Re: An ugly job incident (long)

[Beth Agnew <bagnew -at- INSYSTEMS -dot- COM>]

Get a lawyer immediately. This is character assassination and you cannot
afford to have it continue. This is truly an ugly situation, demonstrating
deep problems with this company and its management. I don't think you were
wrong to throw away old notes and documents, but when a situation goes bad,
almost anything you do can be misconstrued. You'll need big guns to fight
this. The cost of a lawyer is worth it. Without a lawyer you could risk
being a scapegoat for someone else's mistakes.

As a technical communication issue, we must realize that techwriters are
sometimes involved in ethical or legal dilemmas whether we want to be or
not. I was called by the prosecution to testify at the trial of a former
employer who was accused of copyright violation, and the further charges of
grand theft (of software valued at over $200,000 dollars) and fraud. Since I
wrote the manual for software he didn't legally own (of course I didn't know
that at the time), his instructions to me regarding what to put in the
manual (like the copyright symbol!) were evidence of wilful wrongdoing on
his part.

We never know when a seemingly innocent situation will turn into an ugly
incident. All it takes is a wrong decision on someone's part, a change in
personnel, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The only long-term
defence we have is our professionalism. Once that is being called into
question, we have to act to ensure we are not unfairly dealt with.

--Beth

Beth Agnew 
Senior Technical Writer, InSystems Technologies Inc. 
65 Allstate Parkway, Suite 100  Tel: (905) 513-1400 ext. 280 
Markham, Ontario, Canada L3R 9X1        Fax: (905) 513-1419 
mailto:bagnew -at- insystems -dot- com    Visit us at: http://www.insystems.com 

See my friendly face at: 
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/bute/52/techwr-l/a.htm 

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000