To be annoyed someone has lifted some of my work and used it in a presentation without at least asking?

[Lex345]

Fully prepared to be told I'm a grumpy, joyless shit lol

I have a niche knowledge base that is not common for where I work and I have been working on projects bringing some of my expertise into the field. Part of this was a training suite which has been going on for well over a year.

This week, I was on an unrelated training session and my ACTUAL EXACT work (not changed, exactly the same) was used. I didn't know it had been used in this way and no one has asked. I didn't even know it had been disseminated.

AIBU to be a bit peeved? (I am also a bit flattered, but mainly peeved)?

Well let their top manager know they've stolen your work

Do you think it is worth doing this? I was a bit shocked at my own work being parroted back to me. It just feels a bit crap to not at least tell me.

Absolutely you should tell on them! That's not on. In professional writing and presentations you need to cite your source, not pass it off as your own work.

I'd speak to the person who presented it, in a discreet way. Is it published/available across the company for someone to potentially just copy and paste? The original work must be attributed to you? Did they pass it off fully as their own?

I'd be interested to know if it was done by accident, with malice, with direction from someone else etc. once you've got a bit more background by all means go to the senior who you created the work for. If it seems necessary.

It's difficult to know the level of sharing of work etc that takes place in your firm/industry.

But I hope you get to the bottom of it and get commended for the work as your own if that wasn't happening.

I mentioned it to my manager who found it funny; should I word it something like, "I am really pleased this has been useful, but in future it would be professionally courteous to ask?" I feel like if I say anything people will just think I am being an arse

I’d contact the person who delivered the training and take the approach of “great course, thanks, learnt a lot. Not sure if you’re aware but the material xxxx that we used is taken from part of a larger training suite that I’ve been creating. I’m glad that this is useful, but it would greatly help me if you could reference me and the associated other material / training / ?? here, as I’m currently rolling this out across the organisation and it’s important that people know to reach out to me for more advice”.

Or something less wordy than that. Basically a “thank you for supporting this delivery, please reference me so people can be fully connected”

They might think twice before they steal your work again if they know you're not impressed. Better to be a bit difficult than to be taken advantage of.

Re questions above-as far as I knew only 4 or 5 people had access to it; it was shared in google drive. What is slightly more worrying is there is a much larger volume of work there and it isn't standalone content to pick and mix from-it is like giving the punchline to a joke without the build up.
It was presented as part of a completely separate training course as if someone else had written it

Plagiarism. They should have credited you

I don' lt mind so much about it being used-with permission though-just a courtesy message here and I would have been fine with it and would not require crediting. Now it will look like I have plagiarised them as my training will be delivered later as it is more complex.

I’d get your name and reference the full pack on each slide in the original - probably not in the header and footer as that’s not always copied over. That way if it goes walkabout it’s more clear where it comes from.

Often someone isn’t thinking “this is someone’s work” - they find useful material on servers and just use it. If it’s got labels all over they tend to come along, unless someone’s being deliberately underhand.

Was there issues with how the content was presented or used that changed the meaning? Or created inaccuracies?

Tbh the company owns all your work, so it's not plagerism if the other presenter is part of the same company? Could you coordinate, so that the messaging is consistent and the two pieces of work look coherent?

if you wrote it for x company while working for them then technically they own the rights to use it even though you created it

Yes, I very much doubt there is malice here-and I am pleased someone has obviously seen it as useful and high enough quality to simply lift-I suppose it was the shock of someone else teaching me what I had written. It was weird!

And yes, I would talk to them. “Hey I see you found my material from the pack I’m creating - I hadn’t shared that widely yet, as the course is still in prep, where did you find out about it?” They’ll be pleased to talk more if it was accidental / they didn’t know where it had come from, and hopefully a bit shamed if they sneaked it hoping no one would notice.

I'm not quite that annoyed ;)

I feel this is a tough one as basically everything is plagerised. I'd just have a discreet word to the person but probably leave it at that. The fact they didn't even bother to change it shows they probably don't care

also did your boss give x permission to use it ? @Lex345

Re if there were issues with the way it was delivered; yes-it over simplified and made it rather pointless to use it really. It devalued it. It was used in a way that to the trained eye made it obvious the person didn't "get" the full context edited because my fat fingers cannot spell!

so using it more of a show piece without fully understanding it ?

No I don't believe so. I think it has been shared more widely by someone and then third or fourth hand has been lifted. Objectively, this has not been done with malice and is not even the strongest part of a much wider body of work. It is more that you can see I am the author and if asked i would have gladly agreed and even helped simplify it so it was even better to use in the context of the other training.

Yes, exactly this really.

that i can understand it does take the pickles so to speak, manners cost nothing

I’d definitely email the person who disseminated the information that included your slides, and say that not only was credit not given to you, but valuable context was absent. Request that the recipients be followed up to provide the source credit (you) and that the full scope research can be made available. Would you be in a position to enforce your IP on the work you did?