Date:         Fri, 26 Oct 2001 09:44:13 -0500
Reply-To:     greg.woolridge@TAP.COM
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Greg  Woolridge <greg.woolridge@TAP.COM>
Subject:      Re: Ask independent consultant: Should I give out the code?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Andrew,

I thought I would give my view as a manager who has contractors working for
him.

As others have stated, if you have not signed anything stating that the
code you develop belongs to the company you are working for, you are under
no obligation to turn it over to them.  The problem from the company's
point of view is that, in pharmaceuticals, everything must be validated in
some manner.  Without your code, they may have trouble validating your
output.  They may also wonder why you are refusing to turn over your code
and may ask themselves questions like:  Are his programming skills so bad
that we should not have assigned him to this project?  Has he altered the
data in some way within his programs that makes his results suspect?  Is he
just being difficult or trying to get more money out of us?

On the other hand, if you freely provide your code, and your skills are
good, they will be more willing to hire you for other projects.  Now that
you have done work for them and been completely open, you are a known
quantity.  If they hire you again they know exactly what they can expect
and are unlikely to get any surprises.  This is not the case with someone
you have interviewed for 30-45 minutes and have never worked with before.
Believe me, some people sound great in an interview, but when they get on
the job they don't have the skills they claim to have, or their assessment
of their level of skill is not the same as the assessment the manager would
make.

Ultimately, you have to make the decision yourself.  If you have nothing to
hide, I would recommend giving them at least some of the code so they will
know that you are being honest about the work you are doing.

Greg M. Woolridge
Manager, Study Programming
TAP Pharmaceutical Products Inc.
e-mail: greg.woolridge@tap.com
phone:  847-582-2332
fax:  847-582-2403