“You Risk Imprisonment For Deleting Your Former Employer Projects,” HR Says

By Elizabeth Benu,

“In my short experience in the job market, I have seen employees moving with their projects and using them in their new workplace. They say it’s a way of surviving in the market. Some even go to the extent of deleting everything they were working on. The main reason why I am raising this issue is because, I recently got a job with an insurance company and I was informed that my predecessor deleted every project she was working on at the time. Is such behavior ethical?” asks Tim Onyancha in an email.

Tom Kamaliki, HR Manager at ICAP Kenya asserts that, “One can be imprisoned  for moving with company ‘property’ because of copyright and patent rights,” he adds that, “It is unethical and legal action can be taken against this employee.”

Mr. Kamaliki opines that a project cannot be carried off to another organization because the previous company spent money, time and sometimes and even training for one to come up with the project and also infringes on copyright and patents of a company.

“What if you join a comparable organization with almost the same business model?” I  enquire

“Do not export anything. Start from zero and construct it in tune with the new company’s policies. Matters of duplication, especially where cut and paste methods are used, are easy to prove by an aggrieved party,” advices Mr Kamaliki.

Some people may delete the whole project before they leave, is it right or they should leave it with the company?

In response Mr Kamaliki says, “It is necessary and ethical to leave unfinished/ finished projects with your former employer so that someone who takes up your job can pick up from where you left of.

“Moving with projects to the next company leaves both the candidate and new employee open to copyright infringement/theft , lawsuits if the previous company wants to pursue it. Contracts have clauses protecting this,” he says.

In a similar discussion on IHRM LinkedIn page, Francis Wanyeki, Human Resource Planning and Development Officer at Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Services says that your time and knowledge acquired while at work all belongs to the employer,” he adds that, “That is why the employer pays you a salary regularly. You cannot transfer anything you developed to another employer unless you had a patent for it as a personal product.

“I would recommend that one use the experience gained in the other organization ,but not carbon copy the product especially because the organization culture might be different and might In productivity movement we talk about bench marking, when you have experience you are able to bench mark, not copy,” Mr. Wanyeki says.

What stands out in this discussion is that employees should strive for originality and respect for company policies or else risk doing time at Kamiti.

What is your moral judgement on this topic?

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