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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to save files to a USB stick and take them with me when I leave?

54 replies

thinkingbig · 25/02/2011 21:32

Regular here but have name changed.

I am thinking of quitting my job and starting up my own business, which will not e a direct competitor of my current employer, but which they may well perceive as a threat.

I want to take some files with me. Nothing secret - I don't intend to take client information or pricing or anything like that - I don't want to play dirty. But I do want to take some of the actual work I've done - research, basically. By law, it all belongs to my current employer so I'm in the wrong to take it. I just want it for my own reference - if I'd printed it when I wrote it I'd use the print outs instead. But I didn't - I never print anything if I can avoid it.

AIBU? And - more to the point - will they be able to tell if I've saved documents to a USB stick?

OP posts:
alicet · 25/02/2011 22:51

I think you can tell if things are saved to usb. I know because if at work we try to save anything onto a usb with patient information on it (I'm a doctor) we get an immediate email saying its not allowed and jeopardising patient confidentiality. I know this as a colleague put such a file onto a usb stick to take and discuss with her boss just up the corridor and when she came back she had this email.

No idea how they do it or if this is possible without a specific programme but it certainly is possible.

I would take it but I would print a bit at a time over the next couple of weeks until you resign, then scan the pages in at home / in a local library if you don't have a scanner and then if they ask you to return the printouts when you leave (if they have monitored you printing it) then you can give them straight back with no problems.

hillee · 25/02/2011 22:53

I have saved loads of projects, reports and docs to usb/cd before I have left jobs. Obviously not so I can directly replicate (in my line of work that would be fairly pointless), but for my own reference. Most of them are great as templates to use for future jobs and will end up saving you incredible amounts of time.

That being said I have never worked anywhere with a crazy IT police types.

Original poster
thinkingbig · 25/02/2011 22:59

That's exactly it hillee - I definitely don't want to directly replicate but I do want to keep them as reference. Basically, last time I moved jobs. I took the moral high ground and so had to write all this stuff down from scratch again. It took ages, and now (about a year later), I just don't want to start from the beginning AGAIN!

AliceT - that's really interesting - thanks - that was exactly what I wanted to know. So..it is possible...but maybe not probable in a small, private company....

Marjorie - lucky you! My bosses will be after my blood when I quit, I think.

OP posts:
maddy68 · 25/02/2011 23:00

legally you cannot take anything even if you have created it yourself as you were paid by the employer during that time and they own the intellectual rights to any work

MissMarjoribanks · 25/02/2011 23:14

I am lucky, I left on very good terms. I'm still in touch and get pissed with them go on most of their nights out.

They sent the latest CD to my new workplace and my boss emailed me at home to tell me it had arrived as I'm on leave and I'll probably see my old lot whilst I'm off. It is apparently in his desk drawer for safekeeping. I suspect it's actually in his CD drive and he's having a good nosy. Grin

HalfTermHero · 25/02/2011 23:18

I have known people save information by simply taking pics of the doc open on the computer screen with a digital camera Smile.

QueenofAllWildThings · 25/02/2011 23:21

Can't you use a hotmail account? I'm sure they can't tell if you've emailed somehting to yourself using that.

mayorquimby · 25/02/2011 23:37

suprised so many people are ok with this. Personally I think yabu and it's wrong, but it is a marked difference to the way threads go when someone says "I walked out of boots and realised when I got to the car that I had forgotten to pay for x/y/z.was i BU not to go back".

zipzap · 26/02/2011 00:09

Sometimes when you print things there's an option of 'print to file' or something like that rather than 'print to printer' which spools it to a separate document, not sure what format but if you did that from your home computer they might not spot it?

but at least that way you would have a soft copy of it...

GiselleS · 26/02/2011 00:19

Mayorquimby, I wonder who you work for and what you do for a living?! Glad you don't work for me!

Talk about naive!

HuckingFell · 26/02/2011 00:41

If your company has good it security it will have an audit trail for any events which could affect information security.

Serious security will have disabled save to usb/disc options, blocked access to web mail etc.

Printing while traceable has a legitimate business reason. All other methods i.e. sending files by email, saving to disc/usb will produce an event timestamp in an auditable file showing who did it and when. If you do not have a good reason for performing this action it could be used as proof that you removed data for your personal reasons.

redrollers · 26/02/2011 00:46

Print it, anything else they could trace, but it wouldn't happen ad a matter or course, they would have to be suspicious and investigate. But fgs don't email it.

godzuki · 26/02/2011 01:13

I saved files to a CD before I left my old company and got caught. Something must have triggered some kind of alarm in IT. Luckily I did it well before I actually resigned and talked my way out of it. Had to destroy the CDs though.

Themumsnot · 26/02/2011 01:19

If you are really paranoid, print it, photocopy the printout, take the photocopy and leave the original printout in the office when you leave.
Just don't do the photocopying in the office, obv.

Maryz · 26/02/2011 01:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Themumsnot · 26/02/2011 01:35

Zats wot I said. Grin

Maryz · 26/02/2011 01:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Themumsnot · 26/02/2011 01:40

Great minds....

popcrackle · 26/02/2011 01:57

Look in reality most people take reports - you won't be the only one.

If it is not confidential then in reality your employer may not do too much about it.

You could print the reports and then scan them in at your own home. Otherwise it is a great deal of typing when you have to start from scratch again.

Lots of employers have every IT system going - it is easy to see what you have done on your pc. Printing should be ok - can't you get in early and print. Also surely you are hooked up to a printer??

Spuderoonerism · 26/02/2011 08:25

Printing can also be audited though . If a company is serious about security they will be able to log any kind of movement of data/documents including printing, emailing to home addresses, use of webmail, saving to USB etc.

If you're leaving to do something that they would perceive as a 'threat' then you should expect that if they're serious about security they will go through your activity in the run up to handing in your notice - printing of all the docs you've produced will get picked up and questioned. At the very least you'd then be looking at a letter from a solicitor demanding you destroy all the documents and confirm you have done so...if not worse.

I've sat at conferences before with hours devoted to this kind of thing. Don't do it, it's not worth it!

wolfhound · 26/02/2011 08:39

My previous workplace logged when people recorded data from the system. One guy got into a lot of trouble because he copied company files when he was leaving. I think they spotted him because it was a large amount of data, not just one or two files. As Spud said, anyone who'd given notice was monitored (or rather, their computer usage was). Didn't know that before it happened to him!

gapbear · 26/02/2011 08:40

Can you not save on to a second USB stick, and hand the first one in when you leave?

hogsback · 26/02/2011 08:46

flabby you suggested that as a joke surely? Shock

If you email it to yourself they will definitely know - it's the best way of leaving a clear and undeniable audit trail and you would be stuffed in court.

It is possible that they are logging transfers to USB devices but extremely unlikely - usually organisations that are concerned about USB theft simply disable USB ports.

Even if they are logging, you have plausible deniability - that you were working on the files at home. Check your ITsec policies first though.

hogsback · 26/02/2011 08:47

Oh god autocorrect! I meant fabby Blush

Spuderoonerism · 26/02/2011 09:19

Also YABVU to want to do this in the first place - you say yourself that it belongs to your employer in law - surely the answer to 'AIBU to want to break the law' is 'yes'?!

Think of it this way - there is a time cost associated with you recreating this work and you don't want to spend that time again. Let's say that cost is £500 (no idea how long it took you to do the docs or what you get paid, let's just think of a number).

Imagine someone posting: 'I've seen this amazing dress/bag/computer/whateverfloatsyourboat and it costs £500, I could buy it next month after I've been paid for some overtime, but actually I really want it now and I don't really want to do the extra work at all...AIBU to just steal it and then I can avoid having to do the overtime' would anyone seriously suggest it was ok to steal rather than do the work?