There isnt really such thing as a rat in the workplace. If that got into the wrong hands it could even result in the end of civilization. All people, of all ages, are capable of errors in judgment. If its something that would be a big deal for LWs friends news outlet to report first, not being able to say anything to the reporters who could write about it even, hey, I hear this might happen, you should make some calls! :) :) :) :) Being a wealthy heiress and a socialite IS a full-time job! Second chances arent a foregone conclusion in any aspect of life or work; your expectation that there should have been one at all suggests a level of entitlement that needs to be examined. 4. 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. 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. (Also the NASA leaker didnt get fired. You really think a lawyer would publicly (extremely publicly) admit to doing something he hadnt done, for which he was sanctioned and fined by regulators, and permanently ruin his own reputation in the process? Dont disagree feelings arent wrong but the way we think about them often is. (Even before learning it was to a reporter!) I dont know the OPs financial status but if she needed the $$$ its not that easy to look at it as a kindness in the moment. And then there are things you cannot even hint at under any circumstances. If the answer is Yes then say that. Really? If you shared something with me that I didnt ask you about or probe for, and just knowing it could jeopardize my reputation or career you bet your ass Id share it with our manager. If nothing exculpatory came out in that meeting then maybe firing was the appropriate response. It helps you to catch context-driven mistakes such as adding the wrong recipient, attaching the wrong file, or forgetting to use Bcc instead of cc. 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. And Im happy to report that I have never shared that news (still remember it bcs this was so hard that first time!). Businesses have a term for that kind of behaviour, and that is 'data leakage'. Contact the unintended recipient It's a good idea to contact the unintended recipient as soon as you realize the error. It doesnt matter if theyd trust this person with their firstborn child. Preventing email data loss in Microsoft 365. If there were excetions, that would be explicitly stated. A little time isn't unreasonable. Nothing I said contradicts this. 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. All we can do is learn, rest, and go on another day. Going forward definitely own this mistake and explain that you are freaking Fort Knox going now to new employers, knowing now the seriousness of such a transgression. You unpromptedly wrote a message to the friend. This is a very astute comment, especially your last paragraph. Show prospective employers that you can reflect on your actions and learn from mistakes, because thats not at all what Im seeing here. And youre a risk, on top of having done a fireable offense. Basically, one of the key ways that spies get information is by social engineering picking up seemingly minor information through friendly chat that they can then combine together to make more. I wonder if OP ever got the chance to correct the misunderstanding. Fired. 2) Multiple people is relevant, but its easy to misunderstand 3rd hand stories. ugh, no if you cant tell them the actual news, dont tease it. First coworker punched second coworker. If anything went down, you could say But Older Coworker knew! 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. can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information. 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. We literally filled a room with records for them, and 99% of it was people asking what flavor of donuts to bring to a meeting or requesting copies of informational flyers. > On Monday, I was called into a fact-finding meeting with HR. We will always be privy to confidential information in our roles, its the nature of what we do. Email violations can jeopardize your job. For example, a lot of insider trading is based on the TIMING of someone finding out information. Plus, I think part of it was that it was exciting BECAUSE it was secret, and now its apparently common knowledge. You asked how to handle this in future interviews and one key is owning the mistake, taking responsibility for it. I was fired over the phone. With all the Data Protection rules, the E-privacy Regs, yes - and sorry, GDPR, my friend was in panic mode as they still didn't really understand their situation. Really? Never mind firing for leaks, they dont even hire people who appear to have poor judgement about confidential information. I empathize, having both been in government service where the people can let the boundaries get too loose and, separately, had a career-breaking moment in a toxic workplace. Yes, own it. Even there, be very sure the person youre talking to has the same access you do. That doesnt mean you need to go into all the details or give a lengthy mea culpa, but you dont want to sound like youre minimizing it. Handling confidential information discreetly is a day to day part of working in communications, particularly for government entities (I say as someone in this field). I accidentally sent the email about the female coworker to this other female coworker. Which means have to vet things like your friend is a journalist, but doesnt cover your area? reading. If that puts it in perspective. Since you touched on it in your follow-up, OP, dont look at this as not getting a second chance. You are its just going to happen at another organization. Communications professionals are privy to so many deals and information that cant be divulged to even spouses until they become public. This is so well said. So the judgment on trustworthiness is flawed. When dad got on the phone he explained to the person that he understood the situation and that he was going to have to report him because he gave my mother classified information. As Brett said, there was definitely a record in this case. Like its going to be easier to find a job because she has the integrity to say she got fired. Sometimes he wasnt working on confidential stuff, and he could come home and geek out over what he was doing if he wanted. Eh, if a waitress at a homey diner calls everyone honey, I wouldnt call it condescending. But she also would not tell me if she spent a day at work planning for a war!). LW, people in the comments are also ragging on you for being upset with your coworker but frankly, I would be mad too! The best solution for avoiding misdirected email altogether is through human layer security. I have been fired for a dumb mistake. I think the wider point is that anyone can make that mistake at any age, and speculating about this part of it is irrelevant and not helpful. I question that there are no details about your Monday meeting with HR here. This is a situation that youre going to have great difficulty explaining away and I might prefer a resume gap to being at such a disadvantage. Firing you was probably not what they wanted to do, and Im sorry. Obviously telling the friend was the fireable offense here, Im not arguing that. as a manager, should I not wear a childless shirt in my off-hours? A senior UK diplomat has resigned over the matter. It doesnt, but we still shouldnt state assumptions like facts if theyre not supported by whats said in the letter and theres nothing wrong with Michaela pointing it out. In those cases I have to be even more careful, because minor details might get linked to the news story and suddenly its not anonymous any more. Further, the laws/regluations dont actually make allowances for how many people are told the confidential information, or how much you, the employee, trusts the person they told. It's difficult to prevent a leak from happening again if you don't know how it occurred in the first place. Accidental disclosure of PHI includes sending an email to the wrong recipient and an employee accidentally viewing a patient's report, which leads to an . They fell prey to the Its just a quick peek and it wont hurt anybody fallacy. If you had to process the cool news, it may have been better to process with the mentor instead. If you talk about sensitive stuff in public you best be sure youre actually anonymizing what you have to say. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship. Many, many of us in similar positions have made similar mistakes. And theres a difference between feeling (sensation) and feeling (conclusion drawn from integrating sensations and information). Lack of integrity. "Yes, humor in the workplace is a fabulously invaluable thing that any workplace can benefit greatly from, but when your colleagues already feel buried under a pile of never-ending emails, adding. Id stay under a cloud of mistrust if that meant a steady paycheck if I didnt have anything else lined up. Like, its so obviously wrong that people dont even talk about it. So mention it only if explicitly asked. Based on it happening before GSA was born, this most likely happened on a land line. Click "Enable" if it isn't selected already. 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. Yes you can. There could be Official Reasons, but it could also be something as simple as the coworker, while being made somewhat uncomfortable by this confidence originally, got more and more uncomfortable the more she thought about it. The info is out, the tech used to spread it is irrelevant and a distraction from the problem. Only behaviors are right or wrong. 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. They are pretty free with stating exactly why someone was fired. I recently saw a movie in pre-screening thats being pushed to be a blockbuster.
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