There isnt really such thing as a rat in the workplace. While they may not state why someone was fired, Ive found it pretty common to state that someone was fired (or laid off etc) and if the person is eligible for rehire. It's really just a 30 . She knew about a leak and didnt say anything, who knows what else she is helping to hide, My boss, in a well meaning way and to correct some weird barriers previously put in place by the person before him, told me openly that if Big Boss [aka the owner] asks you anything, just answer him, its all good, you dont need to filter things through me or anything., And I just tilted my head and laughed at him saying Even if you told me differently, I would tell him whatever he wants to know. Which given our relationship he just giggled and responded with of course and thats the way it should be.. Sometimes they do, and other times they tell the person telling them that they or their actions negatively impacted another person that *they* are the ones in the wrong for telling them something that made them feel bad. Nah, I think the odds of whats super exciting to a government agency being equally exciting to me are pretty slim. Also, am I even allowed to bring up the fact that someone ratted me out? Not all non-public information is expected to be treated like a state secret, assuming youre not dealing with actual classified information or NDAs. 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. There are lots of situations in which leaking information to a journalist would absolutely be the right thing to do, and we should absolutely encourage it in those cases. Some offenses are so serious that you immediately get fired. She got paid to pose as Roeders* mistress, once. Best wishes! This is 100% on you. 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. Weve all made mistakes. 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. This isnt breaking a rule; its potentially putting your organization in jeopardy. Please keep reflecting on this. Heres one: You work for the Census Bureau , which runs demographic surveys beyond the decennial Census, and came across [popular celebrity]s personal info, perhaps noting they live near you. The person is trying to make someone else feel bad about their own transgressions. If the answer is Yes then say that. Dont blame your colleague she may have been obligated to report this. Companies (and governments) want to carefully manage the messaging and strategy around information that is released in order to bring the biggest buzz and the best information to the public. Compare someone in law enforcement happening to find out the (secret) address and phone number of their friend-groups favorite celebrity, or finding the contact information for the cutie in the convertible, after their roommate catches the license plate numberand sharing. If you told, you breached confidentiality, no matter what the other people did. In my job I often get embargoed advance copies of speeches that politicians are going to give they send them out to press to help us start working on getting most of a story written and cleared so we can just drop in a few quotes and crowd reactions and publish the story within 5-10 minutes of the speech ending. I think interviewers will pick up on the equivocation in your language here. 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. People are going think, If OP can minimize all the responsibility for this incident, she is going to be able to rationalize it away some other time in the future. 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.. Thats not how embargoes work, and the reasons why we have embargoes are important and valid, even if they may seem like not a big deal in the context of a specific disclosure. Its a big difference if you sit together at a bar, your friend mentions chocolate teapots and you say oh, this morning I was asked to design a llama-themed one before you realize that you really shouldnt have said that. Those kinds of disclosures often rise to the level of immediate termination, which is what happened, here. If OP doesnt recognize and own up to that, thats going to be a bigger red flag for potential employers than if OP said, I made a mistake, learned from it, and it wont happen again.. I remember the line of people walked out the door for looking at OJ Simpsons records when he was arrested. Im not curious at all, but Im different. This is a good way to think about it. If you lean over a cubicle and whisper I broke the rule! 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. Id stay under a cloud of mistrust if that meant a steady paycheck if I didnt have anything else lined up. Not advising you to lie, but you can present the circumstances in as flattering manner as you like. The emphasis on how not harmful the infraction was is totally hurting your case, OP. Find somewhere else to tell it in order to release the steam valve. I found out accidentally.) This mixed with the coworkers inflated story, I would be more than annoyed by this coworker too. But how do I explain this story to future employers? All the meanwhile you're still trying to run a successful business and handling other things that are coming up. I dont think it was over company lines. (It also might be notable that you didnt originally mention that your friend was a journalist until I asked about it which makes me think youre underestimating how much that matters.). Likewise, LW needed to understand that you dont get a next time not to tell anyone confidential information just because you get it now that they meant it when they said the information was confidential. Everyone in the workplace has an equal obligation and responsibility to ensure that rules are upheld because thats what keeps the company operating smoothly and in business and able to provide jobs to you all. It simply means that your employees are not to disclose proprietary information or data about your company to another person without your consent. She shared it with a friend. We got [Celebrity Y] to promote a big public health initiative! Also in any governmental job or any job governed by many laws and regulations (such as medicine, law, dentistry, etc) they are laws and compliance regulations in place that must be abided by and every employee had to sign such an agreement usually yearly but at least upon hiring. I have a friend whose mother did work for an intelligence agency during WW2. Sometimes their hands are tied too. and that was interestingthey had criticisms I hadnt thought of. Tessian Cloud Email Security intelligently prevents advanced email threats and protects against data loss, to strengthen email security and build smarter security cultures in modern enterprises. Occasionally our clients have been in the media and have shared part of their story. But I dont think this applies in any case since it was on her personal cell. Yes, own it. Is it FOUO though? Thank you. Me too in Government. Contact the GDPR manager at once. It doesnt matter that the information is going public next week. this is one of the reasons why its best to have a mentor who is NOT at the same company as you. I think that WAS her second chance, and I think something she said at the meetings (perhaps about how the problem is the coworker for being a rat) blew that second chance. Keep your chin up are you not getting any extra help? I love telling people things! But even the first is really really, really bad. The 2nd chance is just too much risk as far as theyre concerned. 1) Broke a rule I dont think we fired anyone but the need for absolute confidentiality was reiterated. Also, legally email addresses themselves dont typically count as 'personal information' as they are contact addresses and are treated in similar ways to phone numbers legally, as opposed to, say, identifying information like full name, DOB and home address all in one document. OP needs to learn the art of discernment. Oh no! OP, its great that you trusted your friend enough to be confident that she wouldnt share what you told her. This was supposed to be a stand-alone comment. OP, there is another thing to keep in mind. The secretary is going to be featured at [cool upcoming event]! (the confessional? Period. I question that there are no details about your Monday meeting with HR here. I hope there are things at your job that are exciting to you! I do have to wonder if the hospital failed to educate its employees on how freaking serious that kind of breach was, And also failed to inform them that the system tracks who looks up a particular patients record. (sorry for all the theys. English has a pronoun problem.). Employees who violate their companies' email policies can face penalties ranging from disciplinary action to termination. Accidents happen inadvertently but this is not the case here. 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. But how do I explain this to show I learnt from my mistake and get a new job. I am very, very lucky. While the 911 caller believes criminal charges are appropriate, that is a matter for the district attorney to decide. Thats a big deal. 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. Now were just nitpicking the OPs words here. 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. President issuing an executive order on (issue the agency deals with) You added nuance that I hadnt thought about. I think it most likely would be very boring, but some stuff like the jobs report a few days early would be very interesting to unscrupulous investors. Ive represented or advised friends, friends of friends and the occasional famous person, and nobody else knows anything about it nor will they ever. He was very good about keeping track of his boundaries, and we got very used to finding ways of being politely interested in how his work was going for him without putting pressure on him about the details. That is exactly what could have happened to her government agency with the info that she leaked in the first place. Normally it can be resolved by contacting the person you wrote to by mistake, and get in writing that they have deleted it without doing anything with it. They take information security and confidentiality so seriously that they make delivery people who come to the offices sign an NDA just in case they were in the elevator with Sam Jackson. A federal appeals court recently addressed whether employees had standing to bring a lawsuit when their personally identifiable information (PII) was inadvertently circulated to other employees at the company, with no indication of misuse or external disclosure. (Also the NASA leaker didnt get fired. Privacy Policy and Affiliate Disclosures. Im a journalist and Id concur and depending on how sensitive/important the information was, and what a big deal it was when it did break, you might have put your friend in a tough spot at her job by giving her a news tip she couldnt pursue or share with her colleagues. So. Its also important to note that OP called it non-public and Alison was the person who called it confidential. I always wondered if they remained friends after that fiasco. First coworker punched second coworker. Best wishes to OP in her work on this. You can get past this, if you learn from the experience. 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. Lose that part of the defense completely, OP. "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. This was all public information, but the original report was work product of Company A even if it had originally been created by the coworker. It was a couple of telling E-mails that helped bring down Bear Stearns with the subprime loan mess crashing . Hind-sight is 20/20, but the LW should have thought twice about sharing that leaked incident with any coworker, especially a mentor who likely would be obligated to let the higher-ups know. That makes a certain subset of people *extremely* excited. I can't remember the details, but there was a point about the fact the word "confidential" added in every e-mail by such a notice wasn't actually helpful, since tools that looked for the word confidential were flagging everything up, including a large number of false positives. How do I go about asking for a job on another team? In no time you will have your next job lined up and all this will be just a post earning you rep. There is a greater issue here regarding judgement. 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. Im not feeding a narrative, Im expressing my opinion. When I asked about the job move he said he had failed to make a required disclosure on a sale and so was fired, but how he took it to heart and had behaved since. Even innocuous-sounding information, like the name of a database, can be a huge security risk. If youve no idea who the message was supposed to go to, simply let the sender know you received it by accident and move on. 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! Also, if your mentor went through the trouble of having a conversation with you about your duties and seemed concerned, I doubt she was out to get you she probably felt it was her duty and to her best interest to report now that you have made her an accomplice-after-the-fact in any potential breach (say, your friend was the one out to get you and it leaked before your department had any plans for dealing with a leak, this mentor would also be in trouble for not reporting it as soon as she knew if they found out she did), OP I want to comment on one aspect that I didnt see anyone mentioning directly. Im glad that youve had time to think about it and can own the mistake, thats the most important part when we mess up. Im in public relations/global communications. What happens when someone sees that message over her shoulder? Im thinking of the Elizabeth who went on a 20-email rage about being called Liz, or even the old 1970s memos from the Tiger Oil CEO that found new viral life in the digital age. It may be that the decision is made and it is just a matter of time before you are gone. But, its important for an employer to know that you understand the need for reporting and would report things yourself if needed. 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. 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. Oh yeah, my response wasnt to you it was just to continue what Alanna said. Thank you for pointing this out! Does that matter? I had friends who would jokingly-semi-serious ask me if I was poking around their accounts and such while I was working there and I would deadpan look at them and say your finances and personal information isnt interesting enough to lose my job over and then change the subject. Feelings can be irrational though, or overblown, or immature, or any number of shades of wrong that means you shouldnt give them 100% credence. And Im happy to report that I have never shared that news (still remember it bcs this was so hard that first time!). She was an employee of the agency, who shared it with the journalist. One of my favorite shows had a plotline about a sibling not liking someone not breaking doctor confidentiality. I might consider you as a candidate who truly gets it in a way that someone who hasnt been tried by fire might not. But when the guilt is deserved, its got a purpose. I agree with Alisons response. But doing so would likely out the department LW worked for, and probably LW herself. Her best chance of moving forward and looking as good as possible in an interview is to accept full responsibility and say that she made a mistake and learned from it. One of the things your field requires is to be able to think and act dispassionately about the information you have custody over. I came here to say this. Yup. This violates workplace compliance and trust. It may help you to know that the dreaded why are you unemployed right now question doesnt come up in every interview. You hear something genuinely classified and blab it too because its so cool? I even tell friends this who work in classified situations and I dont even report the news anymore.). As much as I love some of my coworkers, Im not taking one of the team.
Fifth Third Bank Zelle Limit Per Day,
Bobbie Harro Biography,
Articles C