“The Factory Chief Laughed In My Face”: Employee Takes Important System They Created With Them When They’re Fired
Factory worker and Reddit user Wintertodt really liked their job. So much so that they even produced a program to optimize the machinery in their free time. Everything was going great. But after their boss was replaced, the new chief decided to reorganize the place and as a result, Wintertodt got laid off.
Leaving the company, they asked the higher-ups to compensate them for the program that they had developed since it turned out to be an essential part of the business. However, the request was denied and Wintertodt was shown to the door instead.
Later, the managers realized that the program wasn’t fully automatic and, in fact, required someone to look after it. Since Wintertodt hadn’t trained anyone, they were the only one who could do it. Still, the worker and their former employer couldn’t come to an agreement on how to proceed.
Continue scrolling to read about their conflict from a post that Wintertodt has made on the subreddit ‘Malicious Compliance.’
Image source: AmnajKhetsamtip (not the actual photo)
Image source: stokkete (not the actual photo)
Image source: Wintertodt
This story is reminiscent of a similar one we published back in November about an employee quitting taking the company’s training documents with them.
Back then, we explained that the Copyright Act automatically assigns authorship to employers rather than employee creators or inventors in two specific situations.
The first is where an employee develops the work within the scope of their employment, while the second occurs when the employer specifically orders or commissions the work from the employee.
But in the words of Michele Martell, an intellectual property attorney who has counseled businesses from The Muppets to the WWE and Crayola, the situation becomes murkier when an employee creates intellectual property that’s unrelated to their job.
“If an accountant for the company, rather than an engineer, came up with [an] engineering advancement, for example, there would be an argument that the work isn’t within the scope of their employment,” Martell noted.
So given the fact that Wintertodt created the program after hours and without being tasked with it, a case could be made that it actually belongs to them.
As the story went viral, the original poster (OP) shared more information on what happened in the comments
People who have been in similar situations also shared their experiences
And the whole thing received plenty of reactions
Why are old stories like this being posted? I read this a long time ago either on YT or Reddit. comments are 2+ years old. It is basically another AITA type story and not even a new one. Please BP- more cute / interesting stuff and less petty drama stuff.
This really stinks. This happens a lot. I don't know what the law says about it. Even in the academic world. I remember a PhD candidate lost her entire life's research work. When her thesis was published, she did not get the credit. Her PhD advisor, along with the University were able to claim the research. She took it to court but did not win. Somewhere, buried in the "psychobabblerap" of the contract, in the fine print, it says anything developed at the university, belongs to the university. It's a shame. I think anyone in the tech field would have to be very cautious, even if they developed something on their own time.
I had a similar situation years ago when I worked for Building Society (sort of a bank, but not really for anyone outside of the UK)... OP wrote a program to improve efficiency and/or make life better and the company benefitted... for them to suddenly assume that they automatically owned it is a very short sighted attitude, especially when talking to the person who designed it and clearly pointed out that it needed to be maintained. Fair play to you OP, fair play!
Sounds like someone wrote a terrible piece of software if it needs weeks maintenance. They probably wrote it badly specifically to keep their employment.
Old or not - If something is developed on spare time, it is not the company property. IP law is pretty clear on this, and I have had to educate a good few companies on this, when they thought they could do whatever when just because I was an employee... Not done on company time? No written transfer of copyrights? Tough luck buddy.. It's my property. You didn't pay for my time? It's not your property.
In the US he would own the work, the only time the intellectual property would be owned by the employer is if he made it as a product for hire. As in he's a software developer for the company and made the product under his job title, which he did not and was not.
This is a good reminder to be very clear about what intellectual property rights you are willing to hand over to your job. In many countries, blanket rights clauses are illegal. Just because it’s in a contract does not make it enforceable.
Where I work, I deal with "formulas". Since we're ISO certified, we can't "legally" use those formulas unless they're printed on a sheet that has a document and revision number on it. Been waiting over 4 years for that document, so I keep my formulas locked in my toolbox. I'm job hunting, so when I walk out, so do those formulas. So silly that something like that is satisfying, but it really is. They'll have to start from scratch like I did.
Ok, I don't like OP's attitude about this whole thing. He made it for the company, gave it to them for free, then expected to be paid years later. It would have made sense to work out those details when it was initially implemented. What really got me though was in the comments he said the "maintenance" could have been automated, but he didn't automate it so that he would have more busy work to do that seemed important. He intentionally kept the maintenance process to himself thinking that would give him job security. I hate that kind of knowledge hoarding.
Dude probably didn't think he'd be forced out of the company. How would you feel if you had made something that greatly benefitted the company which was used on a daily basis, only to be told you're not wanted anymore. Dude had every right to do what he did.
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Why are old stories like this being posted? I read this a long time ago either on YT or Reddit. comments are 2+ years old. It is basically another AITA type story and not even a new one. Please BP- more cute / interesting stuff and less petty drama stuff.
This really stinks. This happens a lot. I don't know what the law says about it. Even in the academic world. I remember a PhD candidate lost her entire life's research work. When her thesis was published, she did not get the credit. Her PhD advisor, along with the University were able to claim the research. She took it to court but did not win. Somewhere, buried in the "psychobabblerap" of the contract, in the fine print, it says anything developed at the university, belongs to the university. It's a shame. I think anyone in the tech field would have to be very cautious, even if they developed something on their own time.
I had a similar situation years ago when I worked for Building Society (sort of a bank, but not really for anyone outside of the UK)... OP wrote a program to improve efficiency and/or make life better and the company benefitted... for them to suddenly assume that they automatically owned it is a very short sighted attitude, especially when talking to the person who designed it and clearly pointed out that it needed to be maintained. Fair play to you OP, fair play!
Sounds like someone wrote a terrible piece of software if it needs weeks maintenance. They probably wrote it badly specifically to keep their employment.
Old or not - If something is developed on spare time, it is not the company property. IP law is pretty clear on this, and I have had to educate a good few companies on this, when they thought they could do whatever when just because I was an employee... Not done on company time? No written transfer of copyrights? Tough luck buddy.. It's my property. You didn't pay for my time? It's not your property.
In the US he would own the work, the only time the intellectual property would be owned by the employer is if he made it as a product for hire. As in he's a software developer for the company and made the product under his job title, which he did not and was not.
This is a good reminder to be very clear about what intellectual property rights you are willing to hand over to your job. In many countries, blanket rights clauses are illegal. Just because it’s in a contract does not make it enforceable.
Where I work, I deal with "formulas". Since we're ISO certified, we can't "legally" use those formulas unless they're printed on a sheet that has a document and revision number on it. Been waiting over 4 years for that document, so I keep my formulas locked in my toolbox. I'm job hunting, so when I walk out, so do those formulas. So silly that something like that is satisfying, but it really is. They'll have to start from scratch like I did.
Ok, I don't like OP's attitude about this whole thing. He made it for the company, gave it to them for free, then expected to be paid years later. It would have made sense to work out those details when it was initially implemented. What really got me though was in the comments he said the "maintenance" could have been automated, but he didn't automate it so that he would have more busy work to do that seemed important. He intentionally kept the maintenance process to himself thinking that would give him job security. I hate that kind of knowledge hoarding.
Dude probably didn't think he'd be forced out of the company. How would you feel if you had made something that greatly benefitted the company which was used on a daily basis, only to be told you're not wanted anymore. Dude had every right to do what he did.
Load More Replies...
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