I’ve got a call from a Java programmer I know. He said, “I’ve got
a problem. I was fired “. Here’s his story.
Joe was working for a mid-size financial company for several
years. He knew Java and his application pretty well and felt safe there. On the other hand, since the Java job market is
good, he started interviewing with some other companies, and was considering two offers. One day last week he did not have a floppy
disk and sent a piece of his code to his own personal Yahoo email account. He did not received this email.
Next day an HR person and his boss met with Joe and asked why he sent the
email. Joe answered that he was planning
to work from home, but never received this email. The boss said, “Please open
your Yahoo email account now and delete this email if it’s there “. When he opened his
email, they saw all his correspondence regarding new job offers and such… He
was immediately suspended and next day received a letter stating that he was
fired for an attempt to steal the proprietary software and the company may exercise
their right to sue him in the future for breaching the non-disclosure agreement
that Joe signed several years ago.
Most of us can work from
home, and some of us have our employer’s software installed on our laptops and
home PCs. In my opinion, Joe is just plain
stupid: he should not be sending this code using his employer’s email. Every single
e-mail in financial companies is being read by people from the information
security department. It’s not a secret, and has to be taken seriously. I doubt
that Joe’s former employer will take any further actions, but Joe may have
issues with his new employer. It all depends on how they check employment
history. Joe may start working for a new
company, and a month later get fired again if they find out about this story…
It’s a sad story, but each of us should learn from it. My
advise: do not use your employer’s email for sending anything that is not
job related. Stop sending jokes or funny
pictures to your colleagues. Some people do it every day just to let everyone know
that they came early today… This also may
get you in trouble unless you work for a mom-and-pop company.
Yakov Fain
yakovfain.com 