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I work at an engineering company where we do circuit development. I was handed the task of laying out the circuit board, tracking everything up, placing components etc on a very small PCB. To fit everything I had to start from scratch over a few times, it was a real headache of a job. The editing time the software shows it near 50 hours to complete.

Once completed, I submitted the work to a senior engineer who double-checks things before we order the circuits. Without saying anything to me, he then goes and started editing things, minor things, shifting a component 0.1mm for no reason. Things that do not affect the performance of the board at all; less than an hours work easily. A couple of weeks go by, we get the boards in an we are looking at the layout again, and I see that hes gone, when no one is looking and changes the 'drawn by' on the drawing to his name. We have revision history tab on our drawings where he should of added his initials and date when editing, but no he changed the entire drawing to his name.

Now it's only a name on a drawing, but after all that work I feel slightly disrespected and discredited by it, but he has more clout than I do so I'm not sure what to do or just leave it? I spoke to a friend at work and apparently hes done to same to him as well.

Curious Diode
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  • Hi Ddiode, that sounds really frustrating. What advice are you looking for here? Questions that don't have a clear goal are usually closed on this site. Can you edit yours to make your goal clearer? – Player One Nov 08 '19 at 15:20
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    your question might be a duplicate of https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/76680/colleague-taking-credit-after-refactoring-my-work?rq=1 and questions about kill-stealing and bullying are fairly common. It might help the question to come up with some approaches discussed in those other questions – Borgh Nov 08 '19 at 15:21
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    Quick, perhaps naive question - is this the kind of task which requires a professional engineer to sign off on, or is the "drawn by" just a vanity thing? – dan.m was user2321368 Nov 08 '19 at 15:23
  • No, it doesn't need professional sign-offs, we just design, order and test. However, the ordering part is company money so we have procedures to make sure we are not wasting it. Names on drawings are the signature of our work, you could say vanity. – Curious Diode Nov 08 '19 at 15:29
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    @ddiode does your boss know who did the work? – Lumberjack Nov 08 '19 at 15:35
  • He wasn't too involved, but obviously, as time has gone by no one will know wether this is a new drawing with development or that it's my one with someone else's name on it. This document will stay in the project folder and be a serious reference point for the next 15 years for our repair teams so having our name on it does mean something. – Curious Diode Nov 08 '19 at 15:41
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    Possible duplicate of Handling Credit-takers – gnat Nov 08 '19 at 15:59
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    @sidA30 Did you talk about it with him ? It might just be an honest mistake – user3399 Nov 08 '19 at 16:18
  • Why is there a "drawn by" field on the drawing in the first place? – sf02 Nov 08 '19 at 18:06
  • @sf02 part of tracabilty.. control, and some drawings have “revised by” with dates and notes of changes – Solar Mike Nov 09 '19 at 21:43

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so I'm not sure what to do or just leave it?

Leave it, there is nothing constructive you can do about it that is guaranteed to end well for you. Plenty of things can potentially end badly for you though.

Save your ammo for winnable battles with a clear objective and positive result set, don't enter into conflicts without even knowing what you want the outcome to be and whether it's worth the potential ongoing issues that conflict can create.

It's just a name on a drawing, it's not your drawing, you don't own it, so don't worry about it.

Kilisi
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    Sadly, it’s about respect and if you don’t get the credit you are due, then many can think you are useless... – Solar Mike Nov 08 '19 at 17:05
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    Na... save your ammo for winnable battles with a clear objective and positive result set.... this is just whining over a triviality with no clear objective or goal. But plenty of potential ongoing problems – Kilisi Nov 08 '19 at 17:11