A few years ago I took a job at a small creative company. I led a number of high-profile projects. But as I started to gain recognition for my work, the company’s head became increasingly jealous, undermining me in team meetings, shouting at me in public places, telling me I was useless, taking credit for projects I’d led and removing my name from a document that I wrote.
After months of bullying I resigned. I had no choice. At the same time two other colleagues also resigned because they were appalled at his behaviour.
He is now working alone. However, he has lifted my practice wholesale and is now getting work off the back of a process I spent years developing. The other day I saw that he is posting a “how to” guide using my work but claiming it as his own innovation and speaking as an authority on it.
I am angry and hurt and although I’ve moved on professionally, I am full of rage. I feel powerless and silenced. What do I do with these feelings? How do I move on? What action can I take?
Well, what you can do about it, if anything, depends on the details. I spoke to three people: psychotherapist ; intellectual property specialist lawyer Giles Parsons and employment specialist lawyer Emma Capper of Browne Jacobson.
Parsons explained that usually “if you create something in the process of being employed then the work belongs to the employer” and your contract probably says that. However, if you were employed as a consultant, or if you went into that employment with something like a programme or a manual or similar, something you’d already developed and it was written down somewhere, then the situation can be different. “If you’d developed a process that was then expanded on in your employment, you may have some underlying copyright, but it depends on your contract.”
So there is a possibility you could engage a lawyer and apply for an injunction to prevent your former boss from using your work – sometimes, says Parsons, that is enough. But there’s also the issue of the bullying behaviour. You might have a case for constructive dismissal if you resigned in response to your employer’s conduct but, as Capper explains, that can be a difficult claim to bring, and broadly speaking you have three months from your resignation to initiate a claim. That said, it might be worth an initial consultation with an employment/copyright lawyer who could look at your contract and advise you.
Philpotts understands why you were so angry. “You mention rage; that’s a really strong emotion and I can see why you feel like that. Rage is a boundary word, your ex boss has overstepped the mark and it’s not a one-off, you keep finding evidence that he’s completely trampling over your boundaries.”
People taking credit for things we’ve done, or ideas we’ve come up with is very upsetting. In your shoes I would explore the legal route, because I think it will give you some closure even if you find out there isn’t anything to be done. But, what do you do with all those raging emotions, how do you move on?
“You talk about being powerless,” says Philpotts, but actually you sound pretty capable. You’re creative and it sounds as if he’s not. He seems to be really clinging on to something you’ve done but the talent and creativity is yours and you’ve taken that with you. He doesn’t have that, which might be why he’s holding so tightly on to what you’ve done.”
The other good thing is you’ve moved on and got other employment. I don’t know what your boss stole but hopefully it will have a limited shelf life and then he’ll run into a cul-de-sac, whereas you have talent and creativity and lots of roads ahead of you. I know that, right now, that won’t seem like much but hopefully in time, given you can’t go back and change things, this knowledge will help you feel better. “I wonder if you could take ownership of the professional learning of this experience,” says Philpotts, “and maybe even the dissemination of it to other creatives as a way to harness that energy and help you feel not so stuck?”
I would warn you, however, to be careful about identifying him publicly unless you have rock solid proof or you may get yourself into a libel situation.