A few days later, Miss. A finds the sample article she sent Mr. X published in an online forum under his own name. Shocked, she confronts him. But Mr. X is unrepentant and justifies his action saying, "It's after all a simple blog post. Moreover, I offered you the job and you turned it down."
Miss. A is furious.
Advice starts pouring in. People tell her, she should not let him get away with it. She should narrate the incident in all the social media channels with links pointing to his profile.
Do you think their suggestions will really help?
How would you help her deal with the situation and prevent her from getting into similar situations in the future?
By exposing the guy on online forums they both belong to?
No. Because, he would simply find other forums and people to scavenge off. Besides, the point is to prevent Miss. A from getting into similar situations in the future. So, we are not going to resort to counter- productive, vengeful measures that could become a vicious cycle of throwing insults at each other.
So, should she simply let it go?
No. She should confront him and let him know that what's he did is unethical and leave it at that. Our job is not to correct the unethical behaviour of X but to help prevent A from getting into such situations in the future.
One solution to this specific problem is, she could start a blog (if she does not already have one) and post her sample articles in the blog. And then point prospective employers to the specific article they are likely to be interested in. That way, any publishing they do will merely be republishing and would infringe on copyright laws.
Key point: We can do nothing about other people behaving badly. What we can do is equip ourselves to defend ourselves against such behaviour.
Any other solutions?
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