Alisons given you great words to say now its to you to live out your learning with sincerity and build trust with a new employer. Handling confidential information discreetly is a day to day part of working in communications, particularly for government entities (I say as someone in this field). It would probably breach a few laws in other European countries too. RIGHT NOW it is totally privileged information and it needs to be treated that way. Basically, one of the key ways that spies get information is by social engineering picking up seemingly minor information through friendly chat that they can then combine together to make more. Honestly, I got the impression that the writer was on the younger end, just in their self-reported actions and reactions. If you were fired for an embarrassing reason that would torpedo your chances in an interview, say that your position was eliminated. 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. Oh, dear. Including their reputation being damaged. (For your job search, this might be obvious, but steer clear of medical, legal, PR, or any other field that deals with privacy.). While it clearly appears LW would not have done any of this, the regulations and policies are written to protect the employer and coworker from any potential negative actions. Point is that the higher-level feelings or lowest level conceptualization (that is, the integration of the gut punch and the sense that it cant have been that bad, if it wasnt meant badly, and sense that it cant have been wrong to trust friend, because friend was trustworthy) are still encouraging OP to draw incorrect conclusions about the seriousness of their action, and the appropriateness of their employers actions. If you are still defensive or dismissive about this, it will come through in an interview. Same applies here as you stated. I see a lot of people saying that its always wrong to share confidential information with the press, and thats not necessarily true. This is a very important life lesson, both for your professional and personal life. Im assuming the LW plead their case and filled in relevant information. That being said, I think you can overcome this. It can feel like the end of the world but I promise you it isnt. Its not a victimless crime and you have to understand the seriousness of what you did, even unintentionally. In fact, the coworker probably was obligated to report it anyway since she wasnt sure about the extent of the breach. I arrived in 69. 2. Having a natural, human reaction doesnt mean shes in the wrong field. I strongly disagree with this. (Drunk driving is an extreme example of this. Back in the dinosaur era (early 80s) the directors secretary was the only one tasked with typing up yearly evaluations on high-level staff. Some things a company wouldnt want you to tell a competitor, but wouldnt mind if you told your spouse. 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. Its what you do with what you learn that is important. 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. This was a person whose reviews had been glowing up until that moment and I am sure they are still upset that this came out of the blue. Heres the story: I worked for a large government agency, in communications. It might not be that the coworker reported you. I used to work for Marvel Studios. 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. Like X candidate is running for president!. exciting! You can bet Id be gone with no second chance despite my almost-20-years and ton of good work. Its also possible that the way you talked to your boss about it cost you a second chance too- if you were anything other than mortified and taking 100% responsibility, they likely thought it wasnt worth trusting you again. So, he learns about things at the same time as the public, and he just knows when Im extra busy because theres a big release coming, or someone messed something up, etc. Im not sure what the best way is to address this, but were trying! Loved your opening act for Insolent Children, btw. Its was exciting and you couldnt wait?! I understood her to say she texted from her cell phone. Its your actions that are right, wrong, or in that confusing gray area, and what you feel doesnt have to dictate what you do. 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. Since this incident, Ive taken steps like [saving journalist friends as contacts in a different phone, deleting my Slack channel, etc. If there were excetions, that would be explicitly stated. I agree. This is an issue in most fields. Some agencies will only provide title and dates of employment, which is a lucky break for you. LW best of luck! Thats totally true, and when I worked for state government release of confidential information would have been grounds for immediate termination, but Alison is the only one who calls it confidential, OP calls it non-public. Hopefully there still something to be said for that! Its also possible that she got caught in a broader crackdown on leaks and thus wasnt given a second chance when she otherwise might have been. I was wondering the same thing. But when the guilt is deserved, its got a purpose. Like its going to be easier to find a job because she has the integrity to say she got fired. If Jane knows, then it cant be too bad.. Better to have a 30% chance than a 0% chance. At some workplaces, the hiring process includes security checks that even go into your social media profile, blogs, etc, to see whether your personal communications display a suitable level of discretion. The enforcement has to be based on the idea that the leak was damaging. No. Separately, when you share, you have to still be oblique enough to not get yourself in trouble. NEVER by email unless explicitly given the go-ahead). 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. If each person tells just one person it can end up being a lot of people. If you are facing much trouble, look for job in domains where confidentiality is not too critical and the employer is not paranoid about it. Does your company know she could have called the police? Im not going to spell out what it was, but it was completely unethical and immoral, and shes lucky her license wasnt permanently revoked for it. Trying to understand how to get this basic Fourier Series, Linear regulator thermal information missing in datasheet. In my role there I was sometimes privy to confidential information that was not to be shared with the public. The ex-coworker reached out to me asking if I could send them a copy of the report so they didnt have to start from scratch and repeat the same work they had already done. This is your making, and while I wish you luck, you have zero cause to be disgruntled with your coworker or employer. I disagree. Ive only had a very general idea of what my husband does since 2002, because he cant tell me. This is what I wanted to say but you said it better. Concepts like snitching, tattling, and ratting out dont apply in the workplace. Of course I understand that I broke a rule, and that it was my mistake 100%, and it was no one elses fault. LW used Slack at work (and was not supposed to) 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. Thats not really a response to the OP but more a pushback on some the comments. Take this to heart in your next position and deal with sensitive information. And especially, sharing information that youre not supposed to tends to be the type of thing that will get you fired immediately without another chance. Whats not fine is trying to take somebody elses, or dramatically moping about it until someone gives me theirs. Reporting misconduct is the right thing to do, and thats how an interviewer is going to see it. Until the boys parents threw the uncle out. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Wouldnt you ask why the govt didnt fire them the first time? how do employers know if you're answering "have you ever been fired" honestly? LW, people in the comments are also ragging on you for being upset with your coworker but frankly, I would be mad too! Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. 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. Noooo. Ill add one point: You dont know that she didnt leak it. The hospital I was working for last year had the best of this kind of presentation that Ive ever seen. That said, if this was going to be public anyways, your boss may have been inclined to write you up rather than fire you if you were sufficiently remorseful/petrified/mortified. My guess is that the LW was fired for a first offense because they refused to take responsibility for their breach. None of this makes you a bad person, untrustworthy, or unemployable. My code is GPL licensed, can I issue a license to have my code be distributed in a specific MIT licensed project? I didnt read it that way, its not a question of the coworker being Untrustworthy, its a matter of the OP not being able to judge who she can trust to keep things quiet. Plus, I think part of it was that it was exciting BECAUSE it was secret, and now its apparently common knowledge. I imagine optimal framing varies by industry and so Im not sure what to advise there. You may ask them to delete the email before they read it. Theres truly no compelling reason to break confidentiality here. Trying to tell the OP otherwise is to minimize the impact of a serious offense. They did exactly the right thing to you. But they took confidentiality very seriously, and I signed an extremely ironclad NDA, so I never told anyone any of the interesting tidbits I found out about from working there. The secretary is going to be featured at [cool upcoming event]! Man I am swamped with the publicly known project I am barely treading water. Its a risk when you ignore these compliance issues especially willfully. Good luck! It still sucks, but its not really personal per se, and perhaps it will help a little bit to think of it that way. OP, its great that you trusted your friend enough to be confident that she wouldnt share what you told her. On the non-security side of things its fascinating to learn what the folks in the booth behind me are working on as Im quietly eating lunch, but its a serious security violation to discuss that kind of thing in public and it makes me cringe so hard when it happens. Itd be much safer for the LW to ask HR what theyre going to say to other employers asking for references. But from there you can talk about what you learned from the experience and how this makes you a better employee/candidate now. Regulation people have heard of is going to be changed/repealed and its a big deal Fascinating (and fun!) Im also not going to tell anyone else! And, yeah, that happens, its part of being a human. So seriously, just dont tell anyone at all, fight the temptation, its an icy slope. My mother got a reference-check call recently regarding someone shed managed and then fired. Your second co-worker who sexually harassed a woman was put on a PIP? If I were in the coworkers position, I would need to do the same thing. This may have been part of why the manager took the steps she did. Does that matter? If you cant maintain confidentiality, you can work elsewhere. And Im pointing out that it wasnt a record at all. Yeah, I think CA meant, the message was only sent to the friend/journalist, but you dont know where she opened it: if shes in an open newsroom or something, someone could have seen it on her screen over her shoulder. The point still stands, however, that Contract Killers proposed sanctions likely dont appear to apply here. Because I can almost guarantee that your reputation in that organization would never recover, even if you had remained employed. This friend understood the gravity of the information I told her, and I 100% trusted her to not leak it. There is zero entitlement in saying that shes upset she didnt get a second chance. Everyone messes up. Not saying you did this! Of course, but if you think that there arent tons of people out there whove made huge mistakes and managed to keep it from getting out, youre kidding yourself. I have news from my job that I cannot share with some coworkers. I question that there are no details about your Monday meeting with HR here. Youre not in a gang or on a schoolyard playground or fighting with your sibling in the backseat of the family station wagon. You simply let the sender know you've received it by accident, then they can rectify their mistake and you can delete the email. I now work somewhere where I have access to sensitive information, including my own. I wonder how trustworthy the LW considers themself (sp?)? Even if you trust her 100%, she is still too high risk. And off the record requests from journalists arent mandated by law. Thats how a lot of people get found out in the end, it doesnt just stop with telling that one friend. Im also miffed by the fact that the coworker kinda blind sided OP. A further 2 years can be added onto the sentence for aggravated identity theft. Once info is out in the community, you have no control over where it goes and any and all ramifications. What probably really hurt the OPs case was that the friend is a journalist. In a couple of hours, the news agencies were calling the federal government, to verify the news. This is mostly a matter of describing your motivation appropriately, and in this respect "At that time, I did not realize" does a better job of conveying that your basis of judgment has changed in the course of that experience than a mere "I did not realize" would. In other words, this whole line of discussion is moot. It may be unfair to assume a journalist is cutthroat and would kill for a lead. Replying to the sender is a good thing to do for a couple of reasons. I want to encourage you to drill deeper on something you said in your letter: I did feel guilty. The co-workers obligation is to the employer, not to the OP. I hope you get past this, it may bar you from future government work, but not other placed hopefully if you follow Alisons advice and really own up to the mistake. Me too in Government. The coworker did the right thing. I personally just try to forget that I know until the information becomes public. Appropriately so, but still, wow. I have absolutely no clue in your situation, but there are times when it really can be appropriate to let someone go without any second chances. [Well-known bad person] is going to be fined/punished/arrested. 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. On other occasions, you might accidentally receive a confidential email with information meant for one person (or a few people) you know. This mixed with the coworkers inflated story, I would be more than annoyed by this coworker too. And that is a hard pill to swallow, for sure. 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. According to Tessian research, over half (58%) of employees say they've sent an email to the wrong person. Then, when someone particularly notable would enter our database, we would get a reminder email not naming names but reminding us that no matter how interesting the information is, its private and not ok to share. This is a solvable problem. Calling this victimless shows OP still doesnt have insight into their behavior. Those kinds of disclosures often rise to the level of immediate termination, which is what happened, here. A little time isn't unreasonable. Wouldn't employers just throw my application to the bin once I declare I have been dismissed for gross misconduct? A true 100% owning of what you did. If youre found to be lying, thats an instant rejection in a way that a well-explained firing would not be. Ah! (Plus, were not sure how much of the inflation came from the coworker and how much came from their superiors. Instead, the employees found out by reading the news instead, which hurts morale. I get that people can learn from their mistakes, but this could be an indicator of a lack of proper framework, and perhaps a boss wouldnt want to risk it. It pretty much doesnt matter what field you are in the higher up you go the more likely you are to be privy to information that you MUST NOT share no matter how excited you may be. I am a govt worker in NY. I dont feel like we need that caveat though, there of course will be exceptions, but this is kinda derailing. This issue recently came up for me as an interviewer. And in this case, I beleive that is correct. That OP knew it was wrong and felt guilty about it is a sign of strength. Thats why your organization wants it to stay within their walls (and possibly HAVE to keep it within their walls by law)they cant control what outside people do, whether theyre only one person removed (your journalist friend, who apparently DID keep the secret in this case) or hundreds of people removed if the gossip chain goes long enough. I dont know if it was to avoid track-covering or to prevent retaliation, but that was a specific part of the procedure. It doesnt matter if theyd trust this person with their firstborn child. It doesnt matter if your friend is a journalist or not; thats a total red herring. Still wondering why there was no second chance, though.
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