What to do when your ideas are used by others and you're not recognized?
 

My wife mentioned today that several of her ideas/projects (she always comes up with new ones with most being implemented) were used at work (a hospital), but she was not recognized. It pissed her off, but she doesn't want to come across as sour grapes. What would you do when your not recognized or your idea is claimed by someone else?

I don't have the specifics, but here's the gist of them.

In an in-house newsletter, they showed the finished project she came up with with a picture of the CNO and the artist (who is a nurse she found to do some art work). It took nine months to go from idea to completion.

Next was a project to organize the supply rooms. She organized all the supplies in the supply rooms by type, etc. and color coded all with pictures to make finding them quick and easy.

Lastly, she came up with an idea to number/inventory the stretchers. She told someone about it and he did it as well. He won a $500 award for "his" idea.

My wife and I have also had ideas that were put into action but we were never recognized. However, there was no monetary gain (or anything else at stake), so we didn't particularly care. We were just glad things got done "better." I guess have your wife put down her good ideas in writing (i.e. memo) to her superiors. Email them. Then the proof is there for eternity.

I think your wife should write a letter to her boss outlining what has happened.
It's wrong and her boss should do something about it.

Having an idea isn't enough. Doing what it takes to move it to the next step is what matters.

They say "success has many fathers." I've had projects that took off and suddenly a number of people were the ones that came up with the concept and did the work. A "collaborator" even called in the lawyers at one point. People get weird when money/credit is at stake. It annoyed me but at some point you say, "whatever" and move onto the next thing. In the end my focus should always be on the end user and the quality of their experience rather than any clowns that are involved in the process.

I should clarify that she acts on her ideas, from conception to the final project. She's just not getting the credit, but does have emails to back her up. There is no incentive other than making things better.

Others including higher ups take the credit, including her boss.

She's not looking for glory or financial gain, just recognition and a thank you is all that's needed.

Then she needs to have a sit down conversation with her boss. I know that may be hard to do but I can't see any other way.

Mail a letter to yourself with the idea inside. Open in court if needed.
Get copyright protection.

When I was 10, I designed a GI Joe Jeep toy that I sent to Hasbro. They sent me a rejection letter. I cried.

Then next year, they released a toy based on my idea. I got $0. Learned my lesson.

szyzygy: I've heard the letter strategy is not legal proof of such.
The USPTO used to accept a "journal" instead, but this seems backwards to the first idea.
The laws have changed recently, so research this.

A930Rocket: You're wife has got it together and is making positive changes.

That situation sucks. People will always stoop to new lows to justify themselves. Gaining recognition is quite justified, but could potentially open up an in-house "can of worms". Those same people will become vicious in protecting what they "stole".

That's true but these things are never easy to deal with. I recently had one of my team members make such a claim and in the end HR got involved. I've never liked HR and true to form they made a real mess of this one. In the end I awarded him an "indervidual recognition" for his efforts and it worked because he threatened to leave if things weren't put right. He got a $150 gift card for an idea that has saved my company over $8,000!

Yeah, I heard that back in High School. Not surprising to me now that it's BS

Hire a patent lawyer or study their stuff online and do it yourself. Look at how much money the pharma companies make. Disgusting.

Hospitals are full of people willing to stand on a head to look taller. Most of these are adminstrators or (worse yet) admin wannabe's. If she wants credit for her ideas, she needs to apply for a job that gives her a voice. Otherwise, there will be plenty of people willing to use her and her ideas to their advantage...I'd not want a hospital admin. job and would be content with just making things better. I'd imagine people around her know the real deal.

If there's no documentation then it's "he said/she said".

A simple letter to a executive a few levels up might be enough.
State the facts/history with relevant theory, and ask nothing.

Your ideas are used by others and you're not recognized.

That should be my job title, I'll see if I can get that put on my next batch of business cards. Really not much you can do but leave and hope it's better at the next company.

Ugh... I had a boss like that. He took credit for work that everyone else did, and in no uncertain way (I came up with this, I implemented that...). Long story short, I left. The guy was a self-serving douche with no regard for what anyone assigned to him did. I hope that the people involved here are nowhere near that bad, because from what I hear 5 years later it doesn't seem to be a problem that self-corrects.

Two thoughts:

1. Approach her boss. Not with a hostile attitude but looking for guidance. "Mr/Mrs xyz. I've had several ideas that were used a if they were someone elses. Am I not presenting them properly? How can I ensure that I get credit for my ideas and hard work" This will call it to the boss's attention without seeming negative and full of conflict.

2. Document. Best way... Send an email to her boss. That way if it DOES happen again, she can confidently say "This was my idea. Here is the email and date. I expect that I will be getting the credit for this, don't you agree?"

This is a common life experience and how you deal with it defines you. Preventing it from happening again in the future is perhaps all you really can do about intellectual piracy.

FWIW, my Masters research was ripped off by Clive Cussler in his novel Treasure (Dirk and Al were pretty smart dudes). It hurt at the time but pain went away over time. YMMV

This is better than someone doing a poor job and putting your name on it. I've had that happen and it makes one want to kill.

I'm like an elephant and I live with a points system. Do me wrong and sooner or later I will have my retribution. As soon as I tack some points on someone, I look at them each and every time with just one thing in mind.

This is why anybody who works for a studio is prohibited from looking at or accepting scripts, they have to be submitted through proper channels.

Bingo.
I've met many folks over the years who can dream up anything, but only a few who can actually make it happen.

I've been working on a business structural deal with a major supplier for about 4 years.
Getting everyone on board and actually making it happen has been extremely tedious, even though we stand to save a guaranteed $1.7 million over the first 5 years and more after.
We've finally signed the papers and it's starting to be implemented and people lined up to take credit for it.
Fortunately I had archived my presentations, my capital improvement request to the leadership team, etc.
Too much documentation for anyone to ignore.

If I had just dreamed it up and shared it with others and watched them run with it, it wouldn't really be mine anymore, it would be there's.

Nostatic is right: The idea is only the start of a project. I work in high-tech and we joke sometimes saying "ideas are cheap". The real art is to get them implemented and make sure they actually work.

For the specifics of the wife here, I would recommend the following:

Continue to be creative and give input but also implement the idea yourself. This will go recognized - maybe not in the newsletter, but every worker and manager generally knows who has ideas and gets things done. It takes good self-esteem to go this passive route - something you may have to work on.

Every company has a performance evaluation at which you generally get to describe your contributions. Make sure you list them. It is not uncommon that several people claim a task as theirs - it is called team work. Every performance review generally has a section in which you plan for next year. In this section make sure to include tasks that you would like to work on. If you sign on for organizing the supply room in your performance review, you will be able to be graded against that plan.

I would under no circumstances, after the fact, go and say "hey, that was my idea". That is petty and whiny, IMHO and will only irritate everyone involved. It doesn't sound like any of the work going unrecognized is major, so just let it go and make sure you get the future stuff on your performance review, better before you start than after the fact.

HTH,

G

This is a sore subject with me:mad:
Years ago, the Mayor of a small town not far from me asked me create an event that could be done annually that would bring in out of town people, and that could be grown to a major regional draw.
One of the reasons the Mayor approached me (other than we served on a few committees together and I'm in the Promotional biz) is that he knew I was a guy guy and had set up smaller, regional Club Events.

He was offering the use of a former Naval Air Base, where I could do a Pomona type event, German based, and with the ability to host not only a large multie Marque German car Oktoberfest Concours, Swap-Meet, Auto-X & Drag Race, all under the blessing & umbrella of the local town. since on of my duties with the local PCA was to Create & set up events, I figured that my Region would be the base, and I would involve the BMW, Mercedes & VW (both air cooled & water cooled) to make a true German Auto-Fest. Anyone who actually knows me, knows that when ever I do an event, a lot of planning goes in and I take the time need to do it right. So at one of our local PCA board meeting, I give my presentation, also also out line the fact that because of the size that we should take a year to plan & promote (to make sure everything was dialed in. Well, a loser(he wasn't even a PCA member, but a Benz guy) who was hanging out with one of his buddies since his wife dumped him liked me plans too, so much that he took it to a buddy of his who managed a new resort and they loved my idea, so much that they rushed it, cut out the driving part, treated the old school VW people (including a buddy with a super sweet 63 Bug, VW Trend Cover car) like crap, http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1327263106.jpg
Made all the VW & older non= Benzs owners feel like 2nd class citizens. When it was brought up at one of our PCA board meeting about this "new" event I was BOILING and I asked how my "plans" ended up being used for someone elses event, the MB loser told he,
:mad:
The only reason I didn't sue (and I had my attorney ready and I had the documentation to back me) was that place was also a client of mine for other business.. They have used that same theme with other cars & motorcycles. Anytime I see alex, I just want to beat his loser, thieving ass. :mad:

My wife had this happen to her a few times and it upset her tremendously as someone else was taking the credit.

Here was her fix: Most of her ideas were presentations made on PowerPoint, or Excel, etc, and then someone down the line would get a hold of it, and take full credit for it. What we did was to put her name and a date on the main background template, BUT in the same color as the background, so nobody could see it. Add in a simple mouse over command that reversed the colors and it was there plain as day. We also did a few other variations to this, but it work flawlessly. Same guy trying to take full credit and during the presentation her name popped up.. She said it was the most satisfying day of her career, as everybody turned to ask her questions and ignored him.

Post it on a blog....it's date stamped.

Interestingly enough, if the idea you have involves capital investment, a strategy is to leak the idea and let some greedy sumbchit run with it doing all the ground work. You can take two tacks from the point where he becomes successful: sue his ass or create the competition using his technology, changing it a small amount for the better and outdoing him in quality, sales and service.

The second one seems rather gratifying to me.