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I just wasn't thinking at the moment I sent the information. 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. ), This didnt involve a records request. We asked them why they did it. If I were in the coworkers position, I would need to do the same thing. Regardless of what the coworker did, ideally we want to nudge OP toward exercising greater impulse control and discretion if OP wants to have a successful career in the same sector/field. The sharing of information is a violation of your professional duties and ethics and would get me 60% of the way to firing someone if I were your boss. In a couple of hours, the news agencies were calling the federal government, to verify the news. It makes the sender aware of their mistake and less likely to bother you again in the future. But, bald facts, they told you not to do the thing you turned around and did. All people, of all ages, are capable of errors in judgment. Despite a good track record and being with this team for a few years now, the rules were made very clear to me and I know I wouldnt be given a second chance in that situation. I thought it was over. Also, Im so done with people using the phrase ratted me out. Im not trying to beat up on the OP; goodness, Ive done similar things and felt the same way she does! Reacting to being fired for that as if being personally persecuted over some piddly technical rule violation and not being given a second chance? This incident was a huge violation of trust. You can get through this, but be honest with yourself! I dont know, I think thats overstating. And youre a risk, on top of having done a fireable offense. Fired. Thats a flat out easy to uncover lie. Its a great professional resource with a lot of professional development around ethics. But it sounds like it doesnt really matter that HR jumbled the details because neither was a permitted thing to do anyway. There is zero entitlement in saying that shes upset she didnt get a second chance. If it bleeds, it leads, and if its not bleeding, you might as well kick it a few times to see if itll start bleeding Nope. Ive seen many workplaces that dont spend an amount of time discussing confidentiality that is commensurate with its importance, or that dont go into specifics about when it is and isnt ok to tell somebody something you heard at work, and a general statement tends not to hold up to the in-the-moment excitement of oooooh I know THING about CELEBRITY! or whatever. I wonder LW, would your interactions with the higher ups have been different if your co-worker/mentor had given you the heads up that she was going to have to report this? Not necessarily for the leaking but for the way youre talking about it. They thought it was funny and shared it with a couple more. I would feel terrible about it, definitely, and probably think about it for a while after, but ultimately, Id need to prioritize my family and act in a way that would protect my job/salary/health insurance so I could continue to provide for my them. Your former job will probably only verify your employment unless you broke a governmental regulation. So, you've accidentally sent an email to the wrong person. Back in the dinosaur era (early 80s) the directors secretary was the only one tasked with typing up yearly evaluations on high-level staff. In sending that information to your own mailbox, you transmitted the data to a number of machines, any number of which could be intercepting the data for reading, and many do albeit for legit purposes of scanning for advertising relevant stuff or scanning viruses. It could also end poorly if the employer actually sees a job opening posted for the position the LW claims was eliminated. People do stupid or extreme things all the time; their lives dont end, but they *can* be turning points for a downward spiral. The phone rang in the middle of the night and my mother picked it up, before she could hand the phone to my father, the person on the other end of the phone explained everything that was going on and why he was calling. NEVER by email unless explicitly given the go-ahead). This is so well said. Examples that most journalists would find pretty snoozy (although journalists who cover the agency super-closely for trade publications, Politico Pro, Bloomberg Gov, etc, would still be interested): But I had a boss who always used to try to cover his ass 110%. I feel like this misses the overall lesson Allison is trying to impart here. This friend understood the gravity of the information I told her, and I 100% trusted her to not leak it. How on earth could you know this was a misunderstanding? People working on campaigns get to be privy to all sorts of information that is not intended to be public. We got [Celebrity Y] to promote a big public health initiative! Firing you was probably not what they wanted to do, and Im sorry. I would push back slightly on the leak to press part. Am I likely to be rehired after being fired for misconduct? Im just explaining that the information was likely a non-public record and not a confidential record. If you told, you breached confidentiality, no matter what the other people did. But how do I explain this to show I learnt from my mistake and get a new job ? They may. ^^. Training in this area is important generally, but a communications/ PR person should not need to be reminded to keep sensitive information confidential thats a very basic aspect of the job. Thanks for sharing all of this. 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). A further 2 years can be added onto the sentence for aggravated identity theft. I used to work in a one-industry town. Having worked in communications and journalism for the past 15 years, I think this ishonestly really bad. Regardless of what word you use when you disclose what happened, understanding that difference, owning up to it, and showing how you've changed as a result is your best hope of gaining future employment. I will never not believe the publisher did that intentionally and threw him under the bus. Coworker Dorcus, who used to write down what time the rest of us got in each morning so she could report to our supervisor when the rest of us were late, even though he hadnt asked her to, even though Dorcus had no idea when wed left the night before, how late we were working that day, or what arrangement we had with our supervisor? how do you handle being pregnant at work? That brings us to your questions. The client can, of course, prevent such disclosure by refraining from the wrongful conduct. 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. 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. They might try to use silence to get you to say more. 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. When we think about misdirected email, we often put ourselves in the shoes of the sender. Hi LW, I agree with Alison the best way to approach with is by taking full ownership of what happened. If the email involves sensitive information, this could be a serious problem for the people involved. Its understandable youre upset, but I wouldnt have given you a second chance either. Im not saying the employer didnt do these things or even if they didnt that its anybodys fault other than LW that this happened, but its a good way to stop situations like this before they happen. 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. In addition to Alisons script, I think it also reflects well on you that you reported what you had done. On other occasions, you might accidentally receive a confidential email with information meant for one person (or a few people) you know. She should have told her this is serious and Im going to have to report you. Then at least OP could have avoided the slack room full of journalists escalation. Employer found out and had grounds to fire you. He had a fairly high security clearance and was stationed at NORAD for a time. But sending e-mails about a seemingly innocuous hobby cost one . I know this is pedantic, but as someone raised by a mother with BPD, I feel like its important to say that no ones feelings are wrong. Nothing dangerous, and while I was there it honestly wasnt even anything that would be a big scoop or exciting dinner party story. You know that saying Its not the crime that gets you, but the cover-up? Its to LWs friends credit that she didnt pass on the info to a journalistic colleague who DOES work in that area; its not to LWs credit. If any of those connections were being intercepted by an unknown third party, however, you've just put your customer's data into their hands. I think that speaks to exactly why this was such a breach, though. Even if the coworker had malicious intentions, they were following privacy laws and regulations. The problem here is that the OP misjudged the level of confidentially expected in the situation, and maybe by their office/profession in general. The Workplace Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for members of the workforce navigating the professional setting. As easily as one of them knowing OP uses Slack to contact reporters and assuming I told a journalist friend or I told Rain (who they know is a journalist, possibly on that channel), anything but I texted a (journalist) friend meant OP went the usual Slack route. No checking out salary information permitted! I work for a charity that offers a telephone service nationwide, and I take a lot of calls from people in quite distressing situations. Well its possible your coworker just had it out for you, but it sounds more likely that she genuinely misunderstood or that she understood perfectly but thought leaking info to a journalist friend was serious enough to report and then it was your boss who misunderstood the details. I want to encourage you to drill deeper on something you said in your letter: I did feel guilty. If you can trust someone, you can trust them, journalist or not. A terse to non-existent IT policy or one that's full of unexplained jargon can work against a company. Oh yes. ), Because honestly, the more I thought about this letter as I read it, the more uncomfortable I got, too. Although paragraph (b) (2) does not require the lawyer to reveal the client's misconduct, the lawyer may not counsel or assist the client in conduct the lawyer knows is criminal or fraudulent. Im assuming the LW plead their case and filled in relevant information. Bye. I would have been fired if I did any one of the things OP did when I worked for the feds (e.g., using Slack, speaking to a journalist without authorization even if they were a long-time friend, disclosing soon-to-be-public information before it was publicly available). 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! That way, the Address box of every reply starts out empty. Where I work, I cannot legally share information about very exciting things that are happening/about to happen. That being said, it doesnt change the fact that OP shouldnt have done it anyway, so harboring ill will towards this coworker is pointless. This is a bad enough screw-up that I would be contemplating a career change, or at least a pivot to an area of communications where things like confidential information and media embargoes arent ever a factor. Sure but I think its highly unlikely that someone at OPs level would have access to that. I dont know that I agree she should have thought twice (since going to a mentor is a good thing to do when youre in a difficult situation), but I think thats absolutely the lesson some people will take away! Challenge them directly and be sure that when they say it's okay to start at 9.30am, make sure they actually mean it, or don't do it. Ive had the occasional day when Ive really wanted to tell someone I met X today! There wasnt any risk, my judgment was good!. This seems like a no-brainer to just not do, and if you did, certainly not to tell someone at work that you did this. Its also something that happens in a business relationship rather than a personal one, because the assumption is that personal relationships are entirely off the record. How do I politely turn down the call for an interview by another employer? This is so true. The first job will be the hardest but gradually you are less and less likely to be asked about an older job. And if we do, well tell them not to tell anyone.. MUCH stronger. Lack of the maturity to keep exciting news to onesself. Im not going to tell them about it, unless it actually falls out that I end up being the person who is put in charge of telling them their thing is done. And especially in the field youre in, leaks are a big deal, and ESPECIALLY leaks to a member of the press. But your framing of this does sound defensive and doesnt sound like youre taking responsibility for what happened. There are no legal ramifications or civil lawsuits at this stage as it wasn't trade secrets or secret IP. ! mode if she told me a general were harassing her, unless making this public is something shed want. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. Once you realize that you are likely on the road to employment termination, you need to know that there are options: Responding To The Red Flags. I constantly have journalist friends asking for confidential tips, and there is no way I would ever give up any information. Really? Im sure the letter writer has plenty of that to deal with already. Heres what to do. Your understanding of confidential is not mine. Posting confidential company information, good or bad, is not protected. Possible scripting adjustment: I mistakenly shared some non-public information with a friend outside the agency before it was officially released to the public. Your failure to understand the gravity of your actions is alarming. Employees. OP, specifically following up with Alisons advice above, you were fired because you showed your employer that your first reaction when learning about confidential information was to text (1) someone outside of your company who was not authorized to know that information and (2) someone who was a journalist, who by profession is at risk for leaking said confidential information EVEN IF you only know them as a friend and EVEN IF you promise pinky swear that they would never ever do that. For a market where most of this stuff lives in a big way for one season, and then only has some ongoing staying power? Maybe the information was a big deal to the agency but not externally (say getting a big grant funded), but if it was something that was legitimately important news, her friend would have been at least a little torn between loyalty to her friend and loyalty to her job. Also, she wasnt a journalist I ever interacted with professionally shes a friend Ive had for years. 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. I now work somewhere where I have access to sensitive information, including my own. And you did it over company lines. No, no, no, no, no. journalists dont leak information, unless its something confidential about their own employers. I resent our new hires for setting better work-life boundaries than our company normally has, hairy legs at work, my office sent me a random TV, and more, heres an example of a great cover letter with before and after versions, my employee cant handle even mildly negative feedback, my new coworker is putting fake mistakes in my work so she can tell our boss Im bad at my job, insensitive Diversity Day, how to fire someone who refuses to talk to us, and more, weekend open thread February 25-26, 2023, assistant became abusive when she wasnt invited to a meeting, my coworkers dont check on people who are out sick, and more. Box-ticking SA&T wont change security behaviors. 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. Trying to understand how to get this basic Fourier Series, Linear regulator thermal information missing in datasheet. Excellent points, especially LWs use of ratted out. Alison has said so many times that theres no tattling in the work world. 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. Thats an important impulse to explore to avoid other similar situations with gossip. Your coworker was probably legally obligated to report this, and even is she wasnt this is the type of breach that reasonable people WILL report. LW I encourage you to ask yourself why you wrote this: Your actions showed you were not trustworthy with confidential information.