Twice a week we publish problems that will feature in a forthcoming Dear Jeremy advice column in the Saturday Guardian so that readers can offer their own advice and suggestions. We then print the best of your comments alongside Jeremy’s own insights. Here is the latest dilemma – what are your thoughts?
My boss often passes materials on to me that he has taken from his previous employers and asks me to use them in my work. Sadly, this is perhaps a more common practice in the workplace than one would imagine. What marks out his behaviour however is the frequency, variety and confidentiality of the materials he has taken: these include his ex-employers’ interview processes and case studies, documents marked “confidential” and slides copied lock stock and barrel. It is clear he himself is aware that what he is doing is inappropriate because when he passes me what he calls “really confidential” materials, he provides only a hard copy and tells me not to leave them on my desk.
I have insisted that he does not pass me any materials from his ex-employers, saying that I prefer to work off my own research and thinking but this has fallen on deaf ears. To me, this is corporate theft and I am being compromised by being in possession of these materials.
I have spoken to the compliance officer in my company and have been given a number of options. However, it is clear my boss’s line manager will defend his actions and I am more likely than not to be seen as a trouble-maker or having an axe to grind – I was on sick leave from stress for two weeks in April last year and both my managers did not take kindly to it. The history of whistle-blowers in my company also does not give me much comfort.
I am concerned he has already amassed confidential materials including work that I have wholly worked on, and will not hesitate to pass them off as his work and use them in his next job. Do I ignore his behaviour and focus on my work or do I raise the alarm on this?
• The headline on this article has been amended
Do you need advice on a work issue? For Jeremy’s and readers’ help, send a brief email to dear.jeremy@theguardian.com. Please note that he is unable to answer questions of a legal nature or to reply personally.
