I do not believe in using it for personal gain, even the minor personal gain of sharing juicy secrets with someone. Or, maybe they totally overreacted, who knows its impossible to say from here. (And thats before you tack on that LW thought it wasnt SO bad because he told Journalist Jason, who can keep a secret, as opposed to Reporter Robert, whos a real sieve.). The above divulged details to a journalist about allocation and resources they should not know about. If yes, that is relevant to the question. This is NOT a myob type situation at all. Our newspapers report quite frequently on gossip of whats happening behind the scenes. I was sent home, and then fired over the phone a few hours later. I think this really depends. +1 Its a bigger deal because that friend is a journalist. There were maybe 50 of us on the team for the app. I ran across an old letter recently where someone had negotiated themselves into a poor position, and hit on dragging some subordinates out there on the plank with her. People working on campaigns get to be privy to all sorts of information that is not intended to be public. If I know that Senator Y is releasing a health care plan on Monday that would require mandatory surgery for every American, and he has bipartisan support for it, thats a much more specific news tip, and Id rather my friend just not tell me and save me the heartburn. You wrote, The only reason I got fired was because I was ratted out by a coworker for a victimless mistake and was fired unfairly. But you werent fired because your coworker reported you; you were fired because you broke a serious rule. Here are the things that OP needs to remember: First, the coworker is not a rat, even if she misunderstood the scope of OPs unauthorized disclosure and mistakenly misrepresented it. Ramp up your privacy settings across all accounts. The org needed to know in order to assess potential damage and limit future opportunities. 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. Sometimes he wasnt working on confidential stuff, and he could come home and geek out over what he was doing if he wanted. Box-ticking SA&T wont change security behaviors. the coworker probably was obligated to report it Yes, I did filing in a small-town law office where almost every name was familiar and nothing I read or saw left the office. I was fired for technically breaking a rule but it was my first offense, and nothing bad actually happened, and Im definitely learned my lesson. If I wanted a cookie and I didnt get one, I can feel sad, and thats fine. If you lie during the interview and the truth later comes out, thats enough to get you fired. Just because a story wasnt published about it doesnt mean it wasnt discussed internally among coworkers. How exciting! and I started reading the details from the email out loud to him. Also, its not clear from your response Do you understand how serious what you did was? You will bounce back! OOPS! Yeah, Im wondering that too. Employer found out and had grounds to fire you. It can bring vital information to the public who have a right to know. You cant even take a look at *your own* records if you are also a patient at the medical facility. I dont think we fired anyone but the need for absolute confidentiality was reiterated. I think its very strange that so many commenters are trying to police the LWs feelings about the coworker. 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). 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. The point of the story is the funny way people behave. Doesnt matter that its your friend or that you trust her, its still a huge liability. Best of luck, and believe us all when we tell you that if you sound at all dismissive of the seriousness of this, prospective employers will (rightfully) worry that you may have a similar lapse in judgement again. Better to have a 30% chance than a 0% chance. Has 90% of ice around Antarctica disappeared in less than a decade? Dang! Your comment above is much closer to an effective track. Contact the unintended recipient It's a good idea to contact the unintended recipient as soon as you realize the error. And definitely let go any butthurt about your coworker they did nothing wrong and followed clear policies on reporting this incident. We were interviewing someone who had broken the #1 cardinal ethical rule in our industry (a branch of health care). Good luck! Appropriately so, but still, wow. That makes a certain subset of people *extremely* excited. I dont believe this falls under inadvertent, though OP deliberately gave that information to her friend. 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. And that doesnt even take into account that I could be prosecuted for divulging any private information. 3. On the non-security side of things its fascinating to learn what the folks in the booth behind me are working on as Im quietly eating lunch, but its a serious security violation to discuss that kind of thing in public and it makes me cringe so hard when it happens. The issue of whether HIPAA information can be emailed is complicated. Judgement errors tend to repeat themselves. I got that impression as well and have had younger coworkers who sent random, very personal info to me in texts. I am trying not to be too harsh but yes you screwed up. This will suck for a long time writing this post has made me feel anxious thinking about my own lapses and consequences from years ago but it all works out in the end. If I ever texted a journalist about nonpublic information Id be fired. From there they have 72 hours to resolve the situation. Yeah, if the LW is in the US or things operate the same way in their country, theres no point in trying to lie or even waffle about what happened. Was this alone enough to be fired, or is there a history? It doesnt matter that its a good friend of yours who happens to be a journalist shes a journalist, and her JOB is to tell people about things she finds out about. My (unclear) point is that there are some options for OP that extend beyond you can never share anything before its public with anyone ever and completely change career tracks.. (For your job search, this might be obvious, but steer clear of medical, legal, PR, or any other field that deals with privacy.). FIFTY?! But even the first is really really, really bad. People leak or share things to journalists they know all the time, with agreements by those journalists on how to share it. She shared it with a friend. If its something that would be a big deal for LWs friends news outlet to report first, not being able to say anything to the reporters who could write about it even, hey, I hear this might happen, you should make some calls! Once you do it, the consequences are the consequences. We got [Celebrity Y] to promote a big public health initiative! When I read the letter, it struck me that the VERY EXCITING nature of the news was more of a reason NOT to share it. You hear something genuinely classified and blab it too because its so cool? In 2014 or so, I once slapped a superior in the face because they were yelling in my face because I was stepping on freshly mopped floors. Youre not in a gang or on a schoolyard playground or fighting with your sibling in the backseat of the family station wagon. Or, heck, for all I know he didnt actually work on anything that interesting. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. Youve got some great feedback from Alison and I hope it all works out for you. I wouldnt be surprised if there was a state or federal regulation that she violated by sharing that information. That was not an enjoyable situation at all. As I read it, LWs friend couldnt pass the information along at all. This is what I wanted to say but you said it better. This is so true. (Even before learning it was to a reporter!) All this said, I think Alisons approach is the best one when youre applying for jobs. I used to work for Marvel Studios. Employees. And off the record requests from journalists arent mandated by law. Or well often hear from contacts on the Hill about something going on behind the scenes, like that a bill is about to be introduced. OP can come up with steps to fix the real problem in their future jobs, but they cant really fix an evil coworker. Im so sorry and I will never do anything like that again.. Getting fired sucks. and that was interestingthey had criticisms I hadnt thought of. 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. Even if you trust her 100%, she is still too high risk. I dont know if it was to avoid track-covering or to prevent retaliation, but that was a specific part of the procedure. Your second co-worker who sexually harassed a woman was put on a PIP? Dont blame your colleague she may have been obligated to report this. She showed no contrition or reflection. Going forward definitely own this mistake and explain that you are freaking Fort Knox going now to new employers, knowing now the seriousness of such a transgression. Based on the post its probably public now, so I would guess its likely not too exciting. A further 2 years can be added onto the sentence for aggravated identity theft. Understandably, the agency had to let me go. Something to show that you didnt get caught you confessed. When theres something I really want to share with my wife, I mask it, pretty much what we do here talking about how the client invested in llama shearings, or called up asking about rumours of purple llamas, or asked us to sell all their teapots that kind of thing. She can still apply to jobs in her field, and even in the fields you noted, shell just have to be very clear in interviews that she understands why she was fired from this job and how shell work to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. While most organisations take measures to prevent and protect against external cyber-attacks, many don't protect themselves against accidental leaks by their internal staff. For context I work with PHI covered under HIPAA for my job. But from there you can talk about what you learned from the experience and how this makes you a better employee/candidate now. Privacy Policy and Affiliate Disclosures. blue_haddock wrote: . I tell the character and imagine their response, and the urge to share subsides. And there was no social media then, so 100+++ times that now. I dont think your coworker ratted you out. If it keeps happening, you can report the sender as junk or spam to block future messages. You asked how to handle this in future interviews and one key is owning the mistake, taking responsibility for it. People dont talk about it very much but it definitely happens. Is it possible to rotate a window 90 degrees if it has the same length and width? ! but you just cant. Yes, this. and that person did what they were told to do and reported it. In addition to 100% needing to own it when asked about it, I think OP may also benefit from focusing the job search on jobs that dont involve handling sensitive or high profile information. No, shes a person with ethics who plays by the rules. All of that being said, I wish her the best in moving forward and finding another job shell bounce back and be the wiser for it. Thats how a lot of people get found out in the end, it doesnt just stop with telling that one friend. If you are still defensive or dismissive about this, it will come through in an interview. A person who is aware of a breach is required to report it. The fact that you were surprised and angry (to the point of calling her a rat, essentially) speaks to the fact that you actually do NOT know who you can expect to keep things secret, at least not as well as you think.
Softball Pitching Lessons,
Brentwood Police Department Salary,
Naadam Cashmere Cardigan,
Savannah River Property For Sale,
Articles C