This may become a little rant-ish, but I don't often do that so I'm giving myself permission to ponder today. Here's the situation:
I have a couple of friends who are in the same profession as me. We chat regularly and they sometimes ask me for advice about our profession - ideas, current thinking, resources to use and so forth. And I don't mind sharing because I think that together we can all achieve more than we can as individuals.
But I've become aware that these friends of mine are using my work (again, don't mind that - no point sharing if you have to keep it a secret!) but taking credit as if it were their own. And this I object to.
If I give you a planning template I'm really happy for you to use it if it makes your life easier and you don't have to reinvent the wheel. But I do get peeved when I see it submitted as part of an appraisal and find that you're taking credit for creating it.
Am I wrong to feel this way? I do use other people's ideas at work and in my business, but I always credit where I found them. To me it is bordering on the dishonest to be any other way.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm too pedantic about this.
But I can't help the way I feel, and it taints my interactions with those friends. In fact, I've stopped sharing with them both and I feel mean to behave in this way.
What do you think? I do believe that we should give each other a hand up in life. But to take those stepping stones and use them as a handout....?
No comments:
Post a Comment