I found a great new job as an IT Manager with a great company. I gave my two weeks notice, and my current boss is devastated. They kept piling work on me and I’m burned out. I have no plans to say anything negative to anyone here upon leaving. I’ve been very gracious so far, but the owner is taking it very personally.
Anyway, here’s my question. At my suggestion over the last 3.5 years on the job, I have purchased several books with the company’s money to not only increase my own proficiencyat my job, but to implement tons of new technologies that they couldn’t have done otherwise without dishing out a lot of money on consultants or expensive training. Not that I’m anything special…I just took the initiative to purchase some books, and for the most part, spent a lot of time outside the office (without pay) reading them. Now, that I’m leaving the “family”, they’re asking me to leave all the books, too.
First of all, I purchased them under the pretense that they were in lieu of training, which my company could not afford, but always promised me I would get. Second, they are not proprietary or company-specific in any way (just programming books mostly). Third, the company directly employed someone part-time a few years agoto do some web development. That person purchased books with company money as well, and was never asked to return them. Finally, I still have books from past jobs, and to my knowledge, such materials were always treated as benefits or personal property.
This is a first for me, and I know that the boss is just being petty… I just want to do what is right. I don’t care if they get upset at this point. Do I have a legal right to keep these books? I’ll give them back if I don’t. I just don’t want to cause a problem, and then find out that I should have given them back. Please help.
