I always wondered if they remained friends after that fiasco. This will sound very, VERY strange, but if you have the urge to share things youre not supposed to, theres a trick you can try: telling a fictional character in an imaginary conversation. Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. Thank you for following up with Alison and here in the comments, and Im sorry for what youre going through. And you might know that you trust that friend 100% to keep it confidential but your employer would prefer to make that call themselves, and thought theyd done so when they told you the information couldnt be shared. Likewise, LW needed to understand that you dont get a next time not to tell anyone confidential information just because you get it now that they meant it when they said the information was confidential. If you want to work in comms, you need to be crystal clear that the TIMING of disclosure is a crucial issue. If you embezzle from the company and tell a coworker who then reports it, the mistake is embezzlement, not telling a coworker about it. (Plus, were not sure how much of the inflation came from the coworker and how much came from their superiors. If the policy says people who tell information to non authorized individuals must be fired they could have been fired for not firing you. According to Tessian research, over half (58%) of employees say they've sent an email to the wrong person. I want to caveat that when I originally wrote this, it had just happened and I was still extremely emotional about it, which is probably why I chose to leave out important information in my initial question. Replying to the sender is a good thing to do for a couple of reasons. And depending on the circumstances, if the co-worker knew you broke the rules and didnt report it, then THEY could be in trouble also. Extremely good advice! Assuming OP was correct and journalist friend never would have said anything, OP could have pretended it never happened. Yes. Protect your people from socially engineered phishing attacks, Defend against attacks originating from compromised supply chain accounts, Detect fraudulent invoices and payment requests, Prevent people falling victim to targeted impersonation attacks, Defend against the delivery of ransomware and malware by email, Stop phishing attacks that lead to credential theft, Prevent email data loss caused by human error, Block exfiltration of personal and company data, Preserve ethical walls to prevent disclosure of information and avoid conflicts of interest, Apply the appropriate level of encryption to sensitive emails and attachments, Detect and prevent advanced email threats that slip through Microsoft 365, Provide people with easy, actionable advice in real-time at the point of risk, How to use a hacker's toolkit against them. (The fact that your friend is a journalist makes it particularly egregious.) That really set the tone for the reference she gave. Yeah, I wish the mentor had walked the LW directly to the boss to discuss this openly. Instead, the employees found out by reading the news instead, which hurts morale. If I were you, I would examine WHY I decided to tell my journalist friend the info. I used to handle accounts, but could not handle my own. How do you approach company policy in general? We received a staff email that shared that they were going to release some BIG news about positive new office changes and remodeling and that there was going to be a BIG press conference in 2 days at our office with a lot of high-up political bigwigs and asked everyone to show up for support. 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. My boss wanted to press charges, but his business partner didnt, so they just fired him. Based on the post its probably public now, so I would guess its likely not too exciting. Honest Mistake: Have You Ever Shared Sensitive Data to the Wrong Person? Your contract can still be terminated if you violate a lawful . Choose your time limit (you can only choose from between 5, 10, 20, and 30 seconds) Hit save changes at the bottom of the page. It seems like LW has had time to process and isnt being combative. Or you mistyped her email by one letter and it went to a colleague who had no reason to respect the embargo? If you are still defensive or dismissive about this, it will come through in an interview. It might possibly be seen as less bad that the information shared was intended to be made public anyway, as opposed to it being information that wasnt ever supposed to get out. I dont find it understandable that the OP expected a second chance for this, as someone who routinely deals with unclassified-but-FOUO, Confidential, and Secret information, except insofar as I can have sympathy for someone who perhaps didnt understand the gravity of their actions until consequences came down. Reduce human activated risk to protect against email data breaches, Allow your teams to communicate securely and share sensitive data, Guiding principles that govern how we operate as a team, Diverse and inspiring individuals passionate about making a difference in the world, Join our team across a range of roles and help shape the cyber security market, Tailored compensation and career paths designed to attract and retain world-class talent, Unique and personalized benefits to help maximize your potential with us. But your wording indicates that you dont yet have insight into just how much you breached the trust of your company. LW doesnt seem defensive at all here, and its okay to feel upset while still taking ownership of their actions. When we think about misdirected email, we often put ourselves in the shoes of the sender. Although it was mortifying at the time, this has taught me a hard but valuable lesson about handling sensitive information setting boundaries in my relationships with reporters. I was talking about this upthread before I saw this discussion. I mean, yeah, absolutely! Even when it doesnt rise to the level of legal shenanigans might happen, it can be pretty serious. Alisons words are great to have prepared, and be super clear that you understand it was a problem, it was bad, and you take it very seriously. That said, if this was going to be public anyways, your boss may have been inclined to write you up rather than fire you if you were sufficiently remorseful/petrified/mortified. I mean in the end there is not a lot of reasons to trust either, but demonstrating ongoing cluelessness is not a good way to sell this will never happen again. Does that matter? Please keep us updated and let us know how things work out for you. Recurring theme here is that tattling isnt a thing at work. Of course, but if you think that there arent tons of people out there whove made huge mistakes and managed to keep it from getting out, youre kidding yourself. You may not even realise your mistake until the person you meant to send the message to says they didn't receive it (or you have a flurry of missed phone calls, as in Serena Williams . OP, its great that you trusted your friend enough to be confident that she wouldnt share what you told her. This mixed with the coworkers inflated story, I would be more than annoyed by this coworker too. 3. I have accidentally terminated people, messed up HRIS changes that prevented people from getting their paycheck, and scanned/sent confidential information to an employee instead of myself. Non-public just because it hadnt been announced yet isnt the same as the location of the emergency bunker. He had a fairly high security clearance and was stationed at NORAD for a time. So, you've accidentally sent an email to the wrong person. If Jane knows, then it cant be too bad.. Theres beating themselves up, but then theres also understanding and feeling properly appalled that they did something really unconscionable. If the answer is Yes then say that. Frequently there would be confidential news like, The tiger had her baby and its a girl! or Were getting hippos! that we couldnt share with the public for a few days (to be sure the baby was healthy and would survive past a critical period, or so the news could be shared in the way the marketing department deemed appropriate, or whatever.) I used to work for Marvel Studios. I DEFinitely sometimes shared those tidbits with friends and family who were big tiger/hippo/etc fans. [important person 1] and [important person 2] are coming to my office for a press conference. Im sorry this happened to you OP, yeah, in communications at nearly any company this in indeed A VERY BIG DEAL. I worked for a federal government contractor and we were awaiting news of whether we were getting a contract renewal. There is no other guarantee, and yet people count on it. 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. 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. 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. But when youve broken someones trust, they dont owe it to you to offer that opportunity and shouldnt offer it unless they sincerely believe that you could meaningfully repair the breach quickly and comprehensively. As someone who works in PR/comms, my recommendation is to tell future employers the truth and emphasize what youve learned: It would have been a ticking timebomb for them, and the next time it could have leaked beyond the friend. Yes, this was a fireable offence, but Im less interested in the nuances of violating confidentiality than in the bigger picture question I have done something where I really screwed up how do I move on? (Someone above mentioned someone bringing a gun to work (Dwight? We are not in kindergarten. Hind-sight is 20/20, but the LW should have thought twice about sharing that leaked incident with any coworker, especially a mentor who likely would be obligated to let the higher-ups know. If it was something that was a big deal to LW but not huge news externally, yeah, its not a thing. how trustworthy somebody actually is is never certain. Oh, so LW cant keep a secret from her reporter friend or her coworker, but were ragging on the coworker for not keeping LWs secret? One colleague really didnt like the plan, and he was communicating with people who were organizing opposition to it using his work email. Its part of driving a media and product blitz where it basically shows up out of nowhere because everyone has been working on it quietly so it would all be ready for the big day. I was in tech there and had worked on a new interface for agents, lets call it TEAPOT. Just because a story wasnt published about it doesnt mean it wasnt discussed internally among coworkers. I also wanted to address a couple things that jumped out at me in this part: Also, am I even allowed to bring up the fact that someone ratted me out? There could be a situation where it might be the journalists job to share the information LW thought they were telling to just a friend. What if another journalist saw the email over your friends shoulder? You just seem to still want an answer and I picked up on this as a possible avenue to reflect on in your letter. 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. Its not their call. Im not going to tell them about it, unless it actually falls out that I end up being the person who is put in charge of telling them their thing is done. 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. If you hadnt told your co-worker, then they could not have ratted you out. Blame yourself for breaking the rules. Maybe you havent worked with, or known anyone whos worked with, sunshine law and right-to-know, but this is incredibly serious for anyone who has.
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