But it could be that GSA's dad had a code/password to verify it was actually him and the caller forgot to verify that first. Ive had to fire someone in a one-strike situation for what I genuinely believe was an honest mistake because it was too big a risk to keep that person on staff going forward. The first person needs to understand that most of the time, you arent entitled to negotiate a yes, because the answer is no. Doesnt matter if it was a friend. Im a journalist, so, yes. Don't be me, is what I'm saying I guess! Equally, when we had a client who does the same job role as someone I know, I had to completely embargo that piece of information in my head, because I know that its a small field and my friend might recognise the detail I thought was vague enough to be anonymous. If the friend had blabbed, shed have been fired, anyway, even without confiding in the senior employee. Same here! We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. No, no, no, no, no. My code is GPL licensed, can I issue a license to have my code be distributed in a specific MIT licensed project? 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. ), This didnt involve a records request. Theres no mitigating circumstance here. Im sorry this happened to you, OP, Im sure it feels devastating, and it sounds like some of the details were inflated but there is a good reminder here for all of us as some things cant be undone. this is one of the reasons why its best to have a mentor who is NOT at the same company as you. For what its worth, one thing I noticed from your letter is language that sounds very social, discussing your trust in your friend, being ratted out by your mentor, not being given a second chance, and so on. Why is there a voltage on my HDMI and coaxial cables? Egress Intelligent Email Security is an example of human layer security, as its able to adapt to your individual behaviour through machine learning. Employees who violate their companies' email policies can face penalties ranging from disciplinary action to termination. how trustworthy somebody actually is is never certain. and sent to multiple people (!!)? Once info is out in the community, you have no control over where it goes and any and all ramifications. Dec. 17, 2009 -- You probably don't think twice about sending personal messages through your work e-mail. It was spur of the moment and, as soon as I realized what Id done I circled back to her to clarify that that information was confidential. I question that there are no details about your Monday meeting with HR here. [Well-known bad person] is going to be fined/punished/arrested. FIFTY?! Then the second paragraph said Do not release this information to anyone outside of the office because the press are not to know about these changes until the morning of the event. 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. I got that impression as well and have had younger coworkers who sent random, very personal info to me in texts. 3) The recipient was a journalist thats super relevant, even if its not in their area He shared it with one person, telling them it was a joke. Its very possible that LW could think what happened to me wasnt totally fair and still accept full responsibility for it during interviews (which is obviously the smart thing to do). Its not the end of the world as long as you adjust your thinking going forward and really try to understand why confidentiality policies exist. That, and I never slapped another plucky again. 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 maybe they can, and maybe that chain will end with someone who doesnt forward the info on, or peter out once the information does become public in this case. Of course. Then your story isnt just I did something wrong, they found out, and I got fired, its I did something wrong, I knew it was a mistake and told a senior member of my team about it, and as a result I got fired. The more you can acknowledge that you took responsibility for your mistake, the better it sounds for a potential employer. I made a similar dumb mistake in my first professional job by sharing something that wasnt sensitive but was nonetheless governed by a broad company-wide confidentiality policy a complaint email sent to our companys contact us address by a customer whose name and address I had omitted. Even when it doesnt rise to the level of legal shenanigans might happen, it can be pretty serious. If you had stayed they would have never trusted you again.. In a job interview, how do I explain why I was fired? Contact the GDPR manager at once. I remind people about once a year that not only can I not look up their medical info on my own, I cant look it up even if they ask me to, and I get in even more trouble if I look up my own medical info. but if you mess up and by the skin of your teeth get away with it, just DO NOT talk about it with anyone at the company. Id spend some time processing how you felt and trying to learn to take accountability and personal responsibility for this (and seriously its something thats really uncomfortable and hard for everyone but it helps so much). If you live in a place where its illegal to shoot guns into the air, and you shoot a gun into the air and the bullet does not actually kill anyone in its fall, you have still broken the law and placed others in danger. This issue recently came up for me as an interviewer. If you hadnt told your co-worker, then they could not have ratted you out. It may help you to know that the dreaded why are you unemployed right now question doesnt come up in every interview. 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. Recently, the National Guard was hit with a data breach, where files containing personal information were unintentionally transferred to a "non-DoD-accredited data center by a . As I read it, LWs friend couldnt pass the information along at all. Best of luck in your next job! Unfortunately these days a lot of the regulators are crooked and will never do anything about problems without a lot of public pressure (and sometimes not even then). 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. (Presumably easier to get caught via company comms but doesnt make the leak any different imo). (For the record, I always told people I was interviewing as a source that there was no such thing as off the record with me its not a requirement of our field, theres no law saying we have to follow that request if asked, so if the subject didnt want me to print something, they shouldnt tell me. THIS ^^^ Whether it is age or just immaturity, there is clearly a major blind spot about the big picture and the potential impact resulting from this behavior. The 2nd chance is just too much risk as far as theyre concerned. I admit to being incredibly curious as well. Like, firing on the spot if I access my own chart. Yeah, wouldnt it be possible to prove (or rather disprove) that you leaked to a slack channel full of journalists? The mistake may not have been trusting the friend with that information, but it was definitely telling her. Yes, or that appalling line by E M Forster, written just before the Second World War: if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend I hope I should have the guts to betray my country. This is probably not a feasible strategy, unless the OP was at the job for only a few months. As the other commenter noted, this could have been a very serious offence considering you were working for the government. It being Silicon Valley, not only was the phone found, it was immediately identified for what it was. its not condescending to point out that what LW did was incredibly foolish. I dont feel like we need that caveat though, there of course will be exceptions, but this is kinda derailing. Between that and having family members who have been laid off and lost access to their work account that they used for personal use as well, I have learned to keep work and personal email accounts separate. There could be a situation where it might be the journalists job to share the information LW thought they were telling to just a friend. Thats the person were gonna call the blabbermouth in this situation? (IE: if they think you f*cked up, then respond like you did, however you actually feel). I imagine optimal framing varies by industry and so Im not sure what to advise there. But how do I explain this story to future employers? And I dont think it helps the OP to say that she doesnt have the right to have feelings of resentment toward the coworker. Because I can almost guarantee that your reputation in that organization would never recover, even if you had remained employed. Sometimes its because someone could obtain an unfair benefit from early access to what will later become public information (e.g., think analogous to insider trading). 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. How to answer question on moving to another country for job? I was kinda thinking that an otherwise level headed and calm employee wouldnt punch a colleague unless the other guy had been doing something truly egregious. As someone who works in PR/comms, my recommendation is to tell future employers the truth and emphasize what youve learned: I dont / cant post it publicly, but I can share all kinds of stuff with people close to me even friends in journalism, though I always specify off the record before i dish and my employer doesnt care because the concerns about confidentiality arent strict NDA / security issues. Yeah, Im wondering that too. Whilst Im sure the OP is a perfectly nice person, theres a reason that there are office shootings and other awful things, some people are not. At the time, I thought it would be ok since it wouldnt cause a problem, but I realize it was not up to me to make that judgement. It involved something the OP had learned about in confidence, but hadnt even been publicly announced and the OP blabbed about it to someone completely unrelated to her job. Sometimes it can be a blessing in disguise. (i hope this story still makes sense with all identifying details purged, but hopefully its clear from context uh why i am purging all those details smdh) Yes, the ratted me out thing is probably not a fair assessment of what actually happened here. (Im not from the US, and not in government) If I were in OPs place, I would also be upset and feel betrayed. Best of luck with your search. So, either way my point remains. Breach of confidentiality can be described as an act of gross misconduct, so deal with issues that arise in a timely manner, in line with your procedures and look at any previous cases to ensure fairness and consistency. There isnt really such thing as a rat in the workplace. Theres no context where calling a stranger honey doesnt feel condescending (whether someone intends it to or not!). 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. Im sure he knew about things that he would have liked to talk about, and my dad can talk about anything to anyone at great length. Im so sorry and I will never do anything like that again.. Only behaviors are right or wrong. Nah. When you accidentally receive a confidential from someone within your own organisation, things are pretty simple. Me too in Government. Fascinating (and fun!) 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. FOIA and open records requests are really big deals. Preventing email data loss in Microsoft 365. I missed the phrase ratted me out in the original message, but given those feelings, it doesnt really count as self-reporting. If I know that Senator Y is releasing a health care plan on Monday that would require mandatory surgery for every American, and he has bipartisan support for it, thats a much more specific news tip, and Id rather my friend just not tell me and save me the heartburn. Its especially challenging if youve grown up immersed in social media, where confidential emails with the names and sensitive details blacked out are frequently posted on Facebook or Twitter or someones blog, where they go viral. 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. OP should be counting their blessings they only got fired and be upset with themselves for making such an obvious and preventable error, not expecting a large bureaucracy to break its own rules to accommodate them. This seems unnecessarily condescending, and I dont think the LW sounds defensive here at all. Have you learned from your mistake? I used to work at a public Zoo that was owned by the state, and so we were all state government employees. Why are Suriname, Belize, and Guinea-Bissau classified as "Small Island Developing States"? Access rules are very, very strict, and there are reminders all the time. All the meanwhile you're still trying to run a successful business and handling other things that are coming up. Did you apologize profusely and then explain that there was some miscommunication here? I always assumed the phrase meant no feelings are incorrect, and it made a lot less sense than the way youve laid it out! You broke a rule and you have to take responsibility. I disagree. Heres what to do. Other agencies will provide title and dates, and whether you are eligible for rehire. I agree. How do I make amends and go about apologizing to former manager(s) after being dismissed for gross misconduct? Theres beating themselves up, but then theres also understanding and feeling properly appalled that they did something really unconscionable. Disclosing confidential information has, at best, resulted in nothing, and at worse, resulted in injury/death, or even political systems toppling. Also, she wasnt a journalist I ever interacted with professionally shes a friend Ive had for years. Theres no such thing as blind-siding once youve committed an infraction and people have to act on it. And in the future if you really cant hold something in (that is not full on illegal to discuss) and want to share it with your spouse or something, dear God dont ever do it in writing! Now I just leave and cry and deal with the long-term consequences, like never moving up. If you break certain unspoken rules, you can lose your job or ruin your career. You may want to target less security-sensitive industries or environments until you've worked up enough of a resume after this event to show that you're reliable. Its always easier, at least to me, to close your mouth than open it. Sharing HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL info. 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?. Not necessarily for the leaking but for the way youre talking about it. But heres the thing you still have to have a ton of discretion about how you share and where. If you need to share with the boss do so. Even there, be very sure the person youre talking to has the same access you do.
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