The co-worker or subordinate that is a slacker is a large problem in any entity. These are the people that started early with the "Dog ate my homework" routine and have been at it ever since. We are attempting to establish a department devoted to foiling these characters. Its success will in large part depend on you providing anecdotes, success stories, pleas for help, suggestions to solve pleas for help and so forth. So, we need your contributions. We'll keep them anonymous.

So what do you do when a co-worker steals your great idea? Nothing, absolutely nothing. By the time your sleazy co-worker has gone public it is too late for you to do anything and anything you attempt to do will only put you in a bad light. It is an opportunity for you to show extreme discipline, whining to no one, including everyone at work, your spouse, your children, or anyone else.

That does not mean all is in vain. Hopefully you learned a lesson about keeping your ideas under wraps until you are ready to go public, widely public with them. Unfortunately, any protestation that sounds the least bit like, "But that was my idea!" will be used critically against you. At a minimum, you learned of one person you can not trust.