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Home/Engineering/You are an engineer who has taken a new job with a competitor of your previous company. At a meeting you attend, a research engineer describes her plans for developing a new product similar to one developed by your former company. You know that the direction this engineer is taking will lead to a dead-end and will cost the company a lot of time and money. Do you tell her what you know? Does the answer to this question change if the new company is not a direct competitor of the previous one?

You are an engineer who has taken a new job with a competitor of your previous company. At a meeting you attend, a research engineer describes her plans for developing a new product similar to one developed by your former company. You know that the direction this engineer is taking will lead to a dead-end and will cost the company a lot of time and money. Do you tell her what you know? Does the answer to this question change if the new company is not a direct competitor of the previous one?

Information obtained in a professional capacity should not be given away without the consent of the owner. This information belongs to the company where it was developed, and it will be unethical if it is undisclosed to parties that had no knowledge of it before. Companies dedicate resources and time to develop ideas and designs, and therefore such developments solely belong to the companies that sponsored them. It is worth noting that it does not really matter whether those designs or ideas developed are in active use or archived; what matters is that they are ideas that belong to the company that developed them.

The case in question presents a unique situation. The engineer may be tempted to offer technical assistance to his new company – that is what he is paid to do. But unfortunately, the information he may want to give out does not belong to him. It will be correct to say that if he gives out that information, he would have equally stolen the information that belongs to his previous employer. The fact that he is sure that the approach being used by the current employer is leading to a dead-end is due to the professional knowledge acquired from his previous workplace. Also, the fact that this approach, in the end, will be costly and time-consuming is not a reason enough for him to give out proprietary technical details. Therefore, the engineer should not disclose any technical information to the current employer or to the engineer in charge of the project. This applies even when the current employer is not a competitor of the previous employer.

The recommendation for the question is that the engineer in charge of the project should seek licensing negotiation with the company that owns the technical details. The new engineer has an obligation of only informing the lead engineer that the approach she is proposing will lead to a dead-end and consequently advise her to seek licensing negotiation for the technical details.

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Academic.Tips. (2021) 'You are an engineer who has taken a new job with a competitor of your previous company. At a meeting you attend, a research engineer describes her plans for developing a new product similar to one developed by your former company. You know that the direction this engineer is taking will lead to a dead-end and will cost the company a lot of time and money. Do you tell her what you know? Does the answer to this question change if the new company is not a direct competitor of the previous one'. 6 July.

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Academic.Tips. (2021, July 6). You are an engineer who has taken a new job with a competitor of your previous company. At a meeting you attend, a research engineer describes her plans for developing a new product similar to one developed by your former company. You know that the direction this engineer is taking will lead to a dead-end and will cost the company a lot of time and money. Do you tell her what you know? Does the answer to this question change if the new company is not a direct competitor of the previous one? https://academic.tips/question/you-are-an-engineer-who-has-taken-a-new-job-with-a-competitor-of-your-previous-company-at-a-meeting-you-attend-a-research-engineer-describes-her-plans-for-developing-a-new-product-similar-to-one-dev/

References

Academic.Tips. 2021. "You are an engineer who has taken a new job with a competitor of your previous company. At a meeting you attend, a research engineer describes her plans for developing a new product similar to one developed by your former company. You know that the direction this engineer is taking will lead to a dead-end and will cost the company a lot of time and money. Do you tell her what you know? Does the answer to this question change if the new company is not a direct competitor of the previous one?" July 6, 2021. https://academic.tips/question/you-are-an-engineer-who-has-taken-a-new-job-with-a-competitor-of-your-previous-company-at-a-meeting-you-attend-a-research-engineer-describes-her-plans-for-developing-a-new-product-similar-to-one-dev/.

1. Academic.Tips. "You are an engineer who has taken a new job with a competitor of your previous company. At a meeting you attend, a research engineer describes her plans for developing a new product similar to one developed by your former company. You know that the direction this engineer is taking will lead to a dead-end and will cost the company a lot of time and money. Do you tell her what you know? Does the answer to this question change if the new company is not a direct competitor of the previous one?" July 6, 2021. https://academic.tips/question/you-are-an-engineer-who-has-taken-a-new-job-with-a-competitor-of-your-previous-company-at-a-meeting-you-attend-a-research-engineer-describes-her-plans-for-developing-a-new-product-similar-to-one-dev/.


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Academic.Tips. "You are an engineer who has taken a new job with a competitor of your previous company. At a meeting you attend, a research engineer describes her plans for developing a new product similar to one developed by your former company. You know that the direction this engineer is taking will lead to a dead-end and will cost the company a lot of time and money. Do you tell her what you know? Does the answer to this question change if the new company is not a direct competitor of the previous one?" July 6, 2021. https://academic.tips/question/you-are-an-engineer-who-has-taken-a-new-job-with-a-competitor-of-your-previous-company-at-a-meeting-you-attend-a-research-engineer-describes-her-plans-for-developing-a-new-product-similar-to-one-dev/.

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"You are an engineer who has taken a new job with a competitor of your previous company. At a meeting you attend, a research engineer describes her plans for developing a new product similar to one developed by your former company. You know that the direction this engineer is taking will lead to a dead-end and will cost the company a lot of time and money. Do you tell her what you know? Does the answer to this question change if the new company is not a direct competitor of the previous one?" Academic.Tips, 6 July 2021, academic.tips/question/you-are-an-engineer-who-has-taken-a-new-job-with-a-competitor-of-your-previous-company-at-a-meeting-you-attend-a-research-engineer-describes-her-plans-for-developing-a-new-product-similar-to-one-dev/.

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An engineer leaves a company and goes to work for a competitor. a. Is it ethical for the engineer to try to lure customers away from the previous employer? b. Is it alright for the engineer to use proprietary knowledge gained while working for the previous employer at the new job? How would the answer to this question change if the new job weren’t for the competitor? c. At a new job, is it acceptable to use skills developed during your previous employment?
Risk is a part of engineering and technological progress, and assessing benefit versus risk is part of engineering responsibility. Along that line of thought, give me a historical example of an engineering project that you believe was extremely risky, but the benefits outweighed the risk. Second, give me a historical example of a project that was undertaken where the risk ultimately did not outweigh the benefits. For both parts of the question, make sure you fully discuss why you choose your example, including the associated risks and benefits.
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