I am very sure they didnt want to fire him. Thats a flat out easy to uncover lie. Sorry this happened, OP! End of story. Sometimes I see stuff that is cool to nerds of that particular field, but 95% of my Secret Information from clients is not even interesting to them. Which is actually good most of us get making a mistake when were young, and really learning from it. 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. The US is a large jurisdiction, and generally have what I consider very little protection for private data. But Im a journalist whos covered federal agencies, so I know super exciting to agency employees does not necessarily equal huge news for everyone else. It all comes down to the nature of the data you are handling. I was new, too eager to please, naive and I let the client rush me instead of following established protocol. Im sorry this happened to you, OP, Im sure it feels devastating, and it sounds like some of the details were inflated but there is a good reminder here for all of us as some things cant be undone. If you had the same role in a public company, you could have have been fired because of regulations preventing insider trading. I used to work at a public Zoo that was owned by the state, and so we were all state government employees. And, yeah, that happens, its part of being a human. There is no other guarantee, and yet people count on it. 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. If we think about this, not only did she trust her journalist friend, she trusted her coworker not to tell anyone either. Contact the GDPR manager at once. I want to encourage you to drill deeper on something you said in your letter: I did feel guilty. The secretary is going to be featured at [cool upcoming event]! Did you apologize profusely and then explain that there was some miscommunication here? A fine of up to $100,000 and five years in jail is possible for violations involving false pretenses, and a fine of up to $250,000 and up to 10 years in jail is possible when HIPAA Rules have been violated for malicious reasons or for personal gain. You still have to go through the same information request as someone who doesnt work there. I now work somewhere where I have access to sensitive information, including my own. I wont lie, Im tremendously curious, but I also know this is just one of those things I will never get to know. Theres a great blog called SorryWatch (.com) that analyzes & critiques apologies made by public figures. However, placing the blame on the coworker for the entire situation, even just in her own head, is likely to come though when she talks about why she was fired. Whether she is under FOIA or a state public records law, there are a lot of rules about non-disclosure of certain information. In the worst cases though, businesses can lose clients and employees can lose jobs. I just think it serves OP to choose a more benign explanation because it will help OP deal with the fall out of the situation going forward. I used to work for Marvel Studios. I have personally learned that if you never want coworkers to find out something embarrassing or private about you, never ever tell them. The type of sanctions that Contract Killer is talking about would only apply to confidential records, not non-public records. Are there any reasons why the coworker couldnt be upfront with what had to be done ? You did wrong, fessed up, and got fired anyway. I think that is also part of the lesson that OP needs to learn. He was valuable. However, were only human. In fact, if I ever got a query from someone I knew, I was required to hand off the query to a colleague. And there was no social media then, so 100+++ times that now. 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. Just wanted to point out that OP said they worked in the government, so while yours might be the public understanding of confidential, it wouldnt apply to anything their job considered confidential. 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. 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. Like I said, very strange but its worked for me. That said, I am curious if theres other context that explains why they fired you for a first offense without warning you first. Many types of information are protected only during specific time frames insider trading comes to mind as a particularly nasty one disclosing inside information about a pending large contract award or trade is absolutely firable. Moving on from that company is probably a mixed blessing. How exciting! and I started reading the details from the email out loud to him. (I mean, I think its a great program, but Im realistic about things lol.) What if there was another leak and someone found out that OP had told Coworker that she had leaked info previously, but didnt report it as she was supposed. People just seemed to forget that with Epic, even one second of accessing a chart is recorded. 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. And, to be fair, based on your language about technical leaks, victimless, and ratting out I dont think your organization could entirely trust that you understand the gravity of the situation and wouldnt repeat the mistake. 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. There are different levels of confidentiality for different circumstances. Im also a supervisor. 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. And all you learned was to avoid freshly mopped floors? 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. I do have to wonder if the hospital failed to educate its employees on how freaking serious that kind of breach was, And also failed to inform them that the system tracks who looks up a particular patients record. People find new jobs after being fired all the time. Im not cleared for it. 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. If you were fired for an embarrassing reason that would torpedo your chances in an interview, say that your position was eliminated. If you had stayed they would have never trusted you again.. Im also miffed by the fact that the coworker kinda blind sided OP. Youre heading in the right direction, and youve also gotten some really good advice. and starting the work of rebuilding reputation. e.g. but if you mess up and by the skin of your teeth get away with it, just DO NOT talk about it with anyone at the company. But your processing of it has to be at one step removed. This. And sometimes at shows they dont identify themselves as press immediately. It doesnt, but we still shouldnt state assumptions like facts if theyre not supported by whats said in the letter and theres nothing wrong with Michaela pointing it out. And that doesnt even take into account that I could be prosecuted for divulging any private information. And maybe you should go next week, because the slots love you and you always win. How on earth could you know this was a misunderstanding? Or that might not make a difference on how its interpreted. I would have ratted you out too. My worry, OP, is that you dont see this as sufficiently serious to warrant a firing but I promise you that in most communications positions, it really likely would be. It may be unfair to assume a journalist is cutthroat and would kill for a lead, but its also nave to assume they wouldnt let anything slip to the exact wrong person. How to handle a hobby that makes income in US. They take information security and confidentiality so seriously that they make delivery people who come to the offices sign an NDA just in case they were in the elevator with Sam Jackson. |. I think people are reading defensiveness from the qualifiers probably and suppose. I can sympathize that this is still very raw for OP and perspective will only come with more time. 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. Well 1.) I had the same thoughtthat was very unwise. It's hard to answer this question without specifics, but it strikes me as very important to differentiate between an accident or mistake in the sense of "oops, I did that by unintentionally" versus misconduct, as in "this was against policy and I deliberately did it anyways" regardless of whether you knew about the policy or had a good reason to do it or not. 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. I wonder if OP ever got the chance to correct the misunderstanding. it doesnt count as they reported themselves if they later say they were ratted out by the person they reported it to. 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 not condescending to point out that what LW did was incredibly foolish. Im still learning Slack, so maybe being naive. Thank you for saying that feelings are never wrong. For me, that was it. Good points, and good advice for anyone whos apologizing for anything. Those who work in circumstances that require them learn how to filter through multiple layers of risk when they get to a point where they come up against that need to share. Where did you go from here? Finally I decided to own it at the next interview and I got the job.