When they call for a reference, many employers will absolutely say if you were fired or laid off, and they will give detailed references. How do I make amends and go about apologizing to former manager(s) after being dismissed for gross misconduct? You can bet Id be gone with no second chance despite my almost-20-years and ton of good work. And Im happy to report that I have never shared that news (still remember it bcs this was so hard that first time!). I was working on some client confidential information on my client issued laptop and I emailed this info to my personal mailbox as I wanted to continue doing work on my personal laptop; I couldn't take my work laptop away whilst on extended leave overseas. People just seemed to forget that with Epic, even one second of accessing a chart is recorded. And there was no social media then, so 100+++ times that now. OP, its worth examining whether trying to assuage your guilt by sharing this with your mentor, rather than with some outside person who doesnt touch on your industry, was a version of getting post-mortem permission. Im also a public affairs officer for a government agency- one that almost exclusively deals with highly classified information. They did exactly the right thing to you. 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. Absolutely this. I think the wider point is that anyone can make that mistake at any age, and speculating about this part of it is irrelevant and not helpful. Some agencies will only provide title and dates of employment, which is a lucky break for you. Sorry, Im tired and I think that metaphor got away from me. As Brett said, there was definitely a record in this case. Same applies here as you stated. Heres what to do. 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 count as they reported themselves if they later say they were ratted out by the person they reported it to. This disclosure was not inadvertent, and trying to frame it that way could backfire pretty hard. Yeah, this is a big part of it. Also, she wasnt a journalist I ever interacted with professionally shes a friend Ive had for years. Whether or not you knew about the policy upfront, you need to be ready to discuss steps you take to stay informed about policies and ensure you're following them. Per my story above, when I made the mistake that I was fired for, I did take responsibility at the time, and they fired me anyway. Since that didnt happen Im not surprised you werent given a second chance. You certainly don't need to blurt out a 5 minute monologue unprompted, but you do want to be ready to answer these questions because they will come up if you disclose what happened as you intend to. 1) Broke a rule Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Posting confidential company information, good or bad, is not protected. When an employer says something is confidential, take it seriously She has to protect her job and reputation as well in the end, she shouldnt have to risk her own job stability due to your choices! Im so paranoid about it, that I only talk about what the company has already shared publicly. I can't remember the details, but there was a point about the fact the word "confidential" added in every e-mail by such a notice wasn't actually helpful, since tools that looked for the word confidential were flagging everything up, including a large number of false positives. Check out this article on that HERE. I can imagine all kinds of things that wouldnt be that exciting to the world but that I would still want to tell a friend. In a professional context, close friendships and personal trust arent always as ironclad as they can be in personal relationships, particularly when it comes to security and confidentiality. Its to prevent covering of tracks or retaliation or extinction bursts (Im about to be caught for X may as well make the punishment worthwhile and do Y and Z too, or if they are acting with deliberate malign intent Im caught, better leak as much as possible asap). 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. Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been. Has 90% of ice around Antarctica disappeared in less than a decade? Is there a solution to add special characters from software and how to do it. Its very possible that LW could think what happened to me wasnt totally fair and still accept full responsibility for it during interviews (which is obviously the smart thing to do). It may be that the decision is made and it is just a matter of time before you are gone. 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. Policy change that is a big deal to staff that works on it, but very in the weeds for the general public (regulation is going to be changed in a way that is technically important but at most a medium-sized deal), Fairly real examples that would be much bigger deals: 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. And definitely let go any butthurt about your coworker they did nothing wrong and followed clear policies on reporting this incident. Shes never even heard any of the names of our clients, except for a couple she met once at an adjunct social function. Honestly, I got the impression that the writer was on the younger end, just in their self-reported actions and reactions. Take ownership and accountability of it, because for better or worse, all of us could have made OPs mistake at some point in our careers. Thats a horrendously burdensome thing to ask! After all, nobody wants to tell their manager that they might (however accidentally) be responsible for a data breach. Based on it happening before GSA was born, this most likely happened on a land line. 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. Those kinds of disclosures often rise to the level of immediate termination, which is what happened, here. She cut a guys LVAD wires so that hed be bumped up to the top of the heart transplant donor list? Also, Ive seen plenty of firings that were absolutely not presented as position elimination. Even if the exact reason wasnt shared employer isnt going to say Oh, Jane took home a spreadsheet full of MNPI they will absolutely share that the ex-employee was fired for cause, not laid off. I wouldnt be obligated by anything other than displaced loyalty if I wanted to try to be squirrelly of course but I respect myself way too much and have my own standards to just keep quiet about things. Talking about your work on a more general level is usually allowed unless your employer or their client is unusually paranoid. This is important both in terms of owning your mistake and not blaming the person who reported it. 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. Keep rewriting what happened in the most factual, dispassionate way possible. Im glad youve learned from your mistake, and I really hope you take this experience to heart as you continue your communications career. We go through training every 6 months, that we should NOT to tell the coworker or customer that we will need to report them. Thats also real life. I am really jaw-on-the-floor stunned at people taking aim at the coworker. An in-person meeting might be more appropriate if you accidentally sent information about your plans to find another job to your manager. Reacting to being fired for that as if being personally persecuted over some piddly technical rule violation and not being given a second chance? A person who is aware of a breach is required to report it. Are there any reasons why the coworker couldnt be upfront with what had to be done ? Letter writer, it sounds like youre new to our field and may not understand the importance of keeping confidence. No one is trying to tell the OP that she needs to be friends with this former coworker. Your first step should be to contact your old HR department and ask about their policies for reference checks. Regardless of what word you use when you disclose what happened, understanding that difference, owning up to it, and showing how you've changed as a result is your best hope of gaining future employment. Yes, 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. Let me be clear she did not leak it. Its understandable that you feel betrayed by your coworker, but she probably felt obligated to say something. YOU know you wouldnt do it again, but nobody else can really know that. Some certainly will, especially those who are more security-conscious. Including their reputation being damaged. Can you get fired for a PERSONSAL email accidentally sent to a coworker I think that speaks to exactly why this was such a breach, though. 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. Eight Warning Signs of Potential Employment Termination and Eight Ways It was the wrong thing to do, and Im sorry. The info I released did not in fact cause any problems, but I tremble now because it so easily could have, in even slightly different circumstances. Someone would then check into it to see if there was a valid reason for someone to be poking at it. LW, people in the comments are also ragging on you for being upset with your coworker but frankly, I would be mad too! For a market where most of this stuff lives in a big way for one season, and then only has some ongoing staying power? Does your company know she could have called the police? This makes it seem like they owe LW something, to be loving and release her to her best life. Is it possible to rotate a window 90 degrees if it has the same length and width? This seems unnecessarily condescending, and I dont think the LW sounds defensive here at all. Fired for gross misconduct because I sent confidential information to Access rules are very, very strict, and there are reminders all the time. I was under the impression that most big companies had a policy against telling a reference checker anything beyond dates of employment. I think it most likely would be very boring, but some stuff like the jobs report a few days early would be very interesting to unscrupulous investors. Not necessarily for the leaking but for the way youre talking about it. I dont know the OPs financial status but if she needed the $$$ its not that easy to look at it as a kindness in the moment. Youre not in a gang or on a schoolyard playground or fighting with your sibling in the backseat of the family station wagon. Assuming the coworker had evil intentions pulls OPs focus away from the real problem (disclosing an embargoed piece of information to someone not authorized to know that information at that time) and fixates it on the coworker. A majority of those who work from home would use their own personal digital devices such as laptop, tablet or mobile to perform their daily work tasks and it is also convenient for employees to. In "Labs," scroll down to "Undo Send" and enable it. All journalists are human and many of us have spouses/friends who do things that are news, and this is a situation where good boundaries can protect everyone. How is an ETF fee calculated in a trade that ends in less than a year? Or at least, I can. Maintaining confidentiality is a foundational occupational requirement in a lot of fields. If I were you, I would examine WHY I decided to tell my journalist friend the info. Journalists seek out and report information thats their job. 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. 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? You shouldnt be upset at your coworker, if anything she should be upset with you for putting her in that situation. Not generational, just a young person thing. One of my favorite shows had a plotline about a sibling not liking someone not breaking doctor confidentiality. I dont even share work release information (good or bad) early with my spouse. I doubt it was the plan to storm Area 51. how do employers know if you're answering "have you ever been fired" honestly? Plus you might be doing them a massive favour when it comes to catching a data breach early. It can take down evil people who mean to do others harm. Journalists are very charasmatic and will fish for info its their job. Sometimes their hands are tied too. For most cases in the US, I'd expect it to be legal. 'Pay Secrecy' Policies At Work: Often Illegal, And Misunderstood But I cant talk about the specifics of that scene. A member of the public wants some data, they contact anybody in the agency they can think of, the internal employees bounce it around because somehow they dont know who to send data requests to, and finally it gets to us and we respond. If it was something that was a big deal to LW but not huge news externally, yeah, its not a thing. The communications person from the Marine Band was immediately fired when it was discovered she had leaked this information. Spek raised a good point- find out what your HR policy is so you know what to be prepared for in an interview. That mindset is just so messed up. The mistake was breaking company policy not that they announced to a coworker they broke company policy. Im thinking of the Elizabeth who went on a 20-email rage about being called Liz, or even the old 1970s memos from the Tiger Oil CEO that found new viral life in the digital age. I had the same thoughtthat was very unwise. How you analyze the situation and internalize the lesson is more important than wording for future employers right now.
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