As others have noted, it probably isnt anything especially exciting. Im a journalist, so, yes. 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? ); Im also thinking of someone I know whose work depends on his being able to drive who got a DUI last year, and someone who essentially had a full emotional breakdown in a workplace I was in when I was a lot younger, who ended up under her desk sobbing and throwing things). Per my story above, when I made the mistake that I was fired for, I did take responsibility at the time, and they fired me anyway. 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. If we think about this, not only did she trust her journalist friend, she trusted her coworker not to tell anyone either. So, if you find out that company X is going to be reporting a surprising drop in profits next week, the person in the company who told you this is gone. Plus you might be doing them a massive favour when it comes to catching a data breach early. The 2nd chance is just too much risk as far as theyre concerned. It sounds like youre taking responsiblity for your actions and are doing your best to move on. Telling the trusted friend was the fireable offense. But it sounds like it doesnt really matter that HR jumbled the details because neither was a permitted thing to do anyway. 27 April 2021. They can only control what their employees do, and thats why they have those rules, and not much leeway for people who dont adhere to them. Life may not look better in 6 months but I bet it does in 3 years. A member of the public wants some data, they contact anybody in the agency they can think of, the internal employees bounce it around because somehow they dont know who to send data requests to, and finally it gets to us and we respond. And especially in the field youre in, leaks are a big deal, and ESPECIALLY leaks to a member of the press. 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. 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. and sent to multiple people (!!)? (IE: if they think you f*cked up, then respond like you did, however you actually feel). In 2014 or so, I once slapped a superior in the face because they were yelling in my face because I was stepping on freshly mopped floors. The Expert above is not your attorney, and . 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. This is an issue in most fields. Take full responsibility. I come across soooo much incidental information about people I know in the course of this job. The above divulged details to a journalist about allocation and resources they should not know about. and that was interestingthey had criticisms I hadnt thought of. Im just explaining that the information was likely a non-public record and not a confidential record. 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. 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. Right. Now were just nitpicking the OPs words here. Feelings are frequently conflated with facts in our minds and it can take some work to separate them. 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. I hope youre able to learn and move on from this, OP. Agreed. someone in another department saw the post, reached out to the person who made it and asked for information about the person they had heard it from. Any of them. Yep, I have a friend whose grandmother was a codebreaker and took loose lips sink ships seriously till her dying day. Im also a public affairs officer for a government agency- one that almost exclusively deals with highly classified information. Thank you for explaining this! It may be unfair to assume a journalist is cutthroat and would kill for a lead, but its also nave to assume they wouldnt let anything slip to the exact wrong person. That makes a certain subset of people *extremely* excited. The emotion is neutral; its what you do with it that counts. Alison, I really liked your advice, because it can apply to any situation where the person has truly done something egregious but has to move on. She probably felt she had a duty to disclose it and she may well have. You made yourself very vulnerable, your mentor knew that, and unfortunately, youre now bearing the consequences. Lack of the maturity to keep exciting news to onesself. When you don't know the sender, but the email is clearly confidential and sensitive, things are little more complicated and you have a decision to make. 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! 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. So I guess my coworker could have misunderstood when I said I texted one friend, but I wish she would have talked to me about that first? exciting! Having worked in communications and journalism for the past 15 years, I think this ishonestly really bad. It's hard to answer this question without specifics, but it strikes me as very important to differentiate between an accident or mistake in the sense of "oops, I did that by unintentionally" versus misconduct, as in "this was against policy and I deliberately did it anyways" regardless of whether you knew about the policy or had a good reason to do it or not. 9 Posts. True story: in my last job someone mistyped an email address by a single letter and instead of going to a related government org it went to a journalist. An in-person meeting might be more appropriate if you accidentally sent information about your plans to find another job to your manager. Ive been under NDA for things I cant even disclose to my boss, much less a friend outside the organization. should I be so emotionally drained by managing? You undertook those actions while working for (1) A Large Governmental Organization, who is answerable to Congress and to the general public for the actions undertaken by their employees, in the (2) Communications department, which is a department where employees will specifically, systematically, regularly be exposed to confidential information that should be kept confidential until such time as it is explicitly said to be something that can be shared publically. They have absolutely no obligation to keep secrets for government agencies or private companies. When I worked for the bank in the security investigation department, we had systems in place that monitored Famous Peoples accounts and would flag them if they were opened/touched. I felt as defensive and upset as you. Having a mentor at a different organization in a similar role might be a good idea for the future. But despite how liberal weve gotten with sharing information, you really do have to be very strict about upholding confidentiality policies without making any exceptions. And Im happy to report that I have never shared that news (still remember it bcs this was so hard that first time!). Calling this victimless shows OP still doesnt have insight into their behavior. What OP did was incredibly serious and, as happened, a fireable offense. They may very well have not had the option to give you a second chance, whether you wanted to or not. It was bad. Privacy Policy and Affiliate Disclosures. Thats when it gets tricky. And it could be part of the reason why the story was a bit incoherent, too she went from sort of uncomfortable to really, really uncomfortable. Shes assuming the friend has more self-control than she does, which is precarious at best. Every bit of what Ive said is probably hearsay. What you did was misconduct. 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! If you open a phishing email and it results in your company's confidential information being compromised, your employer may fire you. She shared it via text not voice, but text, which could be seen by someone else. Yup, landline. You cant even take a look at *your own* records if you are also a patient at the medical facility. I always wondered if they remained friends after that fiasco. Accept responsibility for what you did. Not generational, just a young person thing. The only thing an employer may not do is make employment decisions based upon you being a member of a protected class. She should have just sat with that feeling and let it fuel her resolve to never share confidential info with an outside party again. Bye. Oh yes. (Most companies that use these kinds of scanners dont let employees know. Yeah it totally sucks but now you at least have a chance to start fresh. Dont disagree feelings arent wrong but the way we think about them often is. I wont lie, Im tremendously curious, but I also know this is just one of those things I will never get to know. She already acknowledged that its 100% her fault. 2) Told someone you broke a rule. A further 2 years can be added onto the sentence for aggravated identity theft. Everything from whats going to be on sale for Black Friday, to customer financial data. But your framing of this does sound defensive and doesnt sound like youre taking responsibility for what happened. And if the coworker didnt tell and it somehow got out that she knew another job lost. If her friend never told anyone it never would have gotten out. The reason all this info is locked down tightly is so that they can control the message when it goes out. That all strikes me as stuff someone quite young and without strong professional and personal boundaries acts. 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. I was working on some client confidential information on my client issued laptop and I emailed this info to my personal mailbox as I wanted to continue doing work on my personal laptop; I couldn't take my work laptop away whilst on extended leave overseas. While some employers will accept the I take personal accountability and heres how I address it path, this probably does remove some employers from consideration. 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. This. 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. You put your coworker in an awful spot by telling her this information. The OPs comment here didnt seem defensive to me at all, and its definitely understandable that the letter was written in the heat of the moment. 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? They care a little more in the last 2 years, but not much. Like I said, very strange but its worked for me. Sometimes they go so far as tell the bearer of the news that they now have to soothe them bc its their fault they feel bad. Messages like this can simply be ignored and deleted. 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. Many Government Agencies have specific rules about reference checks. Im not feeding a narrative, Im expressing my opinion. Lack of integrity. There is zero entitlement in saying that shes upset she didnt get a second chance. Your contract can still be terminated if you violate a lawful . Medical too. If people really need jobs, they need to act like they really need jobs. This is one reason why I could only ever give a vague explanation of what my dad did. Maybe a different (and appropriately mortified) approach from the OP in those meetings would of had a different result or maybe not! but the approach in the letter definitely would have convinced me to let her go if I was on the fence. Leaking anything that could put those things at risk is an insta-fire offense. I was sent home, and then fired over the phone a few hours later. But even if there is no danger, an obligation to report is just that. My only other advice is to consider if there were any conversations on slack that were inappropriate. Journalists discuss things all the time that dont make it into published stories, or make it into stories that get killed, or get used for shaping further investigation, or even just as gossip. I dont know, I think thats overstating. 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. But she also would not tell me if she spent a day at work planning for a war!). Maintaining confidentiality is a foundational occupational requirement in a lot of fields. 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. journalists dont leak information, unless its something confidential about their own employers. Sometimes were lucky and there arent any repercussions. blue_haddock wrote: . Honestly, I got the impression that the writer was on the younger end, just in their self-reported actions and reactions. I dont know if shell do it again, but Im certainly not going to take the risk on someone who doesnt even seem to be sorry.
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