Thread

I’m having a dilemma and not really sure how to handle it. I am a network engineer that dabbled in php and I work for a it consulting company that was owned by a manufacturing company. The beginning of this year I was asked to build a database solution (which seemed to morph into a mini crm) to replace an old internal Access database, we had a few developers come in and the president finally asked if I could do it for cheaper. I agreed that I could within the two month time frame and this would be a side job for me outside company time.

Time went by to where eventually work on the project halted on my end, so 10 months later and a rocky company merger later, the president asked the new owner of the company I work for to have me work on the project again. This time it would be my day job and there is no extra money involved. Where I have a problem now is that my new owner wants me to turn over anything I’ve done so far, but I was never paid so I don’t see why I should give up any code.

Am I wrong for just not giving them everything right on the spot?

You SHOULD be paid for the work you have already completed. I think it comes down to how hard are you willing to push? Would you walk away from the job over this? Or do you need to keep working at this company?

I think you took a risk by doing it all on a nod and a handshake. I don’t think you have much ground to fight for this. It’s screwy. It’s unfair. It’s unprofessional. Sucks.

But if they’re gonna act like “oh, we didn’t know about this,” then I think you can act like, “well neither did I. What code? What agreement?” It’s their own medicine. Then they can choose whether to buy it from you or not.

Tillman,  This is unfortunate and I’m sorry you’re going through this.

Some of the things you’ve said don’t quite make sense or don’t add up completely.  It appears you will lose in some way if you play hardball, softball, or any ball that is not perceived as “their” ball.  There is more to this story than meets the eye I suspect.

Answer a couple of questions:

1) You agreed to complete the project in two months…but elude to “some time later”, and they asked you to “work on the project again” indicating you never completed the assignment in the first place “some 10 months later”.  This would seem to place you in a supremely week negotiating position my friend. They will claim you were incompetent and didn’t deserve to be paid.  Since this admittedly was your day job, (depending your locale’s right-to-work laws), this could be grounds for dismissal.  I would be cautious about taking an offensive posture unless you’ve got really solid rationale behind these vague statements.  Do you?

2) If you accepted this assignment as your “day job” and you accepted a salary and deposited those funds into your bank account, from the perspective of any reasonable business, you were certainly paid.  You’ve stated your day job was working on the project, you want to believe you have leverage over you employer concerning the code.  When you took the assignment as “your day job” rather than as the outside consultant, your relationship changed and you lost your leverage.  Unfortunately, your employer owns everything you’ve create since that day.  Since you probably don’t have a contract for when you were a contract consultant, you are way behind the eight ball in this whole thing.  My attorney told me a long time ago that when dealing with another party that may turn into a legal matter, the party that has the most money can always out last the weaker opponent.  How much money do you have to invest win your intellectual property suit?  And if you have to take a loan to sue to world over this, will your CRM be profitable enough to sell and make back all your legal fees?

Welcome to the shitty side of consulting.

Sorry for you loss,

Randy

Yea, some of the stuff I said was pretty vague. I did tell the president I could get it done in two months but it was an outside project, I wasn’t allowed to work on it at the office since it was personal. This project wasn’t actually part of my day job, I’m one of the network admins and took a liking to php and codeigniter. I was asked if I wanted to take the project instead of giving it to outside consultants. It started out as just turning one of the databases into a web app but then it turned into two more databases and a crapload of addons. It took far too long and I agree if they wanted to change to have someone else do it.

So it was agreed upon from the start that it was a side project not affiliated with the company I worked for. I haven’t received any funds from this either but they want to turn it into my day job.

It sounds like good old scope creep was the reason the project went on longer than 2 months, Randy. Again, Tillman, if they are going to pretend like the agreement never happened, then you should, too, and hold on to the code. If they say, “Give us the damned code or you’re fired!” then you just might have to do it to keep your job, as unfortunate as that is.

Ok.  You’re in a pickle.  Think this through to see if you can find some wiggle room.  As I see it from the limited information I have, they want you to give them your code and do this full time.  So let’s evaluate what that means:

1) they can afford to lose you as a network admin
2) they need the code
3) they need someone to build the s/w

So then:

if

a) you say No

Then they fire you since they can afford to let you go anyway and hire another developer to start from scratch. The reason they fire you is because you’ve just cost all the time, energy, and money it will take to start over with someone new and with zero capability because you took your code with you.

b) you say Yes

Then you keep your job, you give them your code and you’re disgruntled.

Um…I’d be with the “you keep your job part” and be happy that you’re contributing.  Citigroup laid off 50,000 people yesterday.  There is a lot to be “not disgruntled” about.

I’m sure you can find that in yourself.  Just sayin’

Randy

It sounds like good old scope creep was the reason the project went on longer than 2 months, Randy. Again, Tillman, if they are going to pretend like the agreement never happened, then you should, too, and hold on to the code. If they say, “Give us the damned code or you’re fired!” then you just might have to do it to keep your job, as unfortunate as that is.

Yea…it stabs me in the heart to know the bastards didn’t pay him for his effort and then they have the gall to pull this crap.  They don’t see what’s going on and they need someone a little more “exposed to the weather” to explain what they are missing.

I hope they aren’t just taking advantage.  If they are Tillman…work on career advancement…elsewhere.

Randy

Well you both hit the nail on the head with how this going and how this seems like its going to play out. Career advancement is a must but my exit strategy isn’t completely inplace yet though for me to risk being fired over this. So it may just very well end up being me doing option B and sucking up my pride not being a disgruntled worker. I am still going to try to hold out as long as possible though.