can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information

It all comes down to the nature of the data you are handling. And theres a difference between feeling (sensation) and feeling (conclusion drawn from integrating sensations and information). Even when it doesnt require them to report it, it still could have consequences they dont want to be a part of! Me too in Government. This technique requires extra steps, but it . What I ended up doing is learning to avoid mopped floors as much as possible and warning people to be careful around them. I work for a charity that offers a telephone service nationwide, and I take a lot of calls from people in quite distressing situations. Absolutely this. Thats the real clincher here for me) and on a personal level with management your position is one of trust and you violated the basis of your work. Yeah, this is an excellent point. They fell prey to the Its just a quick peek and it wont hurt anybody fallacy. 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. Is there a solution to add special characters from software and how to do it. Even innocuous-sounding information, like the name of a database, can be a huge security risk. Copyright 2007 - 2023 Ask A Manager. Its unfortunate that LW lost her job over it but the coworker isnt to blame for LWs decision to disclose information they werent supposed to. Just a bad situation. At the end of your explanation, look your interviewer in the eye, and dont say anything else. Ive been in the position of having the relevant information, and even if its hard, you just cant tell your journalist friends unless youre okay with them using it: its what they do, and its not fair to ask them not to. Pro tip: when working in mental health residential treatment, do not have clients write your staff logs. a. problem then you APOLOGIZE and APOLOGIZE rather than defend yourself. 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. The point still stands, however, that Contract Killers proposed sanctions likely dont appear to apply here. And Im pointing out that it wasnt a record at all. Most companies will not say so-and-so was fired for doing x in a reference check. From the other persons perspective, its always easier to say Oh, dont worry, its not that bad than to get a half-hearted minimizing apology for something youre really stinging from. Later when I moved on, it became my absolute best interview topic when asked about a mistake and how I handled it. But we have embargoes for a reason. Just because a story wasnt published about it doesnt mean it wasnt discussed internally among coworkers. Yes, this is the way to do it: Friend, I just got the best news at work, I am so excited! It was absolutely drilled into all of our heads during grad school and training that you can never, ever do this. Its not an obligation to confront. That doesnt mean youre a horrible person who should never work again! This kind of reaction from the company screams 'serious laws broken' and there aren't many other possibilities on what these laws maybe. But reasonable minds can certainly differ. Rule 1.6 Confidentiality of Information - Comment how do employers know if you're answering "have you ever been fired" honestly? Im assuming the LW plead their case and filled in relevant information. All rights reserved. You're fired for violation but convince the Dept of Labor that no one without an IT degree could ever understand your policy. I was dismissed for a breach of confidentiality. There are people who would refuse to acknowledge their error and go about their lives being bitter and blaming others. I was sent home, and then fired over the phone a few hours later. The problem here is that the OP misjudged the level of confidentially expected in the situation, and maybe by their office/profession in general. If I had an employee that did this, Id expect them to be mortified and I would expect to hear how seriously they were going to take embargoes from here on out, and the LWs letter and response are almost the exact opposite. Journalists get embargoed or off-the-record information all the time and are able to play by those rules. If youre excited about a new, increased source of funding, that shows your agency has money to spend. I love my younger co-workers and value their fresh take on things and energy, but there is a clear pattern of not understanding reputation risk and liability. Im excited about the project I started today or Something cool is happening at work would be fine to say in most situations. When they took the only course of action they could have taken and still kept their job and notified your employer of your actions, you became defensive of your actions. (IE: if they think you f*cked up, then respond like you did, however you actually feel). The coworker is not a rat or at fault here. But if you act that way about a mistake at a previous job, I think people might worry about the same behavior in the future. Count your blessings that you just got fired. For excellent reasons. confusedabouteverything Forumite. Sometimes the news is a dreadful burden to bear (staff reductions of people you know, elimination of services you think are important) and sometimes the news is exciting, you have the inside scoop and cant wait to share it. All the meanwhile you're still trying to run a successful business and handling other things that are coming up. And youre being very generous toward the coworker in saying she misunderstood and mistakenly misrepresented it. Ferry carrying 183 people catches fire in the English - Daily Mail (Even before learning it was to a reporter!) And, to be fair, based on your language about technical leaks, victimless, and ratting out I dont think your organization could entirely trust that you understand the gravity of the situation and wouldnt repeat the mistake. OP, its great that you trusted your friend enough to be confident that she wouldnt share what you told her. was my company right to fire my coworker for accidentally sending me a No work friendship is worth putting my familys financial security on the line. This is a solvable problem. I love telling people things! Plenty of folks are friends in my business lobbyists, journalists, staffers you cant lose control of your impulse to share information. Theres a great blog called SorryWatch (.com) that analyzes & critiques apologies made by public figures. It may be unfair to assume a journalist is cutthroat and would kill for a lead. Im sorry this happened to you OP, yeah, in communications at nearly any company this in indeed A VERY BIG DEAL. Phishing emails are emails that appear to be from a legitimate source, but are actually from a malicious source. I am trying not to be too harsh but yes you screwed up. You can do this, if you keep working hard on yourself. And in fact, NOT getting that second chance with them might mean that you take it more seriously and handle the next relationship in a trustworthy manner. A very long-term employee who did excellent work, as a joke, made up a fake news release that indicated we got the contract. And all you learned was to avoid freshly mopped floors? I was wondering the same thing. And theyll be first with the story. 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. I agree that you can learn how to share without breaching confidentiality. journalists dont leak information, unless its something confidential about their own employers. Because I can almost guarantee that your reputation in that organization would never recover, even if you had remained employed. My company is not going to jeopardize a $500M/yr contract over my mouth. Our actions and our thoughts can definitely be wrong, but calling someones feelingswhich they have little to no control overwrong (or, dead wrong with double asterisks), only contributes to shame and self-loathing. Because when your mentor is a coworker at the same employer, you cannot, cannot speak as freely. A large part of this is creating the interest that will drive The Thing, and the market/desirability of The Thing. Thats the wrong lesson to learn. As this was almost the entirety of your job they really couldnt keep you around. Whilst Im sure the OP is a perfectly nice person, theres a reason that there are office shootings and other awful things, some people are not. Better to say in a single instance of poor judgment I let a piece of information get outside of the company to one person which I immediately knew was a mistake and I notified someone in my company. There wasnt any risk, my judgment was good!. Screw-ups happen. I imagine there are a lot like that in government but he learned from working with a non apologetic, scandal plagued politician that consequences of what seems little to you may not be to the tabloids. Show prospective employers that you can reflect on your actions and learn from mistakes, because thats not at all what Im seeing here. they dont owe it to you to offer that opportunity, That reminds me of the guys who say, I know I cheated on you, but I want a second chance.. I say dont lie during any part of the job application. This issue recently came up for me as an interviewer. I consider it my greatest ethical obligation in my job, because I have been entrusted with sensitive information and I treat it like Id want mine to be treated. She did her job. Was this alone enough to be fired, or is there a history? On the weekend, I was sending a personal email to a friend. If its the government, theyd be defending Area 51 unless its a false flag operation, and the point is for the invasion to occur, but show nothing suspicious, because the government already relocated all the aliens! I worked for a federal government contractor and we were awaiting news of whether we were getting a contract renewal. Reacting to being fired for that as if being personally persecuted over some piddly technical rule violation and not being given a second chance? As in I am so, so sorry! But I cant talk about the specifics of that scene. I dont think you have to be Catholic.). Draft your UI forms and pre-write your objection to his unemployment on the grounds of "good cause" firing for willful misconduct- Then after all that you can fire him. And there was no social media then, so 100+++ times that now. If I were in the coworkers position, I would need to do the same thing. Our newspapers report quite frequently on gossip of whats happening behind the scenes. That really set the tone for the reference she gave. Wait, what the friend is a *journalist*?. So seriously, just dont tell anyone at all, fight the temptation, its an icy slope.

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