Rights?
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- clique
Hi. Just after a bit of advice on behalf of a friend who has recently been made redundant. Her previous employers won't let her have any access to her computer (even supervised) to get some of her work for her folio. Which means she has nothing to show for the last 1 year 10 months worth of work. Is there anything she can do? Any rights to even get hold of files copies?
thanks alot
:-)
- canuck0
hmm. I am just guessing, I doubt she has any rights to files. Property of the company, she probably even signed a contract when hired stating that.
- johndiggity0
ask her to talk to her an ex co-worker she could trust to get her files. the company is within its rights to deny her access to their machine/property.
- gabriel20
If it's a company-owned machine everything on it is the company's property. Similar thing happened to a friend of mine.
- k0na_an0k0
can she pull screenshots from the companies websites?
meaning, can you pull the images from her previous employers portfolio?
did she do something to the company for them to be so rude/unprofessional to her?
- -sputnik-0
damn...she must have been sacked hastily in order to get locked out like that. what did she do?
- PonyBoy0
or who DIDN'T she do?
- clique0
Thanks so far. I like the taking the images off the website idea but hmm it doesn't sound good.
She was an in house designer (the only one) and was working alongside another agency to rebrand the company she worked for. Apparently they then made her redundant and hired this other company to do all their work instead. She was told out of the blue one morning and given the option to either leave or stay and work her months notice. Upset and with out thinking she left there and then.
- -sputnik-0
seriously, the only time i've seen someone locked out w/out any sort of heads-up is when they've done something reprehensible, in which case tough for them not to have backed something up in all the time they were there.
if she hasn't done anything of the sort, maybe an ex-colleague could help her out? otherwise it's just a lesson to back that work up. it belongs to the company and she's out of luck.
- -sputnik-0
ah...just read your post clique. that was hot-headed move. try to get someone who's still there to send her a few of her files.
- digilee0
tut tut tut.
lesson 1 - always back up work. even if you have no chance of being laid off/ needing the work, what if something happens and the files are lost?
lesson 2 - when confronted with a major decision, take time to consider your options and include future planning.
lesson 3 - make yourself indisposable. Even if the firm do sack you they'll at least need you for a while to sort things out. which will give you time to consider your plans.
- clique0
Thanks for everyone's response. Much appreciated. As I feared.
I think she might be able to get someone who works there to help out.
cheers
- laurus0
Actually, I think she has a case legally. It may not have been the smartest of moves, but still, the law protects her.
They are violating the law if they're preventing the person from making a living. Her portfolio is crucial for that purpose.
She should consult a lawyer. My guess a letter from one will grant her access to her machine – they won't want to spend thousands of $ on a case they may loose.
- gramme0
Similar thing happened to me back in the day. Some people are so woefully self-centered, helping someone out after youv'e sacked them for no good reason is apparently too much to ask for.
After months of wrangling I finally got some PDFs and jpegs of pieces I worked on. Lo-res. None of it can be reproduced @ full size.
Like others have said: back up your stuff. I sure learned that one the hard way. I think design firms & agencies are a lot cooler about letting people have access to files they helped create. In house situations are a whole nuther ball game. People don't understand the fact that a designer is seriously screwed without a portfolio.
- -sputnik-0
a lawyer will tell you that unless you've signed a contract specifically giving you rights to the work you've produce while working for someone, what you do on their dime is their intellectual property