can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information

Before I was born, there was a project where mother had to get clearance as well. Assuming this is in the US, and were talking about FOIA laws, typically a records request will come through a particular channel (not likely to be some random employee in communications.). You breached confidential information to a journalist. Sent a confidential email to the wrong address? because your performance / screw-up affects them, or because they feel they are being compared to you and want to put the record straight to defend themselves), or out of a sense that they have an obligation to report (whether or not they actually do). Best of luck with your search. BUT, that shouldnt excuse leaking things, and theres a big difference between a spouse or a journalist, though I can understand why it can still be difficult. You did wrong, fessed up, and got fired anyway. Replying to the sender is a good thing to do for a couple of reasons. With regards to getting a new job within the software engineering/analytics/data science field, I wouldn't lie on application form and in interviews if asked why I left my old job. A while back I had a coworker/friend who created a memo, for our company A, all based on publicly available information, along with suggestions and comments by the coworker. How does this make it any better or worse..? Like, its so obviously wrong that people dont even talk about it. It makes me so happy that I had to tell someone is a reason to text them, OMG, huge news that I cant tell you, but you will be SOOOOO happy when its in the papers in a few days! Not to actually, yknow, tell them the private information. It could be that she did (and I think no employer should ever fire anyone without hearing their version of the story) but the employer still thought its bad enough that they need to fire OP. The amount that LW trusted that friend is a small fraction of how much the government trusted LW. So, you've accidentally sent an email to the wrong person. 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? Having a mentor at a different organization in a similar role might be a good idea for the future. The communications team is often brought on board to develop strategy for organizational decisions that may not be public for weeks or even months. 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. (Im not from the US, and not in government) If I were in OPs place, I would also be upset and feel betrayed. Heres what to do. Maybe you havent worked with, or known anyone whos worked with, sunshine law and right-to-know, but this is incredibly serious for anyone who has. There isnt really such thing as a rat in the workplace. The coworker did the right thing. Let me tell you what happened to the people who were not on the care team and accessed a newsworthy medical case. Completely unrelated to the topic at hand, love the username! And there are reasons the rule is dont leak, rather than dont leak (except to people youre *really sure* wont tell any one else (except people who they are really sure they wont tell anyone else (except people theyre absolutely positive wont tell anyone else))). the coworker probably was obligated to report it Sometimes their hands are tied too. Were considering opening ours up to partner agencies, and I spent a good two hours cleaning up the old messages in the general chat. Although it was mortifying at the time, this has taught me a hard but valuable lesson about handling sensitive information setting boundaries in my relationships with reporters. Taking a quick peek at someones medical records just out of curiosity? OP has been mature about admitting fault, lets not undermine that by implying it was no big deal. Practice talking about it until you can truly pull it off. Employer found out and had grounds to fire you. Learn how to protect your investment management firm through intelligent email DLP. Embarrassing or inappropriate communications sent via company email can damage professional credibility, reputations, and careers. Gossage said he believed he was speaking in confidence to someone he trusted implicitly, but the story subsequently appeared in the Sunday Times, to the dismay and rage of the author of the Harry Potter books.. 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. Thanks for sharing all of this. Sharing HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL info with a JOURNALIST? Sometimes it can be a blessing in disguise. Something LW has not seemed to understand: the fact that you worked for a governmental agency is not the issue, the fact that you leaked info early is. If someone preempts that, theyre not happy about it generally. Me too. While I agree that this needs to be explained in the right way. you can include that in there too, not as a way to cast doubt on their decision but as a way to indicate this was a fluke, not a pattern of bad judgment. People leak or share things to journalists they know all the time, with agreements by those journalists on how to share it. about your coworker reporting you, betrayed and hard done by, is the way your employer feels about you. You cant let yourself act out of emotion. I had to learn the hard way, Im afraid, but I did learn. I used to work at a public Zoo that was owned by the state, and so we were all state government employees. Check out this article on that HERE. My late dad worked for a government defence research agency for most of his career. Its too difficult to know which internally-discussed information is confidential and which isnt. Agreed. Egress Intelligent Email Security is an example of human layer security, as its able to adapt to your individual behaviour through machine learning. It also protects the coworker from any immediate threats or retribution by LW. OP, I join Alison in wishing you the very best of luck! That doesnt mean youre a horrible person who should never work again! Yup! (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) 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). OP has a right to be annoyed with Coworker, but Coworker was doing her job as well. Feelings can be irrational though, or overblown, or immature, or any number of shades of wrong that means you shouldnt give them 100% credence. Policy change that is a big deal to staff that works on it, but very in the weeds for the general public (regulation is going to be changed in a way that is technically important but at most a medium-sized deal), Fairly real examples that would be much bigger deals: She had no idea whether the friend would blab or not. Heres what to do. Im literally barred by policy from opening up my own files unless theres a work related reason I could lay out to do so. I went to a church where I attended youth group, sat outside, and repeated my news over and over to Jesus for about three hours before I felt certain I could keep it from anyone else (note that no one else was anywhere nearby). 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. Organisations can set up static rules (for example, you can send emails to business A but not business B), but these traditional methods are rigid and unreliable. You are allowed to feel your feels about things, so long as you understand the reality. So I guess maybe it is a generational thing? 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. It was super not personal, it was just a situation were second chances were not given, period. Oh, so LW cant keep a secret from her reporter friend or her coworker, but were ragging on the coworker for not keeping LWs secret? 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. Many, many of us in similar positions have made similar mistakes. 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. But given the kind of convo LW describes.while the LW really should not have been surprised they got reported and then fired, and does seem to be downplaying the severity, I wonder if something about the convo led them to believe it was somehow less serious than the mentor clearly understood it to be, and mentor didnt seem to do anything to help the LW understand how big a deal this is, which is kind of a bummer. I just want to remind people that it happened. They made much more money off of the JK Rowling name. Its also true that people do break confidentiality for a variety of reasons, but people who are really really REALLY aware that they are breaking confidentiality and how big the consequences of it are, are also on top of not leaving a footprint that can be traced back to them. It can depend on what mechanisms are in place to protect the content of the email, who is sending the email, who it is being sent to, the content of the email, and whether the subject of the HIPAA information has provided their written authorization for unsecured PHI to be . As others have noted, it probably isnt anything especially exciting. Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. Basically, I was fired for X mistake. 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. OP came to her, she felt guilty, they apparently talked about this a bit, so why not tell her that this cant be kept secret and she has to come forward to her boss ? The only thing an employer may not do is make employment decisions based upon you being a member of a protected class. That was the profound breach of the OPs duty. This has to be, and often is, done formally, with agreements to give something secret in advance so the journalist can prep a story for later, when its OK to share. Also, Ive seen plenty of firings that were absolutely not presented as position elimination. Even if the exact reason wasnt shared employer isnt going to say Oh, Jane took home a spreadsheet full of MNPI they will absolutely share that the ex-employee was fired for cause, not laid off. Medical too. A little time isn't unreasonable. Theres no way your managers could safely assign other confidential projects to you after leaking the information on this project. It was sheer luck that she didnt get caught by some other means. I dont love not being able to tell her things (even though we are each others I promise not to tell anybody (but Friend) person), the way we share this information is by forwarding press releases once the information is public. All the meanwhile you're still trying to run a successful business and handling other things that are coming up. In my experience, it was highly effective. [important person 1] and [important person 2] are coming to my office for a press conference. Really? can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information. NEVER by email unless explicitly given the go-ahead). Like you said, it was a breach and thats serious on a professional level (your friend is a journalist, too! Lack of rigor. Having said that, as a hiring manager, if you were able to talk to me about how this one-time error in judgment caused a deep shift in thinking and was a critical pivot point in your professional development I would hear you out. If asked specifially try to describe in detail what happened and what you learned from it, for example: ask if the new employer has clear guidelines on data handling. I work in patents, and regularly see information that can definitely not be made public and has to be sent back and forth with extra security measures, but would also be tremendously boring to everyone but the IP team for a few specific rival companies in a very tiny field. As much as I love some of my coworkers, Im not taking one of the team. So, either way my point remains. You texted proprietary information to a journalist. Why are Suriname, Belize, and Guinea-Bissau classified as "Small Island Developing States"? But imagine you are the government and someone leaked information. Im also not going to tell anyone else! We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. picture of male guinea fowl . Eh, if a waitress at a homey diner calls everyone honey, I wouldnt call it condescending. A fine of up to $100,000 and five years in jail is possible for violations involving false pretenses, and a fine of up to $250,000 and up to 10 years in jail is possible when HIPAA Rules have been violated for malicious reasons or for personal gain. The terminology is often not eligible for rehire., And every time Ive ever given a formal reference, that has been one of the questions: Would you hire her again? or Is she eligible for rehire?. Whether it's done to work from home, to print . 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. The type of sanctions that Contract Killer is talking about would only apply to confidential records, not non-public records. Its not a big career risk for her friend the way it is for her, but depending on what the information was, it could have put the friend in an awkward position. 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. Theres an element of common sense to be used. Unless this job was the bulk of your experience, I would leave it off your resume. I dont think it matters now, but the Slack functionality for deleting messages from channels is pretty thorough. Moving forward, the best way to handle it is be honest. Dang! It may be that the decision is made and it is just a matter of time before you are gone. Any tax or benefit records, any survey or census records if I access them without good reason its a firing offence. Once its out, you have no control over it. Thank you for saying that feelings are never wrong. 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. OOPS! I know Id be pissed at you. Im curious about how to turn the page, and I think your advice is really good about this own it, let go of the defensiveness, be ready to talk about changes youve made so it wont happen again. 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). Oh yes. I wrote back and asked, Is there more context for why your coworker thought that? as a manager, should I not wear a childless shirt in my off-hours? Ugh, yes. While it's not always easy to identify the cause for leakage of information, it's important to try to find the security vulnerabilities that make your information less secure. It's a good idea to own it and let your management know. Never mind firing for leaks, they dont even hire people who appear to have poor judgement about confidential information. I want to encourage you to drill deeper on something you said in your letter: I did feel guilty. No, no, no, no, no. Because they turned out to not be trustworthy. Sometimes I see stuff that is cool to nerds of that particular field, but 95% of my Secret Information from clients is not even interesting to them. Or the surrounding land if its something that will raise property values. Its not their call. 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. You didn't accidentally email the material to yourself, you did it on purpose. Confidentiality is a big deal for a lot of reasons, and people in those types tend to respect that. I doubt she is the only person that has ever done anything like this. However, at the time, I did feel guilty so I confided in an older coworker who I considered a mentor. I think its very strange that so many commenters are trying to police the LWs feelings about the coworker. 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. Including their reputation being damaged. 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. They looked at themselves as an organization and realized that the damage was irrevocable. LW, youve learned half of your lesson, but really need to keep working to get there. Yes, you can get fired for opening a phishing email. If youd like to learn more about human layer security and email data loss prevention (DLP), you can explore our content hub for more information. 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. I dont recall that Lily Rowan ever had a job. 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. Thats why they told you no. Journalists seek out and report information thats their job.. MUCH stronger. Hopefully there still something to be said for that! How is an ETF fee calculated in a trade that ends in less than a year? Sometimes the news is a dreadful burden to bear (staff reductions of people you know, elimination of services you think are important) and sometimes the news is exciting, you have the inside scoop and cant wait to share it. You wrote, The only reason I got fired was because I was ratted out by a coworker for a victimless mistake and was fired unfairly. But you werent fired because your coworker reported you; you were fired because you broke a serious rule. Maybe she had to report it for her job (as some people are speculating) but even still, its okay to be annoyed at someone even if its not 100% logical. Heck, at my agency were cautioned to not use work email on our personal devices (unless were management or its an emergency) because records requests could potentially get our personal devices as well. Period. There are, unfortunately, many things I am doomed to not know even though I would really like to find out. There ARE circumstances in which keep this confidential means you can tell very close, trusted people about it as they did in the letter. I get why maintaining confidentiality is important, and I understand why the OP was wrong in this particular situation, but balance is also needed. In such cases, the employee should be given the benefit of the doubt. 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. 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. Some offenses are serious enough that a single incident is enough to fire someone. This technique requires extra steps, but it . One of my favorite shows had a plotline about a sibling not liking someone not breaking doctor confidentiality. 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. I imagine optimal framing varies by industry and so Im not sure what to advise there. Noooo. Hes in an unrelated field, it doesnt affect him at all, and he wouldnt really care outside of knowing whats going on in Eddies life but hes a chatterbox and theres a decent chance hed forget and say something to someone. If yes, that is relevant to the question. Inadvertently, in my view, would be something along the lines of had confidential documents in a briefcase that you accidentally left behind at a coffee shop. Remember to be kind to yourself: youre human, you made a mistake and, as you said, youve learned from it. Thats just not something you can let yourself do. I do a lot of trade shows and we always remind booth staff of what to say (talk points) and what not to say to trade journalists. Mostly, Im saying this to you so that you understand that you should never have trusted that co-worker to keep that kind of information to herself, no matter how much of a mentor shed been to you I do think that she should have told you that this was serious enough that she couldnt not report it. They know it happens. I remember the line of people walked out the door for looking at OJ Simpsons records when he was arrested. That may not be the right wordbut Im having trouble finding the right one. And if we do, well tell them not to tell anyone.. Even if this person had not turned her in, there was this bomb just sitting there waiting to go off. If the friend had blabbed, shed have been fired, anyway, even without confiding in the senior employee. The Expert above is not your attorney, and . I even tell friends this who work in classified situations and I dont even report the news anymore.). Misdirecting an email can be awkward. Take full responsibility. Thats the real clincher here for me) and on a personal level with management your position is one of trust and you violated the basis of your work. Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. 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! We received a staff email that shared that they were going to release some BIG news about positive new office changes and remodeling and that there was going to be a BIG press conference in 2 days at our office with a lot of high-up political bigwigs and asked everyone to show up for support. I work in communications for a large organization and I see this as a trust issue with leadership. An example: 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. Your failure to understand the gravity of your actions is alarming. Since this incident, Ive taken steps like [saving journalist friends as contacts in a different phone, deleting my Slack channel, etc. 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. i think we often send the message (societally) that making someone feel bad is a mean thing to do; its not. Unfortunately, a lot of times people mistake the first for the second. But from there you can talk about what you learned from the experience and how this makes you a better employee/candidate now. I was talking about this upthread before I saw this discussion. Those questioners would hammer her on this. Show prospective employers that you can reflect on your actions and learn from mistakes, because thats not at all what Im seeing 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. Quite recently, a client of my firm contacted us to say they had heard staff in a bar gossiping about another client. I was sent home, and then fired over the phone a few hours later. Period. We asked them why they did it. The first person needs to understand that most of the time, you arent entitled to negotiate a yes, because the answer is no. It could be that the info you leaked was especially confidential, or that theyve been concerned about other leaks and are taking a hard-line stance. But OPs situation sounds like more of a case of I am just soooo excited about Cool Thing that I had to tell rather than something dangerous or corrupt is going on and the public should know.. 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. While the 911 caller believes criminal charges are appropriate, that is a matter for the district attorney to decide. For many fed and state agencies, non-public records _must_ be released on a records request despite their non-public status unless they fit into a narrow set of explicit exemptions. I am a veteran employee in good standing, but if I shared Material NonPublic Information I learned on the job and was found out, I would be terminated immediately and they would be right to do so. (Even if its not an area she covers, she likely knows the person who does, and journalists share tips/info all the time.). However, were only human. Oh, its possible to be a rat in the workplace. On other occasions, you might accidentally receive a confidential email with information meant for one person (or a few people) you know. 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. We were interviewing someone who had broken the #1 cardinal ethical rule in our industry (a branch of health care). Thats the wrong lesson to learn. Or they might have a zero-tolerance policy for leaks as a deterrent. Also, the OP wont be able to ever claim the good work experience she gained from the role.

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