I agree that you can learn how to share without breaching confidentiality. Perhaps the way you feel (felt?) But unfortunately, the rules of your job are such that you justcant. Given how much we have learned about foreign intelligence operations in American social media in the last few years, this is yet another reason why information security of all levels is taken so seriously. Ultimately, its your choice to make. Im sure the letter writer has plenty of that to deal with already. quite a lot of people are going to feel as though youre making them an accomplice in your bad behavior. This was all public information, but the original report was work product of Company A even if it had originally been created by the coworker. 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. Youre heading in the right direction, and youve also gotten some really good advice. Its also totally understandable that youre disappointed about losing your job, but they might have just considered that kind of confidentiality breach too much of a risk going forward. Am I likely to be rehired after being fired for misconduct? That brings us to your questions. (I thought Al Frankens apology to the fellow entertainer was pretty good, actually. (Presumably easier to get caught via company comms but doesnt make the leak any different imo). AND I told somebody within the company about that? +100 to this. When weve made a mistake, it often feels unfair when we dont get an opportunity to explain, defend, and/or redeem ourselves. We can think things without saying them out loud. A first offense is still a breach in trust. Both your friend AND your co-worker. Also, legally email addresses themselves dont typically count as 'personal information' as they are contact addresses and are treated in similar ways to phone numbers legally, as opposed to, say, identifying information like full name, DOB and home address all in one document. It doesnt matter if it was text or Slack, a single journalist or a whole group. You can bet Id be gone with no second chance despite my almost-20-years and ton of good work. how else could you have met that need?) Extremely good advice! It makes me so happy that I had to tell someone is a reason to text them, OMG, huge news that I cant tell you, but you will be SOOOOO happy when its in the papers in a few days! Not to actually, yknow, tell them the private information. I wrote back and asked, Is there more context for why your coworker thought that? OP, there is another thing to keep in mind. Another engineer girl here, at a place where people have been fired for leaks and it hits the news when it happens: theres a warning during New Hire Orientation, and between that and our reputation, youre expected to know it. If OP reasoned I told mentor, confident that there was NO WAY she would let anything slip it throws a lot of doubt on her parallel reasoning of how certain it was that the journalist wouldnt let anything slip. This is a very astute comment, especially your last paragraph. Basically, I was fired for X mistake. Yes, or that appalling line by E M Forster, written just before the Second World War: if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend I hope I should have the guts to betray my country. For example, a lot of insider trading is based on the TIMING of someone finding out information. 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. 2.) In the US, sexual harassment wont merit a police response. Right. She shared it via text not voice, but text, which could be seen by someone else. Im assuming the LW plead their case and filled in relevant information. And you did it over company lines. You breached confidential information to a journalist. As far as I know, he held the highest security clearance a civilian could have. But I had a boss who always used to try to cover his ass 110%. In this situation, I reported myself is simply false, given OPs expectation that her mentor wouldnt pass along what she knew to anyone else. If you had stayed they would have never trusted you again.. He shared it with one person, telling them it was a joke. Well meaning (or at least not meaning harm) maybe, but very foolish. This was more or less what I was thinking. What I find interesting in the original letter is LWs insistence that it was a victimless crime because nothing bad happened as a result of their leak. Thats not how embargoes work, and the reasons why we have embargoes are important and valid, even if they may seem like not a big deal in the context of a specific disclosure. Thats another instant firing, even if the information isnt ever misused. FIFTY?! We asked them why they did it. Second chances arent a foregone conclusion in any aspect of life or work; your expectation that there should have been one at all suggests a level of entitlement that needs to be examined. Im sorry this happened to you OP, yeah, in communications at nearly any company this in indeed A VERY BIG DEAL. When we make mistakes, they are impactful, but we're human and it happens. Or the surrounding land if its something that will raise property values. Hes in an unrelated field, it doesnt affect him at all, and he wouldnt really care outside of knowing whats going on in Eddies life but hes a chatterbox and theres a decent chance hed forget and say something to someone. As a damage control, should I (as the manager responsible) send a message to all employees explaining what occurred and asking them to respect the confidentiality of the information and not open nor forward the information to anyone else or should I just not bring additional attention to this message? If when when LW talked to their boss, they conveyed the sense that theyre thinking Whats the big deal, its all fine, the coworker who ratted me out sucks, I did it once and Id do it again but next time I wouldnt self-report to my coworker the boss would probably be unwilling to give a second chance, whereas a oh shit I screwed up, heres what Im going to do to make sure this never happens again could have gotten one. Its always easier, at least to me, to close your mouth than open it. In no time you will have your next job lined up and all this will be just a post earning you rep. How did you talk to your boss about the slack channel full of journalists? Were you able to correct the factual mistake in context, and what phrasing did you use? And even worse when it can have legal implications like for insider trading or government secrecy. 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. And if I tell anyone, including a coworker ,that I processed said claim, my butt could very well get in a lot of trouble. You did a dumb, impulsive thing and when you took time to consider it, you did the right thing. 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. (Or maybe the coworker did fabricate it, but I feel like thats a massive assumption itself. I empathize, having both been in government service where the people can let the boundaries get too loose and, separately, had a career-breaking moment in a toxic workplace. But if I did, itd basically just be gossip (I hear Senator Ys staff is really frustrated) that they could choose to report out in detail or not, and definitely wouldnt be traced back to me. That oh honey is so unnecessary, and questioning LWs age is just rude. I went to my boss explained the situation and let me boss make the decision if we wanted to share the report. In jobs that require non-disclosure, active disclosure is a very big deal. 3. I think people beat themselves up enough internally without us having to do it for them most of the time. Embarrassing or inappropriate communications sent via company email can damage professional credibility, reputations, and careers. I wonder LW, would your interactions with the higher ups have been different if your co-worker/mentor had given you the heads up that she was going to have to report this? So, I can talk about it, I can say Omg, there was one scene that I was just like SuperCheese! and rolling my eyes. The one time I filled a confidentiality-bound role (as a temp) the information I was given was specifically NOT to tell the person you were obligated to report. All this said, I think Alisons approach is the best one when youre applying for jobs. And definitely let go any butthurt about your coworker they did nothing wrong and followed clear policies on reporting this incident. I just want to remind people that it happened. Right. RIGHT NOW it is totally privileged information and it needs to be treated that way. Thank you for explaining this! But what might walk that back to a performance plan would be a sincere, unqualified apology showing understanding of the gravity of the error. Dont disagree feelings arent wrong but the way we think about them often is. If she had been doing something perfectly acceptable, seen by someone who misunderstands the situation, and fired because of that, then she would be an innocent victim of a very unfair employer. No matter how small the company, they trust you to safeguard the data, and you didnt do that. You know thats not how that works. This is awkward to frame as apparently it would have passed unnoticed if you hadnt taken aim at your own foot and then pulled the triggerit would be better if you were fired after fessing up to your superiors, rather than involving anyone else. Perhaps over official lines it could be interpreted by the journalist as on the record comments. 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. You are allowed to feel your feels about things, so long as you understand the reality. 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. If you told, you breached confidentiality, no matter what the other people did. Much as we like to think confidentiality is transferrablethat as long as the people we tell keep things confidential we didnt breach confidentiality to tell themits not. Confidentiality can stink at an interpersonal level, everyone tends to talk about their work and it can be hard to hide things from people we care about. TootsNYC is talking about this latter case. Trying to understand how to get this basic Fourier Series, Linear regulator thermal information missing in datasheet. And there was no social media then, so 100+++ times that now. Dont blame your colleague she may have been obligated to report this. Yeah, I thought it was from her personal cell too. And it seems like you do. But if I found out a coworker was sharing this information with just anyone it would be a probably HIPAA violation and, yes, I would need to tell my boss. Resist the temptation to gossip about fellow employees and don't express your disdain for your. LW already feels wronged. You learned, BOY HOWDY did you learn, and now you dont mess around not even gossiping with co-workers or any of those other little ways that could instill doubt in your discretion. But I think in order to talk about this with future employers, youve got to take more responsibility for it. 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. The actual problem is that OP shared confidential information. Sometimes when we receive an email meant for someone else, its just spam. "Compose the email, and only then go back and enter the address (es)," he says. If someone told me something that I know Id have to report, I would report it. I would have ratted you out too. I hope you find something good soon and can put this behind you. I think she was trying to lessen some of the guilt she felt, but really she should have just sat with that feeling and let it fuel her resolve to never share confidential info with an outside party again. The coworker did nothing wrong that we can see from the letter. If you say, My coworker ratted me out, an interviewer hears, My coworker reported my misconduct. Youre the one who comes off looking poorly there, not the coworker. I question that there are no details about your Monday meeting with HR here. But I dont think it helps OP to feed a narrative that prevents OP from owning the situation going forward. He was very good about keeping track of his boundaries, and we got very used to finding ways of being politely interested in how his work was going for him without putting pressure on him about the details. And even now you sound defensive. This is to prevent LW from trying to destroy any evidence. In fact, if you are being sent overseas, you have to take a special counterintelligence training before you go that includes tips like dont wear items with your agencys name written on them while you travel and never park next to a panel van.. Not so here because what she did was wrong, just not quite as bad as the misunderstood version. I actually think your big mistake was telling your coworker, not telling a trusted friend.. section 8 housing augusta, maine, frank ocean brother toxicology, how did sam the bartender die on gunsmoke,