A reader writes:
A coworker recently approached me for help on a job application, and I sent over my cover letter and resume for reference. They ended up rewriting their cover letter to be nearly identical to mine, even taking my statistics on successes. Their current role helps with mine a lot, but I am not their manager (it is a weird departmental structure). Their new cover letter and resume claim managing things that I manage and takes credit for more than it should. I told them to talk themself up more in their application, but I didn’t mean for them to plagiarize my writings and my work.
Then, a few weeks back, I was approached for a role at a different company, for a job that won’t be posted immediately. The same company just posted for a position in the same department, one that matches my coworker’s current role pretty closely. My coworker said that they will be applying to this new position. I asked them to rework their cover letter, but I don’t think they will change it enough to not be suspiciously similar. Even if they do change the cover letter, they’ll still be using my statistics, and will be claiming they do much of my work, in a way that will likely hurt my future application for the other role. We’ve had a great relationship, I like them as a person and I want them to succeed, but any advice on what to do would be great.
Ideally you would have spoken up as soon as you saw your coworker’s reworked resume and cover letter and said, “Some of what’s here isn’t accurate. You can’t claim things like X or Y because those aren’t things you did — and it puts me in a tough spot because that’s work I did. You could write A or B though.” If they copied language you used word for word, you could say, “I showed you my materials to give you a sense of what these can look like, but I don’t want you copy them word for word. Can you please change this so it’s not a copy of mine?” That’s beyond reasonable to ask for.
You don’t have the power to force them to change it, but plainly telling them it’s not okay and asking them to change it might get them to, especially since you say you have a good relationship and they seem to be a decent person. They may just not realize doing this isn’t okay.
The chance to say that immediately has passed, but you can still say a version of it now. I’d frame it this way: “I felt uneasy about this initially and should said something when you first showed me, but now that we’re both applying on the same team, I need to ask you to change it so that it doesn’t mirror my materials or take credit for work I did.”
If they’re not willing to do that after being asked directly — when you have a good relationship and you were doing them a favor and trying to help — then rethink the relationship because that is not someone you should have good will toward.
