1) a) the script is work product and so belongs to the company whether it is disclosed or not, or, b) the script is unauthorized personal property running on employer computers
2) a) the employee is falsifying wage records by claiming a full weeks' work, or b) the employee is entitled to collect full wages as a reward for tricking his employer into paying him for leisure hours
That man is a genius that improved his work productivity and he can spend his time improving himself for the benefit of his employer! If he is filling his employer’s output quotas so he has done absolutely nothing wrong.
Let me put it to you this way with a rhetorical question. If a manufacturer found a way to create a valuable commodity product at 1/10 the cost of its competitors is that company then obligated to pass all the savings to its customers or reduce its price is just enough just enough to gain market share?
Congress. Supreme Court. Fed. Govt.
“1) a) the script is work product and so belongs to the company whether it is disclosed or not,”
Not if the company didn’t request it be written and they didn’t make him sign an agreement relinquishing rights to anything he creates, they don’t own it.
“or, b) the script is unauthorized personal property running on employer computers”
Not true either. Some companies have very loose policies on this. His may have a loose policy. My employer sure does, I write scripts all of the time, they know about it and are fine with it.
“2) a) the employee is falsifying wage records by claiming a full weeks’ work,”
Not true either. He is accomplishing the amount of work expected of him. More so if he’s salary. If you’re salaried, they pay you an agreed upon amount regardless of time put in.
If he’s hourly and is available for tasks during work hours, he not cheating them either.
“or b) the employee is entitled to collect full wages as a reward for tricking his employer into paying him for leisure hours”
See my response above.
The employee is fulfilling all duties needed for the role.
There is no issue.
I don’t agree with your take on this. He is accomplishing what they want him to accomplish and they are satisfied with the work product. They have nothing to complain about.
Now I will say the firm would be better off buying his software so that they didn’t have to pay someone to do it anymore.....or better yet they would have been better off hiring a tech consultant to write software for them that they would then own. He wrote this on his computer at home without it being requested. Its not work product.
I’ve been working from home for about 2 years now since Covid started. Sometimes I have nothing to do so I just watch TV or surf the internet. Should I feel bad about that? Not a bit. I’m here ready, willing and able to do anything they ask of me as soon as they ask it. I wasn’t always busy when I went to the office either. Some jobs are just like that. As long as you get done what is asked of you in a timely fashion and the employer is satisfied with the quality of the work, they have nothing to complain about.
Hmmm, this is a bit of a sticky-wicket isn’t it.
An employee finds a way to get his job done 98% faster.
The moral and legal question becomes:
Who actually owns the process if said process was never disclosed to the employer? In this case can the employer coerce or force a NDA? Or, should the employee hold his/her peace and then sell said process for millions of dollars 6 months from now?
Or does the employer reward the employee in a manner commensurate with the future value added by handling all the legalese in bringing said process to market for the employee?
Termination or HR punishments in a case like this appear to be very counter-intuitive.
For the employee, automating yourself out of a job without a plan to exploit that skill beyond being able to spend 7.75hrs a day having a life outside the computer box, well that is a business/marketing failure on your part. But then no one says some geniuses aren’t fools too. Many die dirt poor and abused by the very systems they created.
I shared an office with a guy whose first assignment at our company was to do some calculations for a pretty famous senior scientist. The senior scientist gave him use of a company HP-41C calculator, a highly prized asset and the formula he wanted used to make the calculations. The new employee (an MIT graduate) realized he could do the calculations more quickly and easily by logging in to a mainframe on a teletype and writing a BASIC program. So he did. He knocked off the calculations in less than hour, went home, took a nap, and came back in time to hand in his completed assignment.
The signal start of a mediocre career. The good old 41C, RPN, anyone?
Working from home is a goldbrick’s dream.
I used to be a story analyst for a major motion picture company. I can see a smart IT person figuring out an AI program to do that job in the near future. Same with lawyering, etc. I’m guessing this will get rid of many, many jobs, eventually. That said, I think this fellow is smart, and if his programs can do the work, I really don’t blame him.
I work with plenty of people who work 1-2 hours per day; I think the problem is older directors have no idea how much technology makes employees more efficient. If the director spent 8 hours doing it 25 years ago with a manual process, he doesn’t understand common programs can do the work in under an hour.
EOM
The employer hired him to perform and complete certain tasks. He did. If he’s a salary man, as opposed to an hourly wage earner, then the employer is SOL.
I don’t see the problem here.
Employer assigned a task to employee.
Employee competently produces quality work product for employer.
The only problem I see is that he is not being honest with the employer about his labor but at the end of the day, they are receiving the entire work product form the employee that they have assigned him. Smart cookie.
Ideally, he would sell the script to the employer for a good large chunk of change, and then be off to the next job.
Don’t forget...
3) hey dumbass, shut the hell up.
I’m not so sure about personal use scripts and programs the company is not aware of.
This guy is stealing and is stupid for bragging about it.
In the first place, if his required job is so simple that an easy script can replace it, how long will it last?
He may find a job as a script writer, but if he keeps on stealing from his employer, he may be prosecuted.
I read this and some of the comments.
What strikes me is that this is analogous to innumerous ‘dumb criminal’ stories, yet many here are applauding this dumbass.
smh
One of the work mantras back in my day was, “Work smarter, not harder.”
This guy did exactly that!
Simple enough. Fire the guy...use his program to replace him.