Every bit of what Ive said is probably hearsay. Like you said, it was a breach and thats serious on a professional level (your friend is a journalist, too! While it is possible the line could be actively tapped/monitored by someone else, even if it was an unsecured line it would be reasonable to assume the home phone number on file for GSA's dad would lead to the dad. Sorry that this happened to you (Ive made stupid mistakes too) but you may want to consider keeping problems like this to yourself. OP has been mature about admitting fault, lets not undermine that by implying it was no big deal. In a job interview, how do I explain why I was fired? I supervise a manager who falsified an employee write-up but I dont think she should be fired. LW is undisciplined and has a big mouth. LW, please, please look hard at what happened and how you can promise yourself first of all that this was the last time. Learn how to protect your investment management firm through intelligent email DLP. So, are you clear about the severity of your action and the significance of this rule? OP wasnt a journalist. Non-public just because it hadnt been announced yet isnt the same as the location of the emergency bunker. What I ended up doing is learning to avoid mopped floors as much as possible and warning people to be careful around them. TootsNYC is talking about this latter case. If that is so, there is nothing you can do to avoid the termination and you should be looking for new employment. Youre heading in the right direction, and youve also gotten some really good advice. While it didnt result in any press, it was obviously a major lapse in judgment and I understand why it resulted in my termination. There are people who would refuse to acknowledge their error and go about their lives being bitter and blaming others. Like its going to be easier to find a job because she has the integrity to say she got fired. The coworker did the right thing. Ive been poking around in our payroll system for the last two weeks. 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. And you did it over company lines. and sent to multiple people (!!)? You arent entitled to a second chance to screw this up. I imagine theres a section in the manual and training (possibly annually) about the great responsibility they bear around confidentiality and how people will try to scam them into breaching security, yet OP does not appreciate the weight of this. That guilt is because you KNEW you did something that was explicitly not allowed, and you went to your coworker in the hopes theyd absolve you of your guilty conscious. 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. I was sent home, and then fired over the phone a few hours later. how do I get out of an active-shooter drill at my office? Even if this person had not turned her in, there was this bomb just sitting there waiting to go off. One piece of information I learned (that has since been announced publicly, but hadnt been at the time) was SO EXCITING that in a weak moment, I texted one friend about it in celebration. Under the "General" tab, you'll see a section called "Undo send.". Ive only had a very general idea of what my husband does since 2002, because he cant tell me. 3) The recipient was a journalist thats super relevant, even if its not in their area She shared *exciting* embargoed information. The first job will be the hardest but gradually you are less and less likely to be asked about an older job. Moving forward, the best way to handle it is be honest. Same here. Id like to know what LW said at the two meetings they gave her before firing her. 2. A person who is aware of a breach is required to report it. Or you mistyped her email by one letter and it went to a colleague who had no reason to respect the embargo? Once you told your coworker, you dragged her out there on the plank with you. Im sure they thought she was a fruit cake. I recall a year or so into this administration at least a couple federal departments making A Big Deal out of leaks because it seemed like every other story (usually negative) was quoting an anonymous source sharing sensitive information they werent authorized to release. 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. The Census Bureau does NOT play with that sort of thing, and you would indeed be given the boot as soon as the breach was uncovered. Talking about your work on a more general level is usually allowed unless your employer or their client is unusually paranoid. and that person did what they were told to do and reported it. What am I doing wrong here in the PlotLegends specification? If a member of your staff violates this explicit. Im still pretty upset that I had no second chance, but I suppose I just lost their trust. Similar in IT in my first internship, I had access to about 40,000 social security numbers. Yeah, wouldnt it be possible to prove (or rather disprove) that you leaked to a slack channel full of journalists? It can feel like the end of the world but I promise you it isnt. Its the Im still pretty upset that I had no second chance, but I suppose I just lost their trust. that did it for me (especially after all the ways the OP dodged responsibility in the original letter). 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. This is a bad enough screw-up that I would be contemplating a career change, or at least a pivot to an area of communications where things like confidential information and media embargoes arent ever a factor. As a government employee they are obligated to report a breach of information regardless of whether they like the employee they are reporting or hate their guts. Id had excellent feedback up until then (if this is true), but I mistakenly shared some non-public information with a friend outside the agency, and they let me go as a result. That really set the tone for the reference she gave. This is to prevent LW from trying to destroy any evidence. Take this to heart in your next position and deal with sensitive information. OP doesnt sound naive or too young, either. Gossage said he believed he was speaking in confidence to someone he trusted implicitly, but the story subsequently appeared in the Sunday Times, to the dismay and rage of the author of the Harry Potter books.. For what its worth, one thing I noticed from your letter is language that sounds very social, discussing your trust in your friend, being ratted out by your mentor, not being given a second chance, and so on. I, too, have made foolish mistakes that cost me a job. Yep. As I said below, that may be why you werent given a second chance. OP, I join Alison in wishing you the very best of luck! The issue of whether HIPAA information can be emailed is complicated. Thank you for saying that feelings are never wrong. OP if I was part of an interview for you, and you brought up this situation the way its phrased here, Im sorry to say it would be an immediate pass. 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. 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. I resent our new hires for setting better work-life boundaries than our company normally has, hairy legs at work, my office sent me a random TV, and more, heres an example of a great cover letter with before and after versions, my employee cant handle even mildly negative feedback, my new coworker is putting fake mistakes in my work so she can tell our boss Im bad at my job, insensitive Diversity Day, how to fire someone who refuses to talk to us, and more, weekend open thread February 25-26, 2023, assistant became abusive when she wasnt invited to a meeting, my coworkers dont check on people who are out sick, and more. To be clear, you were fired for admittedly breaking confidentiality not because of your coworker. Oof this is so condescending! My only other advice is to consider if there were any conversations on slack that were inappropriate. Your understanding of confidential is not mine. In McMorris v. Not saying you did this! Loved your opening act for Insolent Children, btw. It sounds like youre taking responsiblity for your actions and are doing your best to move on. It is ok to be upset at the coworker but it is important to recognize that she did nothing wrong and is not a rat. 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. Nah, I think the odds of whats super exciting to a government agency being equally exciting to me are pretty slim. What happens when someone sees that message over her shoulder? Regulation people have heard of is going to be changed/repealed and its a big deal Confidentiality is not just an issue in communications. It might not be that the coworker reported you. At the time, I thought it would be ok since it wouldnt cause a problem, but I realize it was not up to me to make that judgement. +1 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. [Well-known bad person] is going to be fined/punished/arrested. I was an HR coordinator at a hospital and even though I did not deal with patient records or patients or anything remotely health care-y, I was required to take the annual training and accept compliance as a mandatory part of my employment. Obviously telling the friend was the fireable offense here, Im not arguing that. 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. Im now turning my head sideways and re-reading/rethinking. You unpromptedly wrote a message to the friend. Rules are there because its so easy to do that thing that feels harmless, and sometimes nobody gets hurt.. The awareness that anything sent in your work email is subject to FOIA and open records requests really varies.
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