This is absolutely scary. If you are wondering what the heck I am talking about, then go to google and search for the keywords "Atul Malhotra", "IBM" or "HP". The news article will pop up.
Now, coming to the brief intro and the analysis, Atul Malhotra was with IBM for almost 7 or 8 years. While at IBM he gets some document containing sales strategy etc. The document was sesitive. He was not supposed to share it with anyone. Then he moves on HP. He shares it some VP at HP. Lands in trouble. HP fires him. Reports him to cops. He pleads guilty of leaking IBM trade secrets. Faces a prison term of upto 10 years in prison. Also faces a fine of $250000.
When I was reading the article on some news website, I also saw lots of comments so eager to see him punished etc. And then there some comments citing racist politics.
No doubt this guy has done something wrong.
But this issue seems to have been blown leagues and bounds out of proportion. I think, this guy never realized that what he might be casually doing might land him in such a huge trouble. Is HP trying to show, through its action, that it is some kind of honest/altruistic organization believing in complete transparency? I am sure that will be too nice a music to the ears. Several questions remain unanswered (or may be there were answered in court) :
Why was this guy so badly cornered?
Why wasnt he just warned and told that this is unacceptable and that document destroyed right there?
How does one ensure that the document is not destroyed now?
Is he being made a scapegoat? Could he be a victim?
Could it be possible that there was this casual meeting and he just casually shared the document that he thought is pretty innocuous and based on trust?
While I accept that he has done soemthing wrong, but he for sure does not deserve such a inhuman punishment.
I am pretty sure that in today's world, the organizations are structured in such a way that, some folks act in a way, buckling under the pressure of their superiors, which might land in trouble. In such cases, should those poor folks be severely punished?
Reminds me of a classic Cadence-Avanti case few years back.
These stories for sure scare the hell out of any corporate employee because they are never sure whether what they are doing is right or wrong, to be honest.
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2 comments:
Maybe you have a point. But do we really have all the details to comment and take sides? One thing that I have realized over the 7 years of corporate life here is that everything is shades of Grey. He violated the law and it is well within the rights of the company to go all after him. Granted that these might be motivated by other factors, but do we really know what those are? Maybe he was an asshole and he made enemies all around.. Maybe he was a nice guy who found himself in the middle of something and one thing led to another.
@vinit
Assholes don't make enemies. Everybody befriends them so that they themselves don't get into any trouble.
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