Security Bomb

[selkov]

I have placed a lot of time into customizing excel workbooks for my own use at the office.
I am worried that they will usurp my work and give it to others to use without regards for my efforts. So I would like to add a security bomb.

What I am envisioning is to have all the worksheets auto open and search for a file's existence or maybe data in a file and if it is not there then exit the workbook, or better delete itself.

I have never attempted anything like this so I am looking for input or similar ideas from those more knowledgeable than me.

Thanks to all in advance for your help...

 

[Smitty]

There is no contract giving them ownership of my programing.

Au contraire. If you're working on company time, and you don't have a pre-existing agreement with the company giving you rights to what you develop, then they own your work.

I'd talk to the boss and explain how your work has made you so much more efficient that you actually now do the work of several people. I've been in similar situations, and it generally goes much better if you can show the value that you bring to the company instead of trying to hold them hostage. And if you're in a small industry it's not hard at all to ruin your reputation.

As for the noob, let him try to recreate what you've done and then see what he thinks. A trained monkey can push a button, but it takes a great deal more to program that button.

 

[BiocideJ]

I work in a small environment.
I am not a pc specialist, my duties lie elsewhere.
The work I have on on VBA is to make my work better and easier, not so someone one else could take advantage of it. There is no contract giving them ownership of my programing.


I took a long weekend off and when I came back the Fc#$King noobie that just started was making noise on how I don't do any thing - how everything is automated. Says a trained monkey could do what i do. FFCKER is related to friends of the owner.

I got three weeks vacation coming up and I want my job when I return.

I am not trying to delete any of the companies data, just MY software.

I understand where you are coming from and why you are upset, but unfortunately, anything you create while in the employ of your company is their intellectual property. This has been the case in every job I have had and would apply whether you are a 'programmer' by job title or not.

Also, I have never heard of someone being fired for being 'too efficient' so I suspect if you worry for your job there are other factors at work here than just this workbook.

 

[Asala42]

It sounds like you're dealing with some ugly drama there. There's an emotional tinge in your last post, so you may want take a step back. Your integrity is far more valuable than any job, especially if the company is infested by weazels.

I'm admittedly no law expert, but the company may actually have a legit claim of ownership - especially if the code was developed on company time. Your original post did mention the idea of a macro searching for files (I assume your template) and killing them. That's a rash approach. While interviewing a future pospective employer, imagine if they found out about your security bomb.

It sounds like the 'Noobie' character does not understand the technical skills involved in automation. You should make it clear that it will take someone with VBA skills to fix it when it breaks (say someone deletes the wrong column) or needs to be modified as the business needs change. And ideally, that person would be you.

 

[Smitty]

I agree wholeheartedly with the past two posts.

Think of the old adage that you get more flies with honey than vinegar.

In my last job (15+ years) I gave 2+ months notice when I resigned and offered to help support all of the things that I had automated during that time (I could do 120+ hours of work on Monday with a few button clicks). Instead I was told that I had 2 weeks to deprecate all of the VBA from all of my projects, because there was no one else in the company who knew VBA (the new division president, a self-professed "Excel guru" was the one who gave the directive and he didn't know what VBA was...) And this was a company with over 5,000 employees.

I'd count yourself very lucky that you know what you do, and have done what you have for the company (now it's up to you to prove that to the company), but just don't screw yourself over a spiteful issue. On the plus side, there's nothing that says you can't take the knowledge that you've gained and use it to your benefit in future endevours. The company may own your work, but not the knowledge you've gained.

If you settle down a bit, you might see a way to position it to be to your benefit.

If the owner's noob cousin gets in the way, then there's not much you can do, but whatever you do, do it with dignity and ethic. Life's too short to worry about the little siht's in the world, so yourself a favor and step above it.

 

[Michael M]

All of the previous posts are spot on !! and the intellectual property comments are also correct, and could very expensive for you if taken to court....I work for the govt so know this legal stuff.
However, I created a heap of stuff for a number of Depts in my org, to save time and effort, thanks to many posters here.
I kinda started feeling the same way about "my" projects and wanted to have everything bombed, self destructing, etc.....but I took a different approach
Firstly, Protect the VBA projects, mainly to stop fiddlers, but also to encourage anybody that wants changes to have to go to the boss to get permission, to get you to change the project.
Also, I set up a little splash screen that pops up on Workbook_Open for about 1 second, that basically says
"This workbook is maintained by YOUR NAME, for program changes please contact YOUR Boss's NAME in YOURSECTION"
That way you cast a simple advert to all users whenever it gets opened.

Once the workbooks been used a few times, simply change the code to stop the popup....don't worry they won't forget you.

I'm not an expert, but every dept in our org.....now knows who to talk to !!

 

[selkov]

Ok.
I give.
Sorry.

 

[Ragnar1211]

One of my old partners used to have a philosophy... Fire anyone that hoards knowledge and makes themselves indispensable. If the company can't run without that person, we have a problem.

Therefore look at your code as an extension of your professional development and growth. The more you give, the more you get. If you keep investing in your skills, you will keep earning more, and contributing more.

Share your knowledge, this adds wealth to everyone, and this is how to become wealthy.

 

[T. Valko]

Ok.
I give.
Sorry.

No need to apologize.

Just to be the contrarian...

Use this at your own risk.

http://www.cpearson.com/Excel/workbooktimebomb.aspx

 

[selkov]

As an after thought.......
A time bomb is wrong -
And leaving my code for others to use seems to be the ethical thing to do.

But I have a habit [good/bad] of compartmentalizing the processes in the macro with very good remarks a long the way.
Kinda like writing out a flow chart then entering the code in each segment. This way if I need to go back and relearn what i did it is self explaining.

Would it be wrong of me to not leave those directions behind?
Maybe I could run a macro to review each macro and delete the existing remarks?
And perhaps randomly add 3-15 spaces on every other line to make reading it more difficult?

opinions please?

 

[shg]

I think that would be no more ethical than time-bombing the workbook, and only marginally less likely to get you justifiably sued.