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. It's hard to answer this question without specifics, but it strikes me as very important to differentiate between an accident or mistake in the sense of "oops, I did that by unintentionally" versus misconduct, as in "this was against policy and I deliberately did it anyways" regardless of whether you knew about the policy or had a good reason to do it or not. 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! Leakage of Information - Employees and Data Leaks | Titanfile Also to prevent someone who might be a bit dangerous, from hurting you. +10. Its also totally understandable that youre disappointed about losing your job, but they might have just considered that kind of confidentiality breach too much of a risk going forward. 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. The heads on spikes of the modern workplace. Even though shes made the same mistake 2 times). Good points, and good advice for anyone whos apologizing for anything. read something out loud THEN realize that it wasnt public information. Almost every situation I know of where someone was fired for cause was presented publically as a position elimination.. I work for a charity that offers a telephone service nationwide, and I take a lot of calls from people in quite distressing situations. As others mentioned, the breach is possibly a fire on first offense potential, but since they fired you after investigating slack that makes me wonder if you had too casual and friendly of chats with the journalists whose job it was for you to talk with. And in this case, I beleive that is correct. While it is possible the line could be actively tapped/monitored by someone else, even if it was an unsecured line it would be reasonable to assume the home phone number on file for GSAs dad would lead to the dad. 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. We also got early warning that legislators were encouraged to resign, a day or two before the press releases. I dont want to beat up on the LW, but I do think they fundamentally need to understand that the loss of trust made it impossible for the agency to give you a second chance in this position. Email Basics: Email Violations Can Jeopardize Your Job - GCFGlobal.org How on earth could you know this was a misunderstanding? Libel or slander or posting comments about individuals that are not related to your work environment are not protected. Yeah just assume that for the next few years youre out of the running for jobs that require a confidentiality. Im not curious at all, but Im different. Sometimes their hands are tied too. As Alison said, its a lot like DUI; even if no one gets hurt, theres a reason we shouldnt take those risks. If we receive confidential information, there are very specific and non-flexible procedures we have to follow to handle those documents/information. The secretary is going to be featured at [cool upcoming event]! Right. Under the "General" tab, you'll see a section called "Undo send.". Id stay under a cloud of mistrust if that meant a steady paycheck if I didnt have anything else lined up. Good luck! that should be a firing offense. Those questioners would hammer her on this. And I did use Slack on my work computer, and I did interact professionally with some journalists who covered my area over Slack. Because they turned out to not be trustworthy. 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. 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 wouldnt be obligated by anything other than displaced loyalty if I wanted to try to be squirrelly of course but I respect myself way too much and have my own standards to just keep quiet about things. Your second co-worker who sexually harassed a woman was put on a PIP? I am trying not to be too harsh but yes you screwed up. Is there a single-word adjective for "having exceptionally strong moral principles"? Its very dangerous to OPs professional reputation to assume OP can trust anyone who is unauthorized, including a good friend, with embargoed information. ! mode if she told me a general were harassing her, unless making this public is something shed want. I arrived in 69. I accidentally sent the email about the female coworker to this other female coworker. The enforcement has to be based on the idea that the leak was damaging. The Workplace Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for members of the workforce navigating the professional setting. super! Im also not going to tell anyone else! Access rules are very, very strict, and there are reminders all the time. Whether nor not anyone got fired might depend on context, but somebody would at the very least get a serious talking-to. If we think about this, not only did she trust her journalist friend, she trusted her coworker not to tell anyone either. So please think about that aspect when youre thinking about how she ratted you out. 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. Everyone absolutely everyone employed at a hospital has to undergo annual HIPAA compliance training. Unfortunately, someone did leak the info so all the employees read about the information in a major business news website AND the local newspaper the night before the event despite the intention for the employees to hear the news firsthand at the event before it was released to the public. Ethically, you dont have to do anything. This disclosure was not inadvertent, and trying to frame it that way could backfire pretty hard. If its a marketing message, spam, or something that looks entirely unimportant simply delete and move on. Messages like this can simply be ignored and deleted. But I dont think this applies in any case since it was on her personal cell. For a market where most of this stuff lives in a big way for one season, and then only has some ongoing staying power? Also, she wasnt a journalist I ever interacted with professionally shes a friend Ive had for years. In a couple of hours, the news agencies were calling the federal government, to verify the news. What happens when someone sees that message over her shoulder? Thats why they told you no. I replaced someone who had embezzled from the (small) company. 2. 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. OP notes that she is a government employee. I work for a government entity and believe me if you need a reminder not to text a journalist non-public information my line of work is not for you. Absolutely this. So if shes genuinely surprised at this outcome, it stands to reason that its new for her, which strongly implies she just hasnt been working very long, which implies youth. If I happened to expose that to my BIL who runs the comic book store and has a bunch of media and arts and entertainment contacts? Id instantly think that youd learned nothing, that no information we kept around you would be secure, and that anything we brought to you as far as behavior we needed you to change would suddenly be labeled as victimless and only because *truly irrelevant fact here* and unfair. 1) Slack vs text: doesnt matter. Its not their call. In this situation, I reported myself is simply false, given OPs expectation that her mentor wouldnt pass along what she knew to anyone else. The point of the story is the funny way people behave. and starting the work of rebuilding reputation. Another engineer girl here, at a place where people have been fired for leaks and it hits the news when it happens: theres a warning during New Hire Orientation, and between that and our reputation, youre expected to know it. 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. Whose to say OP isnt right that the coworker had it out for her? 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? 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. Thats a flat out easy to uncover lie. If I were in the coworkers position, I would need to do the same thing. A non-disclosure agreement (often referred to as a confidentiality agreement), is a legally-binding contract which governs the sharing of information between people or organizations and sets limits on the use of the information. But your framing of this does sound defensive and doesnt sound like youre taking responsibility for what happened. If something like this would help, maybe try it. If I was that coworker, Id have to think shed continue to go around blabbing about this, and there is No Way I could just sit on it until *I* got called on the carpet. If you hadnt told your co-worker, then they could not have ratted you out. The anger I hold for my coworker is something I will deal with over time. So while the OP can feel what the OP feels, the sooner she can get rid of any hostile feelings about the coworker, the better it will be for the OP. Many employers monitor emails, and some employees . In McMorris v. So have a lot of other people who have managed to find other jobs. Gov employee here and I would be in trouble as well for not reporting what LW told coworker. (IE: if they think you f*cked up, then respond like you did, however you actually feel). Which is actually good most of us get making a mistake when were young, and really learning from it. Is it possible to rotate a window 90 degrees if it has the same length and width? Not just confidential, but confidential from *journalists*!! 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. But what you were effectively asking your employer to do is trust a totally unknown (to them) journalist not to publish something that was apparently such exciting news that you, bound by confidentiality, simply couldnt keep quiet about it. Since that didnt happen Im not surprised you werent given a second chance. You put your coworker in an awful spot by telling her this information. LW told a human known to be a journalist about The Thing. Can You Get Fired for Opening a Phishing Email [Deep Research] If there was no record, then there is no possible sanction under FOIA or sunshine law (because that only pertains to records). But folks with strong confidentiality duties often dont disclose the confidential parts of the information to their trusted confidants or partners. That really set the tone for the reference she gave. All journalists are human and many of us have spouses/friends who do things that are news, and this is a situation where good boundaries can protect everyone. How you analyze the situation and internalize the lesson is more important than wording for future employers right now. Telling the trusted friend was the fireable offense. So mention it only if explicitly asked. I think thats a ridiculous overreach but whatever). Also, the OP wont be able to ever claim the good work experience she gained from the role. Im sorry, but I think you were fired with pretty good cause and it would be important to own that or you wont be able to spin the story for future employers. If its obvious who the email was intended for, just forward it on and cc the original sender, letting them know what youve done. Thanks for sharing all of this. Eh, if a waitress at a homey diner calls everyone honey, I wouldnt call it condescending. My code is GPL licensed, can I issue a license to have my code be distributed in a specific MIT licensed project? Much safer. Your coworker then followed proper procedure when learning of this data breach- their actions were not ratting you out, their actions were following proper protocol for what an employee who is working at a company that frequently deals with sensitive data is tasked with doing once they learn of a data breach. Well, this is both unkind and off-base. How do I politely turn down the call for an interview by another employer? First coworker was fired in spite of the fact that he was a brilliant and (normally) even tempered guy with years of work at the corporation. I can remember almost exactly what I said: It was wrong of me to put that information out. Yeah it totally sucks but now you at least have a chance to start fresh. Recurring theme here is that tattling isnt a thing at work. There are different levels of confidentiality for different circumstances. Im confused about the fact-finding meeting. Because I said I wouldnt, I knew there would be consequences if something like your story happened to me, and also because, hows that going to look to a potential future employer that might value confidentiality equally highly? Im just explaining that the information was likely a non-public record and not a confidential record. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? Its also important to note that OP called it non-public and Alison was the person who called it confidential. Occasionally our clients have been in the media and have shared part of their story. What if I accidentally sent a work email to my personal email? Will I We had a discussion on a work committee about not using our work emails when discussing some sensitive information. And especially, sharing information that youre not supposed to tends to be the type of thing that will get you fired immediately without another chance. (I think, I never worked in government communications so Im not positive of this.). Build sneaky protections into your life so you get away with violating important rules is NOT what LW needs to learn. 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. If she had been doing something perfectly acceptable, seen by someone who misunderstands the situation, and fired because of that, then she would be an innocent victim of a very unfair employer. But also to say that when you work with confidential info, the impulse to share is a common one, and managing it is something you need to be on top of from every angle.