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Original poster

Being blamed for something I'm 99% sure I didn't do!

34 replies

DontPressSendTooSoon · 24/05/2019 08:01

I have recently started a new job in a role where I deal a lot with confidential data.

I was replying to an email thread about some very confidential information involving a senior manager of staff. I replied to the people in the message (my boss and their boss) by pressing reply all, wrote the message, pressed send.

Immediately after I'd sent it I realised that a completely random person had been cc'd in. I had no idea who this person was, had never emailed them before.

Very confused I phoned my boss's boss (as boss is away and he is more involved in the situation) to say I don't know how this happened but XX is cc'd to this email.

He obviously wasn't happy, we managed to eventually get IT to retrieve the email as luckily the recipient hadn't read it, but he said it could have been a serious data breach and to be more careful etc. He's going to send an email to the team warning them of this risk.

I said I was totally confused as to how this random person could be cc'd in as I'd only pressed reply all to the original recipients. He said maybe my cursor was in the wrong place and it had autofilled.

At the time I accepted that maybe I'd done that, but on retracing my steps I've worked out it is impossible to cc someone you've never emailed before by accident. Autofill only works on previous recipients (on outlook) and still you'd need to do a few purposive clicks to get their name in the cc field. For someone you've not emailed before, you'd have to either put their entire email address in the cc field or go in to the directory and find them.

I'm new in this role and have my review next week. I'm really, really upset that this has happened and am 99% sure it wasn't me!

Do I say anything or keep quiet? I don't want it to look like I am not taking responsibility or shirking out of it. But a) I don't like to get the blame for something I've not done and b) whats to say it won't happen again?

OP posts:

twinkle999 · 24/05/2019 08:04

So are you saying that the person who sent the email to you had cc’d this person in and you just hit reply?
Surely that should be quite obvious from the email chain.

Babysharkdododont · 24/05/2019 08:04

But OP, you did do it. Completely accidentally, but I don't think the best option is to deny it when it clearly happened.
Just take responsibility, say you'll be more careful in future, and always check the emails thoroughly before clicking send.

namdinam · 24/05/2019 08:07

I am equally confused - either this person was already copied (which I'm assuming not or you would have pointed that out) or you did somehow do it. I think you need to accept the issue and not argue about it!

Myimaginarycathasfleas · 24/05/2019 08:09

Have you retained the email you received? It would list the other people copied into the email string before you replied. If you haven't got it, see if you can retrieve it from IT. Print it off, and take it to your review.

When the subject is raised, make sure you acknowledge the seriousness of the potential data breach and show that you are aware of your error in not checking the recipients and that you will not repeat the mistake.

But the print out will show that you didn't actually add anyone in. That might be important as there may be other breaches before you were involved that they need to check up on.

CruellaFeinberg · 24/05/2019 08:09

If you were replying to all, then this person will be in the original email?

Where is that?

Yotam · 24/05/2019 08:09

Could the mystery person have been blind cc'd into the email you received ? Not sure if that would put them in reply all maybe.

LizzieSiddal · 24/05/2019 08:11

Look at the emails which were first sent to you.

If he/she was already on copy, their name will be there!

DinkyTie · 24/05/2019 08:14

If you didn't add the person they'll be in the email chain so you can prove you didn't add them.

But if they were only added when you replied, then you did add them.

ChariotsofFish · 24/05/2019 08:16

It’s so easy to check this, I’m not sure why you’d bother arguing. If this random person was cc-ed into the email you replied to then it wasn’t you. If they weren’t previously cc-ed then you did it by accident. It’s just an accident, but no point pretending it didn’t happen.

YeOldeTrout · 24/05/2019 08:17

Have you retained the email you received? It would list the other people copied into the email string before you replied.

Exactly. Unless you did a hard delete (which is rarely done). And anyone else cc'd in can check their copy for you.

It's easily done to send to wrong person in Outlook Autofill. You want to email YeOldeTrout & start typing Ye... you get YeYoungFlipper & don't realise the switch when you accept the suggestion.

My last employer therefore removed all autofill options. OMG, what a hassle to not have that at all. Reply All still worked, at least.

Bunnybigears · 24/05/2019 08:19

If they were BCC'd in the email that was sent to you I believe they are then also included in your reply to all.

DizzySue · 24/05/2019 08:19

If the person wasn't cc'd on the email you received, but was cc'd on the reply email (written and sent by you) then you did do it. Denying it will make you look bad, you may not understand how it happened, but you did do it. Just accept that a mistake happened and focus on preventing it from happening again.

Original poster

DontPressSendTooSoon · 24/05/2019 08:21

Can i just clarify - the original email thread was person A and person B.

I replied all intending to reply to both these people.

A completely random person Z who was nothing to do with anyting was cc'd in. on the reply. I don't understand how this could have happened, he was never in the thread to begin with and works in a completely different department.

I'd never emailed him before and don't understand how autofill would have done that as I thought it only works on previous email recipients.

If someone can explain how this could have happened I'd be grateful.

OP posts:

DinkyTie · 24/05/2019 08:23

Outlook can add random people who are in the company address book.

You accidentally did it, but you need to own it.

DizzySue · 24/05/2019 08:24

Btw...'reply to all' will not include anyone that has been BCC'd

Babysharkdododont · 24/05/2019 08:25

Who knows how it happened, but if he definitely wasn't in it prior to your email then you inadvertently added him.
Honestly OP, own it and move on. If you were my direct report and had an "it wasn't me" attitude I'd be pretty doubting of your professionalism.

Original poster

DontPressSendTooSoon · 24/05/2019 08:26

Is there even a 1% chance this could have been a glitch on outlook?

OP posts:

aprarl · 24/05/2019 08:26

The thing is, you did it. It doesn't matter that you can't work out how.

Outlook at work does this to me occasionally and it drives me mad, I've now put a 1 minute delay on emails and I sometimes double check on important ones out of paranoia.

At this point all you can do is be confident and apologise. A brief "Sorry, I've no how that happened, but I'll be double-checking the 'to' field in future!" is a lot better than "But I've investigated etc etc".

Don't make a bigger deal of it then it is, or make yourself look incompetent and nervous about it!

Myimaginarycathasfleas · 24/05/2019 08:27

Then the correct response at review is "I still don't quite understand how x was added but I realise how serious this could have been and will make sure in future that I double check the recipients before sending sensitive emails."

With auto fill a single accidental keystroke could have added them. It seems likely you did it by accident.

GlacindaTheTroll · 24/05/2019 08:28

You might be better off asking your own IT department about how it happened (any tailoring, or straight-from-box) or simply accept that you made a mistake and did not notice how you made it.

'Check Everything' is the loud and clear message, and the one you need to show you have hoisted in, at your review. (And in doing so, you might inadvertently do once more whatever you've done now, and then you'll know)

TigerCubScout · 24/05/2019 08:28

Have you still got the original e-mail? Click 'reply to all' again and see if they appear in the cc box again.
Anyway, if it brought up explain you don't know how it happened but you used you initiative to quickly resolve the issue.

ControversialFerret · 24/05/2019 08:33

^^ This. Own it, apologise, move on. There is zero point in digging around and trying to find out about the probability of Outlook errors etc. This was - in the grand scheme of things - a relatively minor mistake, which was resolved quickly. If you obsess about it then it doesn't come across well, as a key part of things like this is professional resilience where you learn from a mistake and move on. If your boss wanted an in-depth post mortem on it then he would have asked for one.

cowbag1 · 24/05/2019 08:34

I would never use 'Reply to all' for a sensitive email. You should be adding each recipient individually so you can think through if they need this information.

I know you only had two recipients in this email but it's a bad habit to get in to and could catch you out if you replied to all with a much larger recipient list.

It doesn't matter who was copied in to the orignal email, you are responsible for the content of your emails and who you send them to. The orignal sender mistakenly including someone on an email doesn't excuse you doing it too.

HennyPennyHorror · 24/05/2019 08:36

I agree that using Reply All isn't sensible with sensitive data.

aprarl · 24/05/2019 08:36

Yy controversial.

I used to be the defensive "I can prove it wasn't my fault" person (and I could too!)

But over time I've grown to understand how annoying that is to managers, who often don't care why something happened, they just want it fixed, and don't want the added burden of looking after you when you're upset about it. They don't want to think you've wasted lots of time investigating something that they assume was a quick, careless error, and it's not good that you can't admit faults. Also when you make a big deal of something, they begin to wonder if it is a bigger deal then they thought too.

These days I know that a quick acknowledgement and fix usually smooths things over faster.

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