OUR ADVICE – Demoralizing, frustrating and above all irritating… The theft of ideas is unfortunately commonplace in the workplace. But to avoid recurrence, it’s important to know how to manage this delicate situation.
When Élodie, a press attaché in a Parisian communications agency, discovers in a meeting report that her manager has decided to set up an in-house newsletter for one of his clients, her heart skips a beat. Because this idea she sees put down on paper… it was hers. “I used to share my thoughts and ideas freely in the office with a colleague. I wasn’t suspicious. When you work in an agency, you have to react quickly, you have to get things off the ground.“says the 25-year-old.
A few weeks later, she was surprised to discover that a press release had been drafted with the same angle and headline she had imagined and naively whispered to her colleague. A situation that forces her to face the facts: she has to deal with a “plunderer of ideas”. The kind of colleague who always ends up reaping the laurels of others. “I realized that this colleague spoke first in meetings with our manager and customers, rephrasing my ideas. In short, he made everything about himself and never quoted me, which didn’t bother him at all. It was intellectual property theft“says Élodie.
Finding yourself in such a situation can be very demoralizing…
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