Is it unprofessional to contact an employee who left for help?

The name of the pictureThe name of the pictureThe name of the pictureClash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP





.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0;







up vote
0
down vote

favorite












I am a software developer who recently left for a new employer. In my last few weeks I met with a lot of people and did knowledge transfers to help with projects I had worked on that may need work in the future. You can only go over so many things and ultimately some things will be overlooked.



Long story short, I was contacted by someone who still works there asking for guidance on an application that I had been involved in. I know I've been in a similar position before where the subject matter expert had left (albeit with no knowledge transfers) and I got a project dumped in my lap. I thought then 'boy, it would be nice if I could just contact them to get a start', but ultimately didn't do that and struggled through it because I thought it would be unprofessional. Is it unprofessional to contact someone who left the company for help?



From the other side of the spectrum, is there anything wrong with answering their questions?






professionalism software-industry software-development






share



























    up vote
    0
    down vote

    favorite












    I am a software developer who recently left for a new employer. In my last few weeks I met with a lot of people and did knowledge transfers to help with projects I had worked on that may need work in the future. You can only go over so many things and ultimately some things will be overlooked.



    Long story short, I was contacted by someone who still works there asking for guidance on an application that I had been involved in. I know I've been in a similar position before where the subject matter expert had left (albeit with no knowledge transfers) and I got a project dumped in my lap. I thought then 'boy, it would be nice if I could just contact them to get a start', but ultimately didn't do that and struggled through it because I thought it would be unprofessional. Is it unprofessional to contact someone who left the company for help?



    From the other side of the spectrum, is there anything wrong with answering their questions?






    professionalism software-industry software-development






    share























      up vote
      0
      down vote

      favorite









      up vote
      0
      down vote

      favorite











      I am a software developer who recently left for a new employer. In my last few weeks I met with a lot of people and did knowledge transfers to help with projects I had worked on that may need work in the future. You can only go over so many things and ultimately some things will be overlooked.



      Long story short, I was contacted by someone who still works there asking for guidance on an application that I had been involved in. I know I've been in a similar position before where the subject matter expert had left (albeit with no knowledge transfers) and I got a project dumped in my lap. I thought then 'boy, it would be nice if I could just contact them to get a start', but ultimately didn't do that and struggled through it because I thought it would be unprofessional. Is it unprofessional to contact someone who left the company for help?



      From the other side of the spectrum, is there anything wrong with answering their questions?






      professionalism software-industry software-development






      share













      I am a software developer who recently left for a new employer. In my last few weeks I met with a lot of people and did knowledge transfers to help with projects I had worked on that may need work in the future. You can only go over so many things and ultimately some things will be overlooked.



      Long story short, I was contacted by someone who still works there asking for guidance on an application that I had been involved in. I know I've been in a similar position before where the subject matter expert had left (albeit with no knowledge transfers) and I got a project dumped in my lap. I thought then 'boy, it would be nice if I could just contact them to get a start', but ultimately didn't do that and struggled through it because I thought it would be unprofessional. Is it unprofessional to contact someone who left the company for help?



      From the other side of the spectrum, is there anything wrong with answering their questions?






      professionalism software-industry software-development




      professionalism software-industry software-development





      share












      share










      share



      share










      asked 7 mins ago









      Developer Guy

      1072




      1072

























          active

          oldest

          votes











          Your Answer








          StackExchange.ready(function()
          var channelOptions =
          tags: "".split(" "),
          id: "423"
          ;
          initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

          StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
          // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
          if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
          StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
          createEditor();
          );

          else
          createEditor();

          );

          function createEditor()
          StackExchange.prepareEditor(
          heartbeatType: 'answer',
          convertImagesToLinks: false,
          noModals: true,
          showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
          reputationToPostImages: null,
          bindNavPrevention: true,
          postfix: "",
          imageUploader:
          brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
          contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
          allowUrls: true
          ,
          noCode: true, onDemand: true,
          discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
          ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
          );



          );













           

          draft saved


          draft discarded


















          StackExchange.ready(
          function ()
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fworkplace.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f121889%2fis-it-unprofessional-to-contact-an-employee-who-left-for-help%23new-answer', 'question_page');

          );

          Post as a guest






















          active

          oldest

          votes













          active

          oldest

          votes









          active

          oldest

          votes






          active

          oldest

          votes















           

          draft saved


          draft discarded















































           


          draft saved


          draft discarded














          StackExchange.ready(
          function ()
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fworkplace.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f121889%2fis-it-unprofessional-to-contact-an-employee-who-left-for-help%23new-answer', 'question_page');

          );

          Post as a guest
































































          Comments

          Post a Comment

          Popular posts from this blog

          Long meetings (6-7 hours a day): Being “babysat” by supervisor

          Image
          Clash Royale CLAN TAG #URR8PPP .everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0; up vote 31 down vote favorite 4 I hold a PhD in mechanical engineering with a 7 year background in self-guided, self-paced research including 2 years as a graduate level course instructor and a subject matter expert for various engineering projects in a university setting in the United States. For the last 10-11 months, I am working in a research industry in France where my task is to debug C++ spaghetti code written over a period of several years by my current supervisor. It is a team of 2: just I and my supervisor. Diurnally, I am posed with a "bug of the day" to get out of this C++ code. My supervisor generally gives me about 15-30 minutes to solve it and then accosts me about whether or not the task is completed and then rinses and repeats this until the end of the day. Off-late, my supervisor has been holding 6-7 hour long "meetin
          Read more

          Is the Concept of Multiple Fantasy Races Scientifically Flawed? [closed]

          Image
          Clash Royale CLAN TAG #URR8PPP up vote 2 down vote favorite Many fantasy worlds have multiple humanoid species (elves, orcs, humans, etc) living in the same world, in addition to that, they often have the ability to interbreed. And I can't help but question their believability... fantasy-races reproduction interspecies-relations share | improve this question edited Aug 9 at 14:46 Michael Kjörling ♦ 21.1k 10 85 161 asked Aug 9 at 13:13 Chlodio 118 6 closed as unclear what you're asking by MichaelK, Gryphon, John, Vincent, Frostfyre Aug 9 at 15:25 Please clarify your specific problem or add additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it’s hard to tell exactly what you're asking. See the How to Ask page for help clarifying this question. If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question. 3 Stack Exchange exist to
          Read more

          Confectionery

          Image
          Prepared foods made with a lot of sugar or other cabohydrates "Sweetmeat" redirects here. For the racehorse, see Sweetmeat (horse). Not to be confused with Sweetbread. This Kransekake is a traditional Scandinavian baker's confection. Confectionery is the art of making confections , which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. [1] In general, though, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories, bakers' confections and sugar confections. [2] Bakers' confectionery, also called flour confections , includes principally sweet pastries, cakes, and similar baked goods. Sugar confectionery includes candies ( sweets in British English), candied nuts, chocolates, chewing gum, bubble gum, pastillage, and other confections that are made primarily of sugar. In some cases, chocolate confections (confections made of chocolate) are treated as a separate category, as are sugar-free versions of
          Read more