Has co worker stolen my work?

[maybedefinately]

Hi im new and would like some work related advice please. My manager mentioned that we needed to update a rota for new staff who would be starting on the night shift. This would help new staff working nights not to miss anything important. While on nights i drew up a draft detailing everything that needed doing and in the morning left it on my managers desk. Next day I found that a co worker had printed off my work and put a message in the work book that he was updating the old version which was done by a member of staff who left 2 years ago and would be updating a newer version. I went to speak to him to let him know that I had already done one and found him sat at a computer with my work and was told by him that he was just changing a few things! His "new" version is now up in the staff information room and I have found that he has merely added one or two ideas that if given back to me I could easily have added but the majority of the work is mine. I just don't know why he couldn't have included me in the retyping considering I had put the majority of it together. I also wanted to use it for my portfolio and feel that my hard work has been for nothing. I feel he has taken my work, changed a few words, added a sentence or 2 and is now passing it off as his own. Advice would be appreciated.

[maybedefinately]

And next time, email this kind of thing to your manager so she'll know whose work it is!

Good idea although I really don't think there will be a next time. Why bother when although I did not email it to my Manager I did leave her a note on her desk to ask what she thought! The manager knew it was mine.

[maybedefinately]

That is frustrating, OP...... However, really, unless you copyright documents, it is pretty much open to anyone to claim as their own. You won't know the answers to your questions if you don't ask your manager. Is there a history there for you with your manager/this coworker, that gives you reason to believe that you will be undervalued? Good luck!

I am going to ask my manager tomorrow for feedback and let he know that I want it for my portfolio. If there is any name on the new document then I will also ask for recognition and my name added. There is no history with my manager although there is with the co worker, he wants his finger in every pie, is really unbearable to work with and has made life pretty tough for new starters to the point that they have left. I believe that by my manager giving MY work to the co worker to amend was a sure sign that im not valued. However until I speak to my manager then I dont really know. What I do know is that the co worker left a message in the work book to say he was working on an upto date one and when I confronted him he was sat at the computer using MY work to do this.

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

Good idea although I really don't think there will be a next time. Why bother when although I did not email it to my Manager I did leave her a note on her desk to ask what she thought! The manager knew it was mine.

An email gives your work a time and date stamp. Documents on a desk have less certain timing. In situations where you have coworkers who like to pull stunts like this, email gives you the better proof that it is your work.

[maybedefinately]

An email gives your work a time and date stamp. Documents on a desk have less certain timing. In situations where you have coworkers who like to pull stunts like this, email gives you the better proof that it is your work.

Another one of my managers also saw what i did. I ran it past her first. They all know it is my work and being honest I just cant wait to get in and see my manager to find out how it landed in another persons lap rather than her giving me it back with a couple of her ideas! Im sure i will find out all my answers in the end but it is just reassuring knowing that other people would feel the same way that Im not just petty.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

You mentioned that the "higher ups" had a meeting regarding this, so it could be that the manager said "hey here's a good document regarding the night shift check off." And gave it to the co-worker to edit and distribute. I would approach the manager and say that you are so excited that she thought so much of your work that it would be incorporated into the night shift orientation, and you would like to put a copy in your personel file. This way if down the road you are in a position to precept/orient new employees it can be part of your record. Be sure that you put a tagline on the bottom of all your work with the date and your name. This way, it is identified as "yours". But I am not sure what the goal is--recognition for your work? How? Acknowlegement in written form? To whom? Another choice is to send directly to HR with an email that says "attached is a document I created to be put in my personnell file" cc the DON for her input as well. I guess what I am trying to say is I think it is AWESOME that you did this work, and it was highly regarded. But besides a "way to go" not sure what you are looking for. And the upside is that the person who edited your work will not get any "kudos" for that either, so you are perhaps not getting something that the other person will not get either. Now if the person that edited your work is going to get some type of special recognition, then that is a different story.....