can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information

+1 So, are you clear about the severity of your action and the significance of this rule? And then that coworker did tell someone, and she was fired. For a market where most of this stuff lives in a big way for one season, and then only has some ongoing staying power? End of story. In the real world, it happens often enough that I think its more realistic to talk about the practical ways to do it that keep you on the safe side of the boundaries. Other agencies will provide title and dates, and whether you are eligible for rehire. 'Pay Secrecy' Policies At Work: Often Illegal, And Misunderstood Im pretty sure the information wasnt actually confidential in the legal sense. Our newspapers report quite frequently on gossip of whats happening behind the scenes. 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. Your comment above is much closer to an effective track. So this. Any of our PR folks would be immediately fired. Choose your time limit (you can only choose from between 5, 10, 20, and 30 seconds) Hit save changes at the bottom of the page. And if we do, well tell them not to tell anyone.. Shouldnt she be in trouble too? and there she would be, going down with you. One of my coworkers saw another coworker sexually harassing a woman. Now were just nitpicking the OPs words here. 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. 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. All people, of all ages, are capable of errors in judgment. But he either kept it so vague as to be useless or said nothing at all. Yup, landline. You said it yourself that you were working on client confidential information, and sent it to your personal mailbox. You will find another employer who will trust you and will give you that chance to shine for them. 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. Im not cleared for it. I disagree. Confidentiality is a big deal for a lot of reasons, and people in those types tend to respect that. Screw-ups happen. It would have been nice for her to warn you that she was going to report it, or even given you a chance to do it yourself so it would have gone over a bit better. We can think things without saying them out loud. 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. If you lean over a cubicle and whisper I broke the rule! I work in the auto industry in media communications. So. 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. Shell lose credibility in the hiring process, and even if she did slip through and get hired, its automatically grounds for a dismissal if the truth ever came to light (even in Canada, where it is harder to let people go from roles than in most of the US states). Ohhhh come on. 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. I doubt it was the plan to storm Area 51. End of story. My father worked on defense contracts for a large portion of his professional career. How is an ETF fee calculated in a trade that ends in less than a year? I dont think your coworker ratted you out. (Obviously it would have been best not to give her journalist friend the info to begin with.) I think it helps that you told your coworker. Talking about your work on a more general level is usually allowed unless your employer or their client is unusually paranoid. One day its pre-public FOUO information; what next? Disclosing confidential information has, at best, resulted in nothing, and at worse, resulted in injury/death, or even political systems toppling. If she tried to downplay the seriousness of the breach in the meeting (like saying it was a victimless crime) then they may have decided that they couldnt afford to give a second chance. Some things a company wouldnt want you to tell a competitor, but wouldnt mind if you told your spouse. Phishing emails are emails that appear to be from a legitimate source, but are actually from a malicious source. There are people who would refuse to acknowledge their error and go about their lives being bitter and blaming others. 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. People tend to share with trusted confidants/partners/etc. Also to prevent someone who might be a bit dangerous, from hurting you. I imagine optimal framing varies by industry and so Im not sure what to advise there. Find somewhere else to tell it in order to release the steam valve. I have worked and volunteered at government-related organizations before. We just had something similar happen at my office last week. If not, an investigation would be started on which employees were poking around in Famous Persons account and why. Its extremely tempting to want to be the person in-the-know, but my motivation for keeping things confidential is stronger: I dont want to ruin my reputation, and I dont want deal with the fallout of severely disappointing my colleagues, whom I respect and like. Doesnt matter if it was a friend. I dont think it was over company lines. 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. They might try to use silence to get you to say more. Yes, if you're sending a mass email, BCC makes sure no-one else sees each other's emails and therefore reduces the risk of a breach. Much as we like to think confidentiality is transferrablethat as long as the people we tell keep things confidential we didnt breach confidentiality to tell themits not. The person is trying to make someone else feel bad about their own transgressions. I think thats a ridiculous overreach but whatever). Email DLP: A key investment management tool. Im so sorry and I will never do anything like that again.. And that even one second counts as a HIPAA violation. would be frustrating if she had a good relationship with them, or if she cared a lot about the reputation of her publication as a whole. And I think you can share your excitement with others, just not the information. A majority of those who work from home would use their own personal digital devices such as laptop, tablet or mobile to perform their daily work tasks and it is also convenient for employees to. She just needs to learn discretion. Leakage of Information - Employees and Data Leaks | Titanfile So, you've accidentally sent an email to the wrong person. Not me. I had not thought about this issue via this lens, but I think youre 100% right. You broke a rule and you have to take responsibility. Im very aware of that reality, so I confine my work email to work stuff only. (For your job search, this might be obvious, but steer clear of medical, legal, PR, or any other field that deals with privacy.). Goes a long way to being the right way to describe this. Im glad that youve had time to think about it and can own the mistake, thats the most important part when we mess up. I came here to say this. This is a great point LW. (Im a journalist, there are only a few specific cardinal sins in our industry, so lets euphemistically call this a case of inadequate attribution.) And all you learned was to avoid freshly mopped floors? I replaced someone who had embezzled from the (small) company. Right. 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))). Its not their call. Everyone absolutely everyone employed at a hospital has to undergo annual HIPAA compliance training. The financial firm I worked for had mandatory quarterly compliance meetings with examples of Dont Be This Guy Because He Doesnt Work Here Anymore. Agreed, except for this: a journalist, who by profession is at risk for leaking said confidential information. Lack of impulse control. Like its going to be easier to find a job because she has the integrity to say she got fired. can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information Everyone makes mistakes at all points in our careers. In my experience, it was highly effective. But if I found out a coworker was sharing this information with just anyone it would be a probably HIPAA violation and, yes, I would need to tell my boss. Understandably, the agency had to let me go. Something to show that you didnt get caught you confessed. 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 think youd be in trouble for sharing that kind of information over the phone, regardless of who he was talking to. Everything the OP described sounds like a non-public record. Does that matter? never actually say the words Gross Misconduct. In that case its not so relevant that there was a misunderstanding. Point isnt that OP doesnt have a right to feel what OP feelsif OP has a sick, gut-punch feeling, thats the truth of how OP is feeling. 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. how else could you have met that need?) Learn how to protect your investment management firm through intelligent email DLP. 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. Assuming OP was correct and journalist friend never would have said anything, OP could have pretended it never happened. Since that didnt happen Im not surprised you werent given a second chance. Definitely anti-climactic to actually know at this point! She was fired for the leak to the single friend, the slack channel thing was a brief misunderstanding but shes annoyed it ever happened. You've learned from this mistake and had no malicious intent. Extremely good advice! Thats another instant firing, even if the information isnt ever misused. One colleague really didnt like the plan, and he was communicating with people who were organizing opposition to it using his work email. There is zero entitlement in saying that shes upset she didnt get a second chance. And even more so in ballistic missile submarines! 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.. Messages like this can simply be ignored and deleted. What video game is Charlie playing in Poker Face S01E07? OP is in a pickle for sure. That all strikes me as stuff someone quite young and without strong professional and personal boundaries acts. It makes her someone with morals and a respect for her employer. Am I likely to be rehired after being fired for misconduct? The coworker did nothing wrong that we can see from the letter. Confidentiality, especially in government, is no joke and should be taken very seriously. Based on it happening before GSA was born, this most likely happened on a land line. 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. They may very well have not had the option to give you a second chance, whether you wanted to or not. It was bananas. Perhaps over official lines it could be interpreted by the journalist as on the record comments. 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. Reacting to being fired for that as if being personally persecuted over some piddly technical rule violation and not being given a second chance? I agree. I think people are reading defensiveness from the qualifiers probably and suppose. I can sympathize that this is still very raw for OP and perspective will only come with more time. Nowadays with mobile devices, email and the cloud, it is extremely easy to share files, easy enough that we may accidentally send and share them to the wrong person. Breaking certain rules in the workplace, whether written or unwritten, may get you fired. Practically everything I do in my job is confidential to some degree. Ms_Chocaholic wrote: . I come across soooo much incidental information about people I know in the course of this job. 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. I once interviewed someone with a great resume but had switched specialties within the field. 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. Most companies will not say so-and-so was fired for doing x in a reference check. A very long-term employee who did excellent work, as a joke, made up a fake news release that indicated we got the contract. I doubt she is the only person that has ever done anything like this. Oh honey UGH you are just the worst. 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. that should be a firing offense. Yes, own it. 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. The co-worker absolutely had a responsibility to bring this information forward. If you cant keep a secret, this is not a field you should be in. Because they turned out to not be trustworthy. I love telling people things! If you dont need to / want to share with the boss share with your closest family/friend, assuming they dont work at the same place or have friends/contacts there. Me too. But what might walk that back to a performance plan would be a sincere, unqualified apology showing understanding of the gravity of the error. I know there are cases where someone might fear retaliation etc, but with a higher up getting a subordinate into (deserved sorry OP!) I have personally learned that if you never want coworkers to find out something embarrassing or private about you, never ever tell them. 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. I playfully made a sexual remark about a female coworker. Exactly this. In my experience, a FOIA request can come from anywhere. how do I tell employers I was fired for a video I put on YouTube? . I agree, but its been called out and I dont want to derail on it. Im sorry, but I think you were fired with pretty good cause and it would be important to own that or you wont be able to spin the story for future employers. You cant even take a look at *your own* records if you are also a patient at the medical facility. She IS a rat! In most reporting policies i am aware of it would be considered tipping off and get the person reporting in trouble. 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. I understand that the breach was very bad and that the organization needed to take some disciplinary action, but it seems to me that firing an employee who fessed up to something like this to a senior coworker sends the message: If you mess up bad enough, dont tell anyone. Later when I moved on, it became my absolute best interview topic when asked about a mistake and how I handled it. Someone would then check into it to see if there was a valid reason for someone to be poking at it. I sent confidential documents to someone by accident via email - Google Yeah, thats a good point. Trying to understand how to get this basic Fourier Series, Linear regulator thermal information missing in datasheet. Embargoes and off-the-record information are for journalists who are actually covering a story and in most cases that information can be shared in the newsroom (by saying a source told me off record if confidentiality is really important) and acted upon (you can start to write out a story to be ready when the embargo lifts, or call work to corroborate the off-the-record with on background or on record sources). I wanted to say, it sucks you lost your job after this one time indiscretion, but Im glad you understand the seriousness of it and with Alisons script, I hope youll find a new job soon. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act now requires employers to give up to two weeks of paid sick time if you get the coronavirus or were told to quarantine by a doctor. In fact, if you are being sent overseas, you have to take a special counterintelligence training before you go that includes tips like dont wear items with your agencys name written on them while you travel and never park next to a panel van.. (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) The one time I filled a confidentiality-bound role (as a temp) the information I was given was specifically NOT to tell the person you were obligated to report.

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