FORMS: Sharing Paperwork or Copying Paperwork, where is the line?

[CRVerdusco]

I was hoping to get some other Stage Manager's opinions, I have always been very willing to share paperwork with people through the years because I know adapting paperwork is how I formed mine originally.  Recently though, I came across the first point of someone straight out copying my paperwork.  It happened while I was out sick with the flu, the production asked me to forward my paperwork so the assistants could work on paperwork while I was gone; when I notified the company that I was coming back, I was out for 5 rehearsals, they notified me that I was being replaced because of my illness.  I have since found out that they took the paperwork my assistants had been using and gave it to the new stage manager who has started using it as his own.

Any thoughts, when is sharing, not sharing anymore?

Edit added label to subject line-Rebbe

[BLee]

Wow, the part that is hard to swallow in the story is the fact you were out for 5 days and they replaced you. Was it the nasty H1N1 or another bug that cut you down for the week? Personally with this "epidemic" as they are now calling it sweeping the nation I would think having 5 days out would be requested to prevent the whole company from getting it (we have had entire businesses and classes shut down because someone with the swine infected the entire crowd).

As for passing on the paperwork, since it is for the same production with the same company I feel the new SM is almost obligated to use the same format due to consistency issues. There is nothing more annoying than having the format, fonts, and style of paperwork suddenly change mid-production. For everyone involved it would seem more harm to change than to just stick with what they know. I wouldn't take it as a personal theft from you than the new SM deciding to do what is simplest for everyone involved. Chances are I bet they have their own templates but are choosing not to use them since he is the replacement.

I can understand being upset they replaced you so quickly and gave all your paperwork away, but the actual use of your paperwork doesn't strike me as a key issue.

[CRVerdusco]

I was out with the seasonal flu, and it was only 5 days by doctor's orders.

You make a good point about consistency, I think it was just the icing on the cake for me.  It's frustrating being removed for something that was beyond my control and I was out for the safety of the cast.

[MatthewShiner]

I always take the work I do for the theater is property of the theater, unless I some how arrange ahead of time for it not to be so.

[megf]

I agree that the paperwork should be kept in the original format you used - for consistency and clarity.

The concern here seems to be that they asked for your paperwork with the implication that it was just to get through a week without you, and it became a matter of replacing you without due notification... Sounds to me like that's more of an issue than having someone else use forms you created.

[centaura]

When I've stepped in as a replacement, my policy was to try to keep things as much the same as before - even if it was contrary to my own, personal policies.  There was a line, of course, of things that I would not compromise on - but using established paperwork was something that I would do until the show ended or season changed and I could start implementing my own style.

In some cases I've been flattered to go back some places and see them still using a form I developed, I considered it flattery that they considered what I did efficient enough to make it their standard.  But then I was taking a page from Matthew's book - I felt that most forms that I created for a theatre were then the property of that theatre, to be used in the future as they needed.

-Centaura