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I have access to amazing engineering designs and calculation spreadsheets for every imaginable civil engineering project. Is it okay to take copies for use at my new job, to facilitate future project work?

Very often new hires come in with go-by documents and notebooks from their previous employers. One of my colleagues updated the specifications for a Utility using the documents from his previous job. I used to think that was wrong to do. But it is so commonplace, I wonder is it okay?

It certainly would save time. I guess that's why so many engineers do this. In fact one of my previous supervisors said take a USB drive and take whatever you want.

But it is so commonplace, I wonder is it okay?

This is a completely wrong action, and not okay in any way.

The only possible reasons that your coworkers have been able to get away with this behavior is that either their organization is not following proper ethical conduct, or the organization is not able to enforce the policies properly.

This kind of stealing of trade secrets is a cause for firing in most work environments (both existing and the fresh employer) and can get you involved in serious litigation based on how aggressively companies want to protect their IP (including engineering designs).

Moreover, its not just the static designs - if the spreadsheets contain any numbers related to your previous firm that it deems confidential, and that you carry to the next organization, you are opening yourself up to further serious charges of corporate espionage, and if this data is found on a property owned by your next company, you are opening them up for litigation as well.

For example, consider these news items - Item 1, Item - 2, Item - 3, where companies have accused past employees of being in the wrong for reasons such as the ones you mention, and have begun litigations.

No. It is not OK

I am assuming we're not talking about your own know-how and methods (ie your own toolkit) but rather the companies know-how and intellectual property.

You need to have a very careful read of this and decide if it is worth the risk.

Stealing company documents (or any other company property) is just that, STEALING.

Not only can it get you in trouble with your (by then former) employer for breaking NDAs, document procedures, secrecy acts, or whatever else the company has in place that you signed off on to impress on you to not do that (and every company I ever worked for had such), they might also go to the police and press criminal charges against you.

In fact, depending on the documents involved and where you are located they may well be legally required to report such theft to authorities.

And that includes any and all documents you prepared yourself for your employer, those too do NOT belong to you but to the company, and should be deleted from any private storage media before you leave your job (if you were allowed to have them on private storage media in the first place, not all companies allow that).

Just because you think it's commonplace (it isn't, at least not here, people here have proper work ethics and wouldn't dream of stealing) doesn't make it ok.

What is the classification of those documents?

Your company should have an information security policy describing the different levels of confidentiality used within the organization.

If they are classified as public, then you can use them.

If they are classified as internal, customer-only, confidential, secret or any other classification that means sharing of the documents is restricted, you may not.

If there is no formal information security policy or classification, you should assume that all documents are for internal use only unless clearly designated otherwise.

What other people have done with regards to their agreements with their previous employers is irrelevant. You have entered into an employment agreement with your current employer, and that includes your following the rules and policies within that organisation - and, at the very least, not stealing.

Very often new hires come in with go-by documents and notebooks from their previous employers

Is your boss aware of this? How do they react (because anything short of forgiving it is a recipe for disaster)?

Previous answers have already told you that this is wrong/a bad idea/theft.

I suspect that anyone who even has to ask this question won't listen to good advice, so here's something to protect your own self interest and hopefully persuade you to do the decent thing:

What happens if your next employer is honest? If you are lucky they will simply fire you, without informing your current employer of your theft of their intellectual property. Read that back a few times and let us know what you decide to do.