I work with a small group of 5 persons, with 1 boss, 2 mid-level people, and 2 jr. persons (I am one of them). A portion of our job is to write short 5-10 page memos, with a good amount of paraphrasing from other sources due to factual nature of the information.
A few months ago I have been training a new Jr. person and with regard to memo writing mentioned that its ok to paraphrase, but we can't 'COPY' word for word.
We've had a slow week, with only one mid-level person and 2 jr people here. This mid level person gave the other jr. analyst a memo to proofread and the girl noticed complete and total copying, WORD FOR WORD, sentense after sentense from another source. And she mentioned it to me. While I didn't say anything yet, I am wondering if I should or should not mention it to our senior boss boss (she is out on vacation this week)?
I am tempted not to, only b/c I am not the one who discovered this plaigarism, but should I even suggest this to the other Jr. girl or should I stay out of it?
Xelindrya
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Re: Ethics Issue at Work
Tough call
Personally Id stay out of it. The Big Cheese should know what's going on but she should be attentive enough to find out on her own.
I don't know what you do, but if it's a concern for the company itself then yeah.. maybe I'd mention something to her. Something like you though it could have been a copy but you just wanted to check.
Good Luck.
alina
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Re: Ethics Issue at Work
I think it too minor to be a concern for the company
julybride444
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Re: Ethics Issue at Work
Maybe you could say something to the person who did it directly? It could have been an isolated incident or maybe they don't understand how important the paraphrasing part is...
JimmysBride
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Re: Ethics Issue at Work
Since the Jr person was supposed to be proofreading, can he/she say something to the mid-level person (s)he is proofing for? Jr can put it very delicately, something like, 'I finished proofreading the memo and everything looks great except I'm not sure if this particular sentence was supposed to be paraphrased or not.' That way Jr is not accusing mid-level of plagarism, but instead is using his/her naivetee (sp?) to point out the 'problem'. If mid-level is made aware of it and blows it off, then it's out of your hands and Jrs hands as well.
peeweesgirl
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Re: Ethics Issue at Work
If it were me I wouldn't say anything technically she was asked to proof read nothing else so this can go both ways maybe leave a copy on the desk of here superior nothing attached to it just the memo . i think if you say anything this can cause a great uncomfortability for you or the other JR. Maybe her superior will pick up on it or if it happens again then I might say something but firt offense NO .
edited for my spelling which probably still isn't correct
eroxgirl
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Re: Ethics Issue at Work
Since the person was asked to proof read, maybe she can mention that they forgot to put quotes around this part...and act as if it was simply an accident rather than plagerism?
DKA1026
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Re: Ethics Issue at Work
I don't think I would say anything unless it was a major issue for the company. If this is an internal memo with a limited purpose and audience, I don't think I would do anything about it.
Lunatrek
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Re: Ethics Issue at Work
I would mention it to her directly, and maybe try to position it like 'Maybe I didn't explain this part of the training clearly enough' or something like that. Even though it may seem like a minor occurance in the grand scheme of things, it's still illegal.
