Advice needed

[KBStore]

Hi,

We had an employee who left us on friday of last week. His role with our company was to programme and operate cnc machinery making various product components for regular clients. We have now discovered over the course of this week that he has deliberatley deleted programmes for certain customers specifitaction and sizes for products that we manufacture for them on a weekly basis. This is a major problem for us as we are now having to let customers down and the cost to re programme everything could cost thousands. Is there anything we can do. If we approach this guy for his help, it's very likely he won't co operate.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[Kernowman]

Pick up the phone and speak to a solicitor near you for advice, NOW, if not SOONER.

This sounds like it might have a criminal element to it too, so don't delay and make that phone call IMMEDIATELY!

 

[Clarkmans]

Why would he do this? Did he leave on bad terms or is it so he can try and steal your clients?

Are you able to get another programmer in to undo the damage? you can then pursue your ex employee for the cost of this or the lost orders. If you think he is going to try and use your company information to pursue your clients then see a solicitor asap to stop this.

Clare

 

[KBStore]

Thank you for your reply.

Basically he handed his notice in, which we accepted, but we have been told by other staff members that he actually only handed his notice in expecting that we would offer him more money to stay, which simply is not an option at the moment. We accepted his notice, gave him a leaving present, whished him all the best etc and now we find he has done this! There were no bad terms as far as I knew.

He has gone to work for a company who deal in the same industry as us but the don't make the same products...I suppose it's possible they might be looking into competing with us.

 

[Kernowman]

So the plan he hatched backfired on him and out of petulance he has deleted your CNC software?

Why are we still discussing it on here?

Get on that blower to the solicitor ASAP

Meanwhile, try and find someone who can 'undelete' the software. If it is on a PC it can be recovered with not too much difficulty. With a lesson to be learned here to keep back ups!

 

[JElder]

Yes - solicitor and a specialist for the machine. If its Widows based they may still be in the delete bin. Even if not, as long as there have not been substantial changes to the hard drive, it may be possible to undelete them,. To maximise the chances, avoid doing anything else before attempting the undelete.

 

[Bri]

thirdly, and importantly phone your customers and tell them the truth quickly and the steps you are taking to resolve it, give them a time frame for resolution, I know how long is a piece of string, but you will have a rough idea.

And a point woth discussing on the forum, all too often we lose employees because we havent spoken to them about their experience with the company or asked them if they have any ideas how efficeiency or processes can be improved from their perspective, wages are always going to be an emotive subject and never understood by the employee, but how quickly their heads are turned by the offer of 10/00 more an hour and their gone without us knowing why. We can prevent a lot of whats happened above, however Ive a sneaky feeling theres more to this story than thats coming out too, deleting programming is a bit extreme for someone who's just leaving because he cant get a pay rise and going to a rival.