Has anyone ever gotten in trouble for working on side projects during work hour? How did they find out?
Has anyone ever gotten in trouble for working on side projects during work hour?
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: Has anyone ever gotten in trouble for working on side projects during work hour?
#2Don't do it. They can find out anything. As if they were watching a live-stream of what you are doing. By law, employers have access to monitor anything and everything that happens on company property. Company property, in the modern sense, includes laptops, company-issues phones, tablets, and the wired and wireless networks. They have every right to in-near-real-time perform surveillance of what you are doing.
As for employee IP agreements and contracts, it really only becomes litigious if there are large sums of money involved.
For example, Mayo Clinic v. Peter L Elkin, MD
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/granule/USCOURTS-ca8-11-02959/USCOU...
There are cases of litigation against 'small fish' I can't find references for at the moment.
In most cases, they will go after you with non-compete (which is not really legally enforceable in California). Technically, if the company you work for is big enough - you can be 'competing' with them.
Re: Has anyone ever gotten in trouble for working on side projects during work hour?
#3[deleted]
Re: Has anyone ever gotten in trouble for working on side projects during work hour?
#4Don't do it. They can find out anything. As if they were watching a live-stream of what you are doing. By law, employers have access to monitor anything and everything that happens on company property. Company property, in the modern sense, includes laptops, company-issues phones, tablets, and the wired and wireless networks. They have every right to in-near-real-time perform surveillance of what you are doing. As fo…
Re: Has anyone ever gotten in trouble for working on side projects during work hour?
#5I know a guy who got into trouble write a module and putting it in a public repository. The module solved the current task. It was easy to install and had documentation. All good? No. The company claimed he spent extra (meaning unnecessary time) cleaning up the code and making is usable for other companies. Also I think he didn't attribute the company. They claimed full copyright to the module, co-maintainer status and reimbursement (money back from the outsourcing company, not sure if they could have deducted part of the salary).
To be save I would even suggest to invest in a second laptop so the company can't claim you used company resources at home after work.
Re: Has anyone ever gotten in trouble for working on side projects during work hour?
#6I know a guy who got into trouble write a module and putting it in a public repository. The module solved the current task. It was easy to install and had documentation. All good? No. The company claimed he spent extra (meaning unnecessary time) cleaning up the code and making is usable for other companies. Also I think he didn't attribute the company. They claimed full copyright to the module, co-maintainer status a…
Many large tech companies make you sign forms stating that even work done at home on your own time on your own laptop is still their property. Whether this is enforceable or not is another story, but they have more money for lawyers than you will.
Re: Has anyone ever gotten in trouble for working on side projects during work hour?
#7Don't do it. They can find out anything. As if they were watching a live-stream of what you are doing. By law, employers have access to monitor anything and everything that happens on company property. Company property, in the modern sense, includes laptops, company-issues phones, tablets, and the wired and wireless networks. They have every right to in-near-real-time perform surveillance of what you are doing. As fo…
Can they see what you are doing even with dynamic websites or over https? Assuming they can only read network traffic.
Re: Has anyone ever gotten in trouble for working on side projects during work hour?
#8Oh hell yes. I worked for a transportation company and used to park the van and spend at least 1-2 hours sitting in the van outside hacking away on public wifi. Got caught all the time.
Re: Has anyone ever gotten in trouble for working on side projects during work hour?
#9Don't do it. They can find out anything. As if they were watching a live-stream of what you are doing. By law, employers have access to monitor anything and everything that happens on company property. Company property, in the modern sense, includes laptops, company-issues phones, tablets, and the wired and wireless networks. They have every right to in-near-real-time perform surveillance of what you are doing. As fo…
Can they see what you are doing even with dynamic websites or over https? Assuming they can only read network traffic.
Examine DNS lookups, examine URLs, MITM potential to read everything, all sorts of things they could do on just the network level.
Re: Has anyone ever gotten in trouble for working on side projects during work hour?
#10Oh hell yes. I worked for a transportation company and used to park the van and spend at least 1-2 hours sitting in the van outside hacking away on public wifi. Got caught all the time.
How the heck did you get caught?