TootsNYC is talking about this latter case. and that person did what they were told to do and reported it. PRSA is an excellent suggestion! 1. That being said, it doesnt change the fact that OP shouldnt have done it anyway, so harboring ill will towards this coworker is pointless. Phishing emails are emails that appear to be from a legitimate source, but are actually from a malicious source. Its a big difference if you sit together at a bar, your friend mentions chocolate teapots and you say oh, this morning I was asked to design a llama-themed one before you realize that you really shouldnt have said that. And if it is a part of that, the coworker was obligated to report it! Unfortunately these days a lot of the regulators are crooked and will never do anything about problems without a lot of public pressure (and sometimes not even then). I dont think it matters now, but the Slack functionality for deleting messages from channels is pretty thorough. This kind of reaction from the company screams 'serious laws broken' and there aren't many other possibilities on what these laws maybe. @MarkAmery OP said themselves that what they sent was 'client confidential information' but ruled out trade secrets/IP being involved. We will always be privy to confidential information in our roles, its the nature of what we do. Ive had to fire someone in a one-strike situation for what I genuinely believe was an honest mistake because it was too big a risk to keep that person on staff going forward. The company I work for uses keyloggers and text scanners on our computers to catch these kinds of issues. Although paragraph (b) (2) does not require the lawyer to reveal the client's misconduct, the lawyer may not counsel or assist the client in conduct the lawyer knows is criminal or fraudulent. This is probably not a feasible strategy, unless the OP was at the job for only a few months. Not necessarily for the leaking but for the way youre talking about it. The emotion is neutral; its what you do with it that counts. 4) The coworker was absolutely right to report the breach in confidentiality. You were wrapped up in a project and yes you messed up but no you didn't mean to. When telling me about the call, she said that when the checker said the guys name, she couldnt stop herself from bursting out, Wait, he told you to call me?!. You broke a rule and you have to take responsibility. I got that impression as well and have had younger coworkers who sent random, very personal info to me in texts. OP, specifically following up with Alisons advice above, you were fired because you showed your employer that your first reaction when learning about confidential information was to text (1) someone outside of your company who was not authorized to know that information and (2) someone who was a journalist, who by profession is at risk for leaking said confidential information EVEN IF you only know them as a friend and EVEN IF you promise pinky swear that they would never ever do that. It can take down evil people who mean to do others harm. 1. Reporting misconduct is the right thing to do, and thats how an interviewer is going to see it. ), Because honestly, the more I thought about this letter as I read it, the more uncomfortable I got, too. Your coworker didnt choose to know this information and does not owe you silence. Well, this is both unkind and off-base. Yes, you can get fired for opening a phishing email. A while back I had a coworker/friend who created a memo, for our company A, all based on publicly available information, along with suggestions and comments by the coworker. Itd be much safer for the LW to ask HR what theyre going to say to other employers asking for references. Because they turned out to not be trustworthy. This reminds me of the story of the Apple employee who left a prototype iPhone in a bar by mistake, before the official release. Any message that starts with Oh honey is going to read as rude and condescending unless its followed by a sincere Im so sorry in response to something terrible happening. If you hadnt told your co-worker, then they could not have ratted you out. Sorry this happened, OP! Passing it off as a mistake, or trying to portray ignorance (in the sense of saying "oh, I didn't realize it was wrong when I did it") is just going to make it sound like you don't bother understanding or following policies. Sometimes they go so far as tell the bearer of the news that they now have to soothe them bc its their fault they feel bad. The amount that LW trusted that friend is a small fraction of how much the government trusted LW. As this was almost the entirety of your job they really couldnt keep you around. Not saying you did this! Egress Software Technologies Ltd. Find out what you should do when a misdirected email lands in your inbox. You are allowed to feel your feels about things, so long as you understand the reality. As easily as one of them knowing OP uses Slack to contact reporters and assuming I told a journalist friend or I told Rain (who they know is a journalist, possibly on that channel), anything but I texted a (journalist) friend meant OP went the usual Slack route. Im in Chicago so I read about those firings with interest. Heres what to do. Ms_Chocaholic wrote: . Or does it only matter that I broke a rule?, For #1, Youre certainly allowed to bring up anything you want in an interview, the question you should really be asking is, Will it help or hurt my candidacy to bring this up?. Especially since the letter seems to have been written almost immediately after the incident, before their feelings had time to settle properly. Only hope going forward is own up flatly and without defensiveness . Similar in IT in my first internship, I had access to about 40,000 social security numbers. Privacy Policy and Affiliate Disclosures. Im not sure whether this is something they can move on from or not, but they absolutely need to get themselves out of the mindset that their coworker ratted on them, because thinking that reporting things like that is tattling and childish is how corruption grows. As a former journalist, I can assure you journalists dont leak information, unless its something confidential about their own employers. I think its very strange that so many commenters are trying to police the LWs feelings about the coworker. Leaking anything that could put those things at risk is an insta-fire offense. I will be in so much trouble if anyone finds out! your blindsided coworker is not required to enter into a cover-up conspiracy with you. No one was allowed to approach her and her desk for the week and every night she locked up the removable ribbon from her typewriter because it could be unspooled and read. Businesses have a term for that kind of behaviour, and that is 'data leakage'. More employers are still going to be turned off by that than impressed. I thoughtlessly mentioned an embargoed announcement to a longtime friend in journalism before it was public. But at the end of the day, the reputational risk to my company, versus the relatively low-level risk of having to replace someone entry-level, was just too great to bear. If that is so, there is nothing you can do to avoid the termination and you should be looking for new employment. People do stupid or extreme things all the time; their lives dont end, but they *can* be turning points for a downward spiral. That means that you definitely shouldnt get into anything about anyone ratting you out; that would make it sound like you dont think it really should have mattered. The initial complaint filed against Google is currently under seal because the judge has asked the bank to redact the Gmail account from its filings. How does this make it any better or worse..? 1964 is what I remember. My mother got a reference-check call recently regarding someone shed managed and then fired. And they also need to have an acute understanding that the timing of disclosure makes a HUGE, TREMENDOUS difference. If you told, you breached confidentiality, no matter what the other people did. If *you* got that carried away, you cant guarantee that she wont, either. Companies (and governments) want to carefully manage the messaging and strategy around information that is released in order to bring the biggest buzz and the best information to the public. There ARE circumstances in which keep this confidential means you can tell very close, trusted people about it as they did in the letter. Im excited about the project I started today or Something cool is happening at work would be fine to say in most situations. Where the investigation uncovers evidence of divulging confidential information, then the employer should take formal action. Youre heading in the right direction, and youve also gotten some really good advice. 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.. I was often privy to non-public information because I was designing media campaigns around them. Can you get fired for accidentally sending confidential information? The Smurfs have a secret colony in the woods of Maine!. Breach of confidentiality can be described as an act of gross misconduct, so deal with issues that arise in a timely manner, in line with your procedures and look at any previous cases to ensure fairness and consistency. Yes, when I worked at a financial firm I believe that exact question was on a privacy training test: If I run across the name of a celebrity in the client management system while performing my duties, its okay to tell friends and family about it, True or False?. I would also lay odds that when LW says Coworker was understandably very uncomfortable with what I did, and we had a very nice conversation about our duties as communication officers, and trust, etc., that means that despite what LW thought about it being a nice confidential chat, her mentor figure was trying to imply to her that she was going to HAVE TO report the incident, because trust and responsibility. Because, if you did the first apology option then I think it would be (more) possible youd get a 2nd chance. nsx advanced load balancer documentation; . They would definitely see any mention of confidentiality breach as a huge red flag and drop OP from the hiring process at once.