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I take a middle ground approach to these two points. Yes, while employed
by your company you are a valuable asset, but you are an asset who is
obligated to apply your efforts where the company places priority. So when
you are submitting your objectives for the coming year, include one for
documenting process and work tasks, assign it a priority and an effort
level and get buy-in from your management so that your effort in this area
is a recognized part of your job for the coming year and you receive
appropriate recognition for it when your accomplishments for the year are
being reviewed at the end of the year. If your management will not buy in
to you spending time on this, then you are being directed to apply yourself
elsewhere and you should follow that direction.
In the event you are subsequently "released" from the company, the reality
is that if the company did not want you to expend effort in this area while
you were working there, you really do not owe the company anything in it
now. In the event that your work is assigned to a former co-worker with
whom you had and want to maintain a good personal or professional
relationship you can certainly act on that desire and offer to answer any
questions on a person-to-person basis, but otherwise if the company wants
anything from you after it has terminated you, you should have a form for a
consulting contract ready to pull out and submit along with your hourly
rate.
Gene Kim-Eng
On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 1:18 AM, Debbie Hemstreet <
D_Hemstreet -at- rambam -dot- health -dot- gov -dot- il> wrote:
> 3. As long as you are employed by this company, you are a valuable asset
> to your company. Minimal respect towards your employer merits you document
> these processes. They can be used to a) leverage your position; b) help a
> new supervisor/boss understand your role; c) educate engineers about the
> documentation process; d) have a potential replacement think twice before
> stepping into your shoes (what if you aren't fired, but quit or retire?).
>
> 4. Finally, in the event that you are "released" from your work, unless
> they physically lock you out of the office and you cannot pass on critical
> information, you may want to have that information there anyway. While you
> may not feel like you owe the company anything, it has many individuals who
> could become future colleagues/partners. Someone who worked with you and
> saw you leaving gracefully would heavily weigh this info if considering to
> hire you for their own company/startup/project. Information is passed on,
> and leaving well under bad circumstances ALWAYS gives you an excellent
> reference from someone. The converse, I believe, is also true.
>
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