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)?

Oh gosh that sounds awful! I hope they were properly pulled up on this.

There is often a bit in your contract that states that anything created as part of your job is the property of the employer. For example, training materials and presentations.

The worker who creates them can’t take them with them when they leave, sell them or share them with others. Thus the worker could theoretically plagiarise themselves if they used even part of their work in another context or be sued for intellectual theft or copyright.

Presenting work as the author's own is completely different than reusing internal company training resources. Training courses are frequently made up from many people's input and are not created just for evaluation purposes. What you describe is deliberate misrepresentation, what OP described was someone delivering a training course.

Thus the worker could theoretically plagiarise themselves if they used even part of their work in another context or be sued for intellectual theft or copyright.
Not quite, there is legal provision for the use of skills that may result in something similar being created during innovation. It's a tricky area of law in IT and engineering particularly! Imagine hiring an engineer who built a firewall to build a firewall... they learned stuff the first time around so bits of it may be really similar. They can't copy, they must not try to copy, but elements of similarity due to that being how that individual's brain can design a firewall are an inevitability.

I’ve had this happen to me and I get how annoying it is. No matter what the copyright/rules of your workplace, it’s common professional courtesy to acknowledge that you’ve used the work of others. As you say, you have no issue with people using it but if it’s used without proper acknowledgment then people can start to misdirect credit which can be a bit sticky. Hopefully a friendly chat will work.

This happened to my husband who wrote with English spelling for an American software company. They haven’t even changed the name of the file which references his first name and his home computer in it.

He’s exactly like you. Kinda cross but ..

I once helped out another organisation interview for my position in a different area. We had an interviewee who presented on how they would set up their area and had totally ripped off our work that I had personally created from our website. They didn't cite us at all just pretended it was their work. Needless to say they didn't get the job.

I was and would be annoyed too, I think I'd speak to who presented and ask them to cite you.

Quite frankly, there's a load of nonsense being quoted about copyright & IP on this thread.
To re-iterate some earlier posters, the work was produced by OP on company time, OP was paid for it by the company to create it & the IP and any copyright is owned by the company.
I've been involved in literally hundreds of presentations, reports and proposals over the years, as lead, contributor or reviewer. Not a single one has ever credited an internal contributor on the material itself. None of the contributors expect it, it's just not the done thing. They are getting paid for their time. The only time people / companies get mentioned in the document are where it's either a customer quote to support a bid or an extract from a 3rd party report like Gartner.
This is business document, not a university / academic research project, where references / credits are expected.
However, what is important here is that people are recognised for their contributions. The bare minimum should have been a courtesy note to the OP saying that this material has been forwarded onto them, thanking them for creating something useful & mentioning that they will be using it in their work (n.b. it's an inform, not an ask). OP can then use this as credit for their next review etc.
In this situation, my comms to my line manager would be along the lines of "hey boss, just a quick note to let you know that fred found the work I did on xxx really useful & has used it in their training material. I'd be happy to work with them / you on future initiatives to ensure the best value is made of this work as I'm really pleased with how xxx is being received". You'll get loads more brownie points than kicking off about it.

This is a really helpful answer thank you

I'd definitely mention it but keep it positive - e.g. glad to see someone has found my work useful and used it in their presentation, albeit missing a lot of the background content. You could then offer to support whoever used it so that they understand it in more detail.

Years ago as a junior engineer, I once had a training meeting with a manager in a different department who was showing me some work that their more senior engineers had done to demonstrate what their department did. I was rather surprised to see my OWN work on the screen where I'd had an idea for something a year before. The idea didn't go anywhere but the person I'd spoken to about it clearly liked it had had then passed it off as their own work!!

I let the manager know that I was already familiar with the concept as it was MINE, and after a few probing questions from the manager he was satisfied that it was indeed my work and not this other persons. It's nice someone rated my ideas, but it would have been polite to include me or at the very list credit me for the work!

Quite frankly, there's a load of nonsense being quoted about copyright & IP on this thread
To re-iterate some earlier posters, the work was produced by OP on company time, OP was paid for it by the company to create it & the IP and any copyright is owned by the company.

you/we have no way of knowing how much time spent on the work @Lex345 did, was wholly on company time, or partially - with some of the research effort done by the OP outside the time paid by the company. Their knowledge may come from numerous sources, and synthesised into the work done for the company but not wholly owned by them.

So you can't dismiss as nonsense the reference to IP and copyright, without having all the information - you're basing it on your assumption which may or may not be accurate.

thats understandable, just a gut feeling so to speak

@Lex345 ah!! i have just read something about watermarks! easily removed in word but if you save the doc in pdf then they are far more difficult to remove so that would be the best way. just keep the original on your hard drive and share the pdf to the shared drive! I know how hard it is to change anything on pdf because I have tried on many occasions and failed!

It will make me more selective with what I share.

It's really not up to you, and this is a very immature attitude. If you have produced something while on work time, it belongs to work. You don't get to keep hold of it and not share it. Your time is paid for by work, you have produced it for work, and it is a workplace product.

Refusing to share work that you've been paid to create for your workplace would be a disciplinary matter in my organisation.

Oh my good God, do not do this, you loon!

This is such a junior attitude, and NOT how senior women and men behave.

You've misunderstood. Work produced by an employee at work belongs to the company. The copyright is theirs. OP was paid to produce it for them.

Mortifying.

Ethical standards in a workplace would be for information to be shared and reused.

It's really embarrassing that a number of posters have said, "think like a man, he'd create a huge fuss over this!" Mortifying and very much not true. It sounds like you have not been in the workforce before, or else worked in very junior roles.

Employees are there to do and get the best for the organisation. Full stop.

Incorrect.

Does the work actually belong to you though? Or did you produce this whilst being paid by the company? If so it is theirs and cam be used by the company for other purposes.

If you found your PhD thesis.being ripped off and used without crediting you it would be one situation, but if you produced this work for the company and they are re-usong it then it's fine

Oh, ok but how are people credited then? I her manager isn't bothered, how can she say,' this is my work'?

They're not! I have genuinely never seen an individual credited for work they produce for an organisation. The organisation is credited/named as the source. Usually because many people will have contributed/shared/reused company materials for various purposes, as the OP's colleague has done.

This is a very poor attitude, and you would not last in my organisation if you chose to behave like this. I would strongly encourage you to reconsider your approach, it is highly unprofessional.

I use charts from HMRC, quote blogs and articles no point writing your own if someone has already done the work.

Yes, this is correct. You cite where you have taken your source materials from. As in the organisation or paper. You don't cite "Sheila Brady who works at HMRC". Likewise, within an organisation, you don't cite the actual author of the slide 😂 - it's for everyone to use to the advantage of the company!

For an assessment, yes, what is presented must be a student's own work. Obviously.

This is very clearly different.