I agree. If you werent human, you wouldnt make mistakes. This is important both in terms of owning your mistake and not blaming the person who reported it. 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? And while you felt mad at coworker, really youre mad at yourself. Messages like this can simply be ignored and deleted. Like, its so obviously wrong that people dont even talk about it. Or, heck, for all I know he didnt actually work on anything that interesting.
Why Sending Data To Your Personal Email is a Security Risk - Tessian 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. 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. ), You also werent fired for technically breaking a rule. You were fired for actually breaking a rule, and a serious one. Agreed. And you did it over company lines. At the same time, though, its a program the average American would likely never have heard of and would give less than a crap about. That may not be the right wordbut Im having trouble finding the right one. If it comes across like you dont think it was a big deal or that you blame the coworker for alerting your employer, thats not going to go over well. Second coworker only was put on an improvement plan. Thank you for saying that feelings are never wrong. Oh no! Giving her information relevant to her beat and asking her not to share it is basically asking her to stand on the sidelines and fail to do her job, while somebody else gets the scoop. Most companies will not say so-and-so was fired for doing x in a reference check. Second, OP should never have told their friend, trusted or notthe problem is that OP should not ave disclosed it to anyone. People tend to share with trusted confidants/partners/etc. As a sidenote: *Even if* you think it *wasnt* a big deal, when you get hauled into the boss office and told it. Yeah, seconding this. What!!! I have been fired for a dumb mistake. No. What am I doing wrong here in the PlotLegends specification? She showed no contrition or reflection. Im a long time reader posting my first ever comment to tell you that this comment is incredibly condescending, unnecessary, and unhelpful. I thoughtlessly mentioned an embargoed announcement to a longtime friend in journalism before it was public. Im assuming the LW plead their case and filled in relevant information. LW told a human known to be a journalist about The Thing. Inadvertently, in my view, would be something along the lines of had confidential documents in a briefcase that you accidentally left behind at a coffee shop. Yes, own it. It stinks but in this industry, thats a deal-breaker for many. Screw-ups happen. blue_haddock wrote: . 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. Absolutely! The protected classes are race, age (40+), sex, national origin, religion, or disability. A terse to non-existent IT policy or one that's full of unexplained jargon can work against a company. You can bounce back! Everyone absolutely everyone employed at a hospital has to undergo annual HIPAA compliance training. Plus, I think part of it was that it was exciting BECAUSE it was secret, and now its apparently common knowledge. It can feel like the end of the world but I promise you it isnt. Yeah, I wish the mentor had walked the LW directly to the boss to discuss this openly. I guarantee you that somewhere in the company handbook for the Government Agency where you worked there is a paragraph about the obligations of an employee who learns of a data breach. "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. If you stay in comms, good to always remember the optics. how do employers know if you're answering "have you ever been fired" honestly? Think of speaking with a colleague like speaking with your boss. Im still pretty upset that I had no second chance, but I suppose I just lost their trust.. Or if youd like to start a trial, get in touch and well be more than happy to arrange a free demo with your IT team. Please keep us updated and let us know how things work out for you. How exciting! and I started reading the details from the email out loud to him. You are disappointed you didnt get a second chance. Instead, you gossiped about it and risked an announcement before things were ready. I agree, but its been called out and I dont want to derail on it. Yeah, I once got fired and I have always framed it as being fired for one thing I said in a meeting, but the truth is, I really got fired for not apologizing for saying the one thing. 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. 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. But at the end of the day, Alison is right. Is it possible to rotate a window 90 degrees if it has the same length and width? People working on campaigns get to be privy to all sorts of information that is not intended to be public. I want to push back hard on this, the coworker is not a rat. Remember when Beyonc lip synched at Obamas inauguration? OP wasnt a journalist. If not, an investigation would be started on which employees were poking around in Famous Persons account and why. Received someone elses confidential email? 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. Dont get me wrong, she shouldnt have ever told the friend and Id understand if they were worried if she told more people, but its concerning how they immediately jumped to an even worse conclusion based on nothing but their own assumptions. Have you learned from your mistake? Even if they knew she used Slack to talk to journalists in general, its a massive enough leap from I told a friend via text that Im side-eyeing the coworker and HR a little. I am not falling on the sword or putting my job on the line for a coworker. 2) Told someone you broke a rule. No. Im still learning Slack, so maybe being naive. 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. Well, this is both unkind and off-base. I know there are cases where someone might fear retaliation etc, but with a higher up getting a subordinate into (deserved sorry OP!) OP will also want to consider not focusing her career path on jobs that require a security clearance for classified information. The penalty for breach of confidentiality isn't restricted to employees who have . That response will likely impress an employer that she has grown and learned, that she is honest and has some self-awareness, and that she would be worth trusting. And in the future if you really cant hold something in (that is not full on illegal to discuss) and want to share it with your spouse or something, dear God dont ever do it in writing! Organisations can set up static rules (for example, you can send emails to business A but not business B), but these traditional methods are rigid and unreliable. In the US, sexual harassment wont merit a police response. Both your friend AND your co-worker. She just needs to learn discretion. For excellent reasons. Or even if you sit at the bar and the llama design keeps crossing your mind and you talk before you think. Of course I understand that I broke a rule, and that it was my mistake 100%, and it was no one elses fault. They would definitely see any mention of confidentiality breach as a huge red flag and drop OP from the hiring process at once. What happens when someone sees that message over her shoulder? Not just confidential, but confidential from *journalists*!! How you analyze the situation and internalize the lesson is more important than wording for future employers right now. Has 90% of ice around Antarctica disappeared in less than a decade? Yep, we regularly are reminded about FERPA requirements (academia) and staff members have gotten in hot water for not promptly picking up student transcripts from the printer (for instance). Letting stuff out early could mean that goes off with a whimper instead of a bang and might be a financial difference in driving extra purchases for that initial season, and the implication of The Things staying power if it doesnt do well enough during that time. Yup! As someone who works in PR/comms, my recommendation is to tell future employers the truth and emphasize what youve learned: Alisons words are great to have prepared, and be super clear that you understand it was a problem, it was bad, and you take it very seriously. 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. one last post-script: this person wasnt super good at their job, but was a teammate i worked closely with, and doubt they had been put on a PIP prior to this. Some projects you could talk about with a trusted friend as long as you didnt get specific, but shouldnt announce on twitter. assigning women extra work to help them, calling out when youre in the ER, and more. I get that youre trying to take responsibility here, but your Im still pretty upset that I had no second chance, I suppose suggests to me you still have a long way to go toward recognizing and acknowledging the seriousness of what happened. OP has a right to be annoyed with Coworker, but Coworker was doing her job as well. I know it isnt the actual incident since the details dont match (no twitter or cake pictures mentioned in OPs case), but I was assuming it was something like the NASA gravitational waves thing. Your employer lost control of this information, even in a very small way, and thats a big deal.
Know your workplace rights: New laws protect employees during - NBC12 They are pretty free with stating exactly why someone was fired. Yes, you can get fired for opening a phishing email. I say dont lie during any part of the job application. Id spend some time processing how you felt and trying to learn to take accountability and personal responsibility for this (and seriously its something thats really uncomfortable and hard for everyone but it helps so much). Me too. Other agencies will provide title and dates, and whether you are eligible for rehire.
'Pay Secrecy' Policies At Work: Often Illegal, And Misunderstood Having said that, as a hiring manager, if you were able to talk to me about how this one-time error in judgment caused a deep shift in thinking and was a critical pivot point in your professional development I would hear you out. This was a Friday. super! Feelings can be irrational though, or overblown, or immature, or any number of shades of wrong that means you shouldnt give them 100% credence. I would argue if you acknowledge your error in judgment, it would work more to your benefit, then classifying it as a one-off mistake and overreaction by your company. Or if the coworker only decided afterwards this couldnt be kept in the dark, call her and tell her this. And depending on the circumstances, if the co-worker knew you broke the rules and didnt report it, then THEY could be in trouble also. This reminds me of people whose response to hearing no is well, how do we get to a yes? LWs response to this was unacceptable and we cannot have a person on our staff who would do this, was Oh, okay, well, next time I have a similar opportunity here I wont do this.. Coworker did nothing wrong and isnt untrustworthy but OP erroneously decided to trust her which is key. 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. The fact is, its just not their secret to share. That being said, it doesnt change the fact that OP shouldnt have done it anyway, so harboring ill will towards this coworker is pointless. 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. Confidentiality is not just an issue in communications. First, you need to be able to frame what you did for yourself. Recently, the National Guard was hit with a data breach, where files containing personal information were unintentionally transferred to a "non-DoD-accredited data center by a . I suspect youre referring to a case where a patient was put in danger, but where no obvious harm occurred like a psychiatrist consensually sleeping with their patient, which an unscrupulous psychiatrist might see as a victimless crime, but which is incredibly risky behavior. 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. Its too difficult to know which internally-discussed information is confidential and which isnt. This is a solvable problem. Whats not fine is trying to take somebody elses, or dramatically moping about it until someone gives me theirs. Occasionally our clients have been in the media and have shared part of their story. No, not if its classified or embargoed. This is so well said. Posting confidential company information, good or bad, is not protected. Thats why they told you the information was confidential. Penalizing or firing such employees may lead to the loss of good talent and even create a negative impact on employee morale.