Human error data breech will I lose my job?

[IneedKirstieandPhil]

Made a mistake and sent out a personal details about a service user to 6 other service users: It had been saved in the wrong folder.
I’ve reported myself immediately but it was my mistake it’s being escalated now - I work in public sector - I’m such an idiot genuine mistake :(

Good luck. Hope you don't get punished too severely. A quick telling off is surely enough?
They should be checking their procedures ie like pp suggested, password protected, rather than blaming you for a genuine mistake.

I once got a letter through from a NHS hospital telling me they had received a referral letter from my GP and I was now on the waiting list to see a specialist consultant.Ive never had any symptoms which would warrant such a referral.Turns out it was a mistake in dictated letters. My details were at the top of the letter then bizarrely the rest of the letter related to someone else.Mistakes do happen.

Mistakes happen and this can be used as a learning exercise to tighten up processes. Unless you deliberately ignored rules and processes it wouldn't come under gross misconduct.

Warnings would be unlikely to show on a reference unless you are working in a heavily regulated industry and applying for jobs in the same industry. Most companies just confirm the dates you worked there these days. My company has a policy based on the idea that just because it didn't work out in this job doesn't mean you won't succeed in another and so won't even tell reference seekers if you were sacked.

I work in compliance and would be very surprised if you get sacked for making a mistake like this. I’d also be surprised if you get disciplined (unless you’ve done it before and not implemented any of the learning from the last time). The organisation should use this as an opportunity to review the systems and processes that enabled the incident. If they discipline staff for human error then no one will come forward and no learning and system improvement will ever happen.

If you work in the public sector it’s practically impossible to get fired! I’m guessing NHS or civil service. We have changed over to a new system and I accidentally discovered that the system had a huge bug in it when I have access to the whole site to someone out of the organisation. I was following the guidance supplied by IT and it turned out that lots of other people had done the same, it’s now being investigated nationally. Nothing whatsoever has come from it. Don’t worry.

*gave access

Indeed - something similar happened to me. I 'lost' (won't give too many details) a file with incredibly sensitive details about service users AND staff. I reported it ASAP. My company reported it to the correct body.

Work were GREAT. It was a truly truly shit time for everyone involved. A LOT of internal and external comms, I tried to tender my notice, my boss refused (I was highly emotional). I got a written warning and that was that.

I left six months later and nothing was disclosed.

Don't beat yourself up, it happens. It does not have to affect the rest of your life. Try not to spiral or catastophise as easy as that is.

I had two incidents, I was overworked in a crazy busy environment and I'm only human. I had a telling off the first time and a formal warning the 2nd time. I was so stressed by it all I started applying for other jobs and finally left. Nothing was passed on to my new employer (both NHS) and I'm in a much happier and less stressful role. You've done all you can, I wouldn't expect to lose my job but I would expect a telling off. Learn from it and move on, we all make mistakes!

Thanks all will find out more next week but so stressed out- moving house atm and recent miscarriage so everything feels 10* worse :( but appreciate msgs

Hope everything went well @IneedKirstieandPhil

Oh sweetheart you have such a lot on your plate. But rest assured you’ve done absolutely the right thing in reporting it, and the fact that you’re so trouble by it tells me you’re exactly the kind of conscientious employee that an organisation wouldn’t want to lose over one mistake. I work in the public sector and have also come across data breaches that whilst taken seriously, did not result in anyone losing their job. Chin up, this will pass.

What a nightmare. Was the information sensitive enough that the service user would make a formal complaint?

I also work in public service in sensitive environment and most of our admin team have at some point made a similar mistake. There are procedures which need to be followed and a form which my manager had to fill in for her manager / data people.

In my organisation this has resulted in the manager reiterating to us all that we need to be very careful but nobody has lost their job, and as far as I'm aware nobody has got a written warning for an isolated incident.