Timeline for Should I have shared a document with a former employee?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 19, 2019 at 19:36 | comment | added | TonyK | @JBChouinard: all the more reason not to own up, I would say. | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 19:01 | comment | added | onnoweb | "Plead ignorance". I'm pretty sure this matter is covered in the employment contract. | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 18:11 | comment | added | JBGreen | @TonyK It depends on the business. At my company data exfiltration is monitored and taken very seriously. If I pulled this stunt I'd have a decent change of getting caught and face disciplinary action up to and including getting fired. | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 12:53 | comment | added | Chronocidal | Who stands to lose out if you stay quiet? The entire company, yourself included. Who stands to benefit if you stay quiet? Your former manager, and their new employer. If the competition now has access to your marketing strategies, they can undercut and outcompete you based on that. So, you could not just lose your job, but take all your colleagues out with you! | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 12:52 | comment | added | FreeMan | Assuming "Ray ray"s very public question on a very public website is never discovered, there's a possibility that he could pass it off as "accidental" and that he "didn't think there was anything wrong with it". Sure, there may be punishment for owning up to it, but it will most likely be less severe than the punishment when it's discovered later and that he tried to hide it. | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 10:24 | comment | added | Basic | Making a mistake is bad but forgivable. Intentionally trying to cover it up isn't a mistake, it's a considered action. | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 3:00 | comment | added | TonyK | @GeorgeM: I have to agree with Gregory here! You are contradicting yourself. | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 2:56 | comment | added | Gregory Currie | Well, a portfolio is meant to be shown. | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 1:20 | comment | added | user90842 | Not necessarily Gregory, he might just want to keep it for himself, as he sees that he might end up doing similar work in the future. I have kept copies of work I've never shown anyone else, so I could refer to it if I needed to. Don't assume the worst | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 1:17 | comment | added | Gregory Currie | @GeorgeM "assume your ex-coworker just wanted a concrete sample of his work for his portfolio" Kinda translates to: I shared this information with our ex-coworker so he could share it with others. | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 1:03 | comment | added | user90842 | Were these the plans to a nuclear submarine? Did the document contain sensitive customer information that your coworker would not have known about before leaving, and which would be helpful to a competitor? If not, assume your ex-coworker just wanted a concrete sample of his work for his portfolio, and leave it alone. No, you should probably not have done this on general principle. But in practice it's unlikely to cause any real trouble, and you should not rush to incriminate yourself over nothing. | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 0:53 | comment | added | TonyK | @JSLavertu: I assume that the likelihood of discovery is very low here. And that if by any chance the OP is found out, they can plausibly claim that they didn't realise they were doing anything wrong. So: do you own up, giving yourself a 100% chance of looking stupid? Or keep quiet, giving yourself perhaps a 2% chance? | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 0:38 | comment | added | user46126 | Willingly hiding a mistake to avoid potential punishment is likely to just result in harsher punishment down the line when it comes up. Much less stupid to admit your mistake and work to fix it. | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 0:30 | history | answered | TonyK | CC BY-SA 4.0 |