Shared information I shouldn't at work

[TinyChancer]

Posting here for traffic

I'm a union rep and accidentally attached the full minutes of our last meeting to my team, including managers, in which negative things were said.

I've recalled it, apologised and alerted the union of my mistake.

Only found out when I got an annoyed sounding email from a director.

It was not in anyway intentional but I'm totally panicking I'll be disciplined

I need people on here to help me calm down

Omg I don't need trouble before Xmas.

Been here 3 years if that's relevant.

Well you are a union rep so you should know the disciplinary policies etc. I cant see why you are upset but you should know what to do?

Thats a pretty crap thing to have happened, but you can't change that now.

Anyway it could be prevented in future?

What can you do to reassure the people impacted by the information release?

You have messed up but you are HUMAN. Be kind to yourself. Tell your boss and explain the situation. It was an honest human error. Please stop panicking and think logically. It was a simple human error all you can do is apologise and agree to further training (even thought you don't need it) just to 'show' you are sorry

If you are a union rep you will know the disciplinary process and you also should have been aware how careful you need to be when sharing this type of info. Be prepared for colleagues not to trust you after this. Just saying sorry isn't going to make this go away.

Oof that sucks. Obviously you are a union rep so you know procedures but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t like all other employees get support and advice for yourself. You made a cock up but you should use your union to support and advise you through.

I'm a new rep. I had a full blown panic attack. I broke confidentiality and have potentially caused more problems for those team members. I have never ever in any of my jobs done anything like this before. I'm wondering what my managers may do and if I'll be disciplined. I've looked at the disciplinary policies but they aren't clear on a matter like this. The chair of our union branch is OoO today, typical.

TBH in your position - which is one where you HAVE to be able to safeguard confidential information, I think I'd offer to resign as a rep.

I'm sorry for the situation you are in; I know how horrible it feels to make a mistake. But you need to be seen to indicate just how important an issue this is.

For the future, you could password protect anything sensitive and only share the password on a separate email. Gives you a second chance to get it right.

Surely she shoudn't be advised to resign?! It's a human error, the sort of thing to own up to, acknowledge and learn from. OP I think you need to speak with a supervisor and get some advice on this, grovel if you need to. A person should not lose their career and livelihood over this. Be kind to yourself.

You can’t undo it but in future you could send a link to the document that sits in a shared folder only the people who should be able to see it have access to? That way if anyone else gets it by accident they don’t have the permissions to view?

Deal with the mistake first. Then offer a solution after. It’s shit when this stuff happens

BIWI didn't say she should resign from her job, she said OP should offer to resign from being a union rep. That's not her career and livelihood, as presumably she has a job at which she also represents the union!

FWIW I agree offering to step down as a rep is a good gesture, OP. Also, I wouldn't talk with someone outside the union about it until you've got advice from the union itself.

@lifeisforlaying I said she should offer to resign - not that she should. And to resign from the position of union rep, not her job. (Which is what I said in my post!) To show that she understands the situation she is in.

Yes, it's human to make mistakes. But this was a particularly serious one, given her position in the company. So as you've also suggested, this is really about grovelling, to show that she recognises how serious a breach it has been.

As a general rule it is unwise to minute what was actually said, and instead to say something more general like 'x was discussed'. Minutes are most useful if they focus on action points with person responsible and targets or deadlines. This may be advice for the future, but your timing is quite fortunate really as it's likely the offending document will be forgotten about over Christmas.

To be honest, sounds like gross misconduct to me so I would be terrified in your shoes. Sorry that's not helpful, but if my confidential info was in that document I would be kicking up hell!

If you're using Outlook you can check the status of the recall and see who's read the email/which recalls were successful etc. Hopefully you can check that and it'll maybe help put your mind at ease that most people didn't read it yet?

You will likely be disciplined, and depending on what information was in the document, you may be sacked.

if it's people's opinions on someone's performance, they should be bringing it up anyway, maybe not in a public way, because now everyone knows Sarah from accounts can't count.

If it's bonus information and any personal details, such as 'Sarah's mental health problems are really affecting her', then it hits differently.

How many did you manage to not recall?

Keep calm, admit your mistake and escalate to the necessary people (in your managers absence). Have you been given adequate training and could this be added to any training sessions whereby you suggest a change of procedures for disseminating minutes of meetings? Think about how you can turn a negative into a positive - you can lead the change. Find out which emails have been returned and which have been delivered and read so you are aware of the possible impact. Show that you have taken action to mitigate the mistake and any possible cost to your company. i hope this helps.

I like the idea of password protecting the minutes going forward, I could suggest that, and try to password protect everything else, to try to mitigate the damange.

I was thinking about whether I should resign as a representative.

The minutes were along the lines of boring what's happening in the organisation stuff, but later on in the minutes there is me/another representative raising concerns colleagues had come to us about, and saying our managers were dismissive when they were approached directly. It also discusses potential grievances being raised. However, the only names in the document are names of representatives and the teams they represent eg 'marketing team' so the names of the managers and colleagues raising concerned are not in it.

I recalled the message in outlook but no recall report ever came so I don't even know if the recall worked so how do I even find out?

recall notifications take a bit of time in outlook. You will probably know within 24 hours. Is there anyone you can check with (you trust) if they received it?

I know this doesn't help now. But in future you can put a delay on your emails to send after 5 minutes to stop stuff like this happening.

I would urge you not to resign. You can show you have learnt from the mistake by password protection in future. In my experience not many people want any job in a Union as it is mainly extra to your own job. I hope it is a good outcome for you.

there is a delay already in place but I never noticed I'd attached the wrong thing until a senior manager told me. I can't stop shaking. My colleagues will all hate me now.

I did get a thumbs up from one colleague when I sent an email sayiing 'apologies, please delete etc'.

@40YearOldDad - your first sentence is unhelpful and scaremongering. As an administrator/governance officer for 35 years I've never known someone sacked or disciplined for sending out confidential minutes by mistake. Unless it contains market-sensitive information you'd only get a rap on the knuckles and a telling-off.

Like @Redburnett says - the minutes are too detailed and shouldn't contain the sort of information you've disclosed. They should be concise, to the point, and should leave "feelings" and people's opinion out unless that person has requested that their opinion be minuted. Who was there, who wasn't, what was agreed, what wasn't, and who had actions. That's it. Not sure who is writing your minutes but they maybe could do with a refresh, or if they've never been trained (as is often the case) to do a one-dayer course with someone like Reed.

I really don’t think you’ll get sacked for this (human) error.

Id suggest proactively making a point that in future you’ll use password protected documents. I think the key to moving forward is you being transparent and not trying to cover this mistake.