To kick things off, let’s just call it how it is:
• It sucks when someone steals your work
• Sadly it probably happens to someone, somewhere everyday

Oh corporate America, definitely not known for being a level playing field and everyone giving each other high-fives and handshakes every time a match is over. So what do you do when someone takes your work/project/data and passes it off as their own? I don’t think anyone has all the answers, but here are a few tips to help navigate what is possibly one of work-life’s most sticky situations…

1. Stay out of the mud.
As tempting as it may be, don’t retaliate and don’t act in the moment. Emotions will no doubt be high when you find out what has happened, but sending an email/voicemail/text full of vocabulary usually reserved for Eminem lyrics is not the way to go.

It will only reflect badly on you, no matter how justified you may feel in sending it, and once it’s out there you can’t take it back.

2. Clear the air.
So even though a verbal smack-down or trip to the thunder dome are off the table (and typically frowned upon by HR) you can and do need to stick up for yourself.

Once the dust has settled, decided on a plan of action. Depending on your position and the position of the person taking liberties with your stuff, figure out what next steps would be most effective in getting the situation resolved.

Maybe it is an email, written thoughtfully, and outlining what has happened from your POV? Maybe it’s calling a meeting with upper management and the person involved? Whatever the next step is, make sure you only speak from what you know and what you have in writing. Making accusations or throwing out assumptions will only discredit you.

3. Proceed with caution.
Immediately following the points above about clearing the air, if you do want to meet with the other person make sure there is a 3rd party (aka a mediator) in the room. Having someone else there will limit any he said she said nonsense, should it come to that, and at this point you want to take every precaution.

After you get through all of that and once the situation has been resolved – or even if it’s not – then what? It’s hard to get that ‘team spirit’ back after someone has pilfered your goods, but life goes on.

My advice is to look at it this way:

Your career and personal happiness are much more important than whatever happened and in the end the goal should be to take the high road and be a team player that others enjoy working with. So don’t let someone else’s lack of professionalism and immaturity drag you down.

Or as our friend Eminem likes to say, “You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow. This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo.”

Yo, indeed.