussie Smolletts medical records.
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