Copying company contacts from outlook 6

[proletariat]

Today is my last day, and I would like to have some of the contacts that are in the company's outlook directory. I can import these into google mail for my future personal use.

Ethical or Unethical?

 

[MintJulep]

Probably ethical, although your future former employer may not be pleased.

If the contacts are for people that you have personnaly met then you could concieveably have their business card in your personnel card collection. No one would think twice about your taking your stack of business cards with you.

Otherwise, if you know the name and company you could recreate the contact info without too much difficulty anyway.

 

[TheTick]

If you ave to ask...

then do it without telling anyone!

 

[JAE]

I'd recommend proceeding in a similar vein to what MintJulep states - collecting the information of people you knew would probably be acceptable, assuming there is no company policy directly prohibiting it.

But to just go in and mass collect all their database names would be unethical in my book.

 

[epoisses]

Don't try to be more catholic than the pope. Email addresses of other people are not proprietary information. Import them or just write them down on paper if you're afraid of being harassed by the IT dept.

When I left my first company I religiously left everything behind that could have been even slightly useful (and I am not talking about the stapler), but now I regret that I didn't look just a tiny little bit more after myself.

 

[proletariat]

I was in the process of copying over every contact that could conceivably be useful, when I got a bad gut feeling. I limited it to personal contacts.

 

[Ashereng]

If you have to ask, then you probably think it is unethical.

I would say, follow your gut.

What is ethical to you may not be to me.

I think copying the personal contacts, as you are doing, is the right path forward.

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[TheTick]

Ethics is about acceptable conduct, not about "guilty feelings".

Copying the entire email directory of a company is probably unethical. However, copying your personal contacts, internal and external, seems perfectly legit. No different than taking the business cards with you when you clear out your desk.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

In that case, copy the company contacts to your personal contacts ... and then take that with you.


Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091

 

[zdas04]

Most companies that I've been involved with have a "confidential" stamp on the paper copies of the company phone directory. If they consider a list of employees and their phone numbers confidential then you can bet that the Outlood version of the same data is highly confidential.

Over time most people build their own lists in their personal Outlook Contacts list. Typically that contacts list is a combination of company and outside folks that you've had electronic dealings with. I've never heard of a restriction to taking that list when you quit or retire (it is unofficial and maintained by the user), but when people are fired they are rarely allowed to download their contacts list. That makes me wonder. This can easily turn into a slippery slope that tempts you to take an engineering design manual or something that would clearly be wrong.

David

 

[LHA]

I left a company after 4.5 years. I did not take my personal Outlook Contacts, but I wish I had. They were put there by me, for me. True, it was on my bosses dime. That is why you shouldn't delete/remove them. But, as most others seem to be indicating, it will be like taking a spare business card...I wouldn't take the only copy, but I would copy the only copy. No harm.

Engineering is the practice of the art of science - Steve

 

[dbooker630]

All employees at my company are required annually to complete a certification regarding standards of business conduct.

I completed mine today, and one of the questions referred to the company phone book and could the employee share it with his stockbroker. The answer was no, same as zdas04 recalls.

 

[davidbeach]

So, what you do is you keep your PDA synch'ed with Outlook. Then you can just walk away.

 

[Ron]

Stick to your personal contacts. Anything else would be unethical....they belong to others.

 

[patdaly]

Simple, just send an Email to all those contacts you wish to keep stating it has been a pleasure working with you. Make sure you send one to your personal Email addy also, you know, just to make sure you have a copy in case.

Oops, I guess you have all the addys.

 

[waross]

I agree with Ron.
The contacts that you have personally had dealing with are your personal contacts. Keep your own copy on your PDA.
When you think about it, the contacts that are the most valuable to you are probably in the group of your personal contacts already. The others are "fishing".
Get any other contacts from the yellow pages.
respectfully

 

[rday]

Pro,

Go with your gut. If it feels like you are doing something wrong, you probably are.

Rik

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

It would only be unethical if you intend to use those contacts to steal work away from your previous employer. If you are just going to use those contacts as suppliers for your new company, what's the problem?


Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091

 

[GregLocock]

Oo, are you saying that developing a supplier list is a zero cost activity for a company? If so, why bother copying the list?

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[Ashereng]

I agree with Greg on this one.

Any list you didn't contribute to, should not be yours to take.

Any list you developed, presumably, you kept a copy in you own PDA/PC/piece of paper, and is hence yourse.

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?