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I am working on a side project at work where I find it beneficial to use some of my code that I have developed personally (outside of work) to speed my development. My side project is developing a c++ gui app to let our power users run queries (built by me) against databases on several different platforms (db2, oracle, mssql and mysql). In the past, I would usually just run these myself on request or build an excel VBA app for them. Now that I have built several VBA apps for several different people, I find the need to build one central app that just reads in custom .sql files and executes against various DB's.

The app that I am building is in c++ and uses an LGPL x-platform gui toolkit. However, I have a lot of code that in my own libraries that I have built over the years on leisure, non-work related projects. My question is if it is okay to use this code at work, thus saving me (and the company) time. If so, can I port any bug fixes and enhancements back to my personal library? There seems to be a line that I do not know when I am going to cross it.

I just want to add that none of the personal code has anything to do with any business logic. They are just basic utility classes/wrappers.

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migrated from stackoverflow.com Dec 7 '11 at 9:36

6 Answers

up vote 33 down vote

My question is if it is okay to use this code at work, thus saving me (and the company) time.

Yes its ethical. In the case you describe you own the code so can freely give it to your company. They hired you to write code so they trust your code.

If so, can I port any bug fixes and enhancements back to my personal library?

Your contract probably forbids this unless you get permission (check your contract).

The best solution is to talk to your manager. I cant see any manger refusing your request. It also makes you look good when you point out how your personal coding is helping the company.

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If you do the bugfixes from memory and not by actually copying the code done at work (which could possibly be tracked), it's rather difficult to prove where the idea came from; it's just as likely you did the bugfix on your free time and re-imported it to your work code – Izkata Dec 7 '11 at 22:19
@Izkata: The question was about ethics, not provability. Whether it could be proved that the backporting occurred or not, the asker would still be backporting. If, as Tom Squires (probably correctly) says, the contract forbids that, then no, it would not be ethical. – Ross Patterson Dec 23 '11 at 13:22
@RossPatterson The second half, about backporting, was not about ethics, and Tom seems to have interpreted it the same as I - a legal issue more than an ethical one. Besides, if bugfixes are done from memory, the code is unlikely to be identical unless it was an absurdly simple fix - in either case, no ethics are involved, it's just convergent design. – Izkata Dec 23 '11 at 15:02
up vote 19 down vote

Some companies lay claim to the work you've done out of hours too. It depends on the company, some of them are big on IP control.

Everything should be down in your contract. The worry is if they lay claim to your freetime work, which has been a horror of mine.

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this is definitely worth looking at, there is a reasonably good chance that its already their code according to the contract, and adding it to their code base almost definitely made it their code. – Ryathal Dec 7 '11 at 13:53
Claiming works you've done out of your job? Is it possible? I think it must depend on which country you're working in, because as far as I know, this would be illegal in France, even if writen in your contract. – Clement Herreman Dec 7 '11 at 14:12
A lot of companies try this it is impossible to enforce, on account of almost every contract also states you cannot sue your employer. – Woot4Moo Dec 7 '11 at 16:14
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+1 @Raythal - unless the OP licensed his work to his employer, including it in their projects without notice could have made it a work product. He may have irretrievably contaminated his personal libraries if his company finds out and gets pissy. – DaveE Dec 7 '11 at 17:11
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IANAL, but many IP agreements claim IP in four situations: If the work was done on company time, if it used company resources (hardware, software, etc.), if it results from work performed for the employer (possibly by using protected company information -- proprietary algorithms, etc.), or if it is related to any current business of the company or actual or anticipated research or development. The last one is the most vague, as anything could be "anticipated". I'd be interested to hear if anyone has actually been sued for this in a situation other than directly competing with their employer. – Cliff Dec 7 '11 at 21:21
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up vote 5 down vote

Your company may have a dedicated IP department or specialist. Check with them. Your manager should be able to put you in touch.

Certainly it's ethical; I can't imagine your company would be sorry to have more access to your work and brain-power. You want to protect yourself from losing control over your own code. Some things you might consider doing first are to create an open-source project with your code in it, and assign it a license which is compatible with your company's IP policies.

Also, look into getting official permission to release any code you contribute to it. Some (many?) companies are fine with releasing code under open-source licenses so long as there is a clear separation between the open code and the company code. This may be true even if your contract says "we own everything you do even remotely related to work". In my experience, they're mostly worried about diluting their competitive advantage in their core business. This is another reason to package your code in a suitably licensed library instead of importing it directly.

Hope this helps.

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up vote 2 down vote

It's totally ethical. I often research new technologies and different ways of doing things at home, and more than once I've developed something at home that I wound up using in my work. I also wouldn't have any problems with bringing fixes or enhancements back home (or bringing them from home to work).

I'd only be concerned if you intended to release your work independently. If that's the case, then I wouldn't bring it in at all, and I wouldn't even try to re-use the design. As others have stated, check your employment contract and discuss it with your manager. If you don't have one of those "you work for us 24/7"-type contracts, then you could consider releasing your code under some license and using only the released code at work. Then it wouldn't really be any different from using an open-source or free software project, which I assume you're already able to do.

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up vote 1 down vote

As always, it depends. In this case, on what a) the license you put on the code says and b) on what your contract says. You might want to come up with a business deal with the company that covers code you wrote before you got there.

There's no general ethical problem with this, so long as you think about it beforehand.

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the license you put on your code may or may not be relevant depending on what your contract says, if your employer claims ownership of everything then any license you put your code under would be void because you had no right to license that code. – Ryathal Dec 7 '11 at 19:13
up vote 1 down vote

I absolutely agree with the previous poster, ethics is not really a problem here in my opinion, unless you contract forbids you from using non in house developed scripts/software then you might have an ethical issue.

Your issue is actually property rights.

And here there are several issues you need to think about.

What does your contract say about intellectual property ?

Does your company retain rights to things you create?

What license does your company use when developing code?

Is it compatible with your own licenses ?

These are questions you need to have answered before you develop any code, allow already developed code to go into your company's repositories or taking development back...

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you should edit you answer to include the name of the person who wrote the answer you agree with, posts don't stay in chronological order. – Ryathal Dec 7 '11 at 16:14

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