Key facts
- A former employee is being investigated after his ex-company filed a police report.
- The company alleges the employee stole a "proprietary analytical system" (a spreadsheet) upon leaving.
- The employee claims he built the spreadsheet from scratch on his personal MacBook and own time.
- The spreadsheet reportedly contained formulas and structure, not proprietary company data.
- The company may argue ownership because the spreadsheet was used for work operations.
- The employee had previously emailed the file from his work laptop to his personal email.
A former employee is facing scrutiny after his ex-employer filed a police report accusing him of stealing a trade secret. The employee, who posted about the situation on Reddit, claims he created a spreadsheet on his personal MacBook to streamline work processes during his 18-month tenure at a logistics startup. He states the spreadsheet was built on his own time, using his own hardware, and contained only his own designed formulas and structure, with no proprietary company data.