Job Security and IP (Intelectual Property)

Job Security is important when you have bills or 2 kids in college like I do.

There are two components to job security:

1. Keeping your current job
2. If you lose your job, being able to quickly get a new job

Job Security is a subset of what I call $ecurity which is stands for Money Security.

The goal isn't necessarily keeping your job but keeping a flow of money coming in that exceeds your expenses.

What is IP?

This is the knowledge you bring to the job. Companies that are successful are ruthless in protecting their IP.  What about people?

You have IP. All the knowledge you have is your IP. Should you share this? 

I'm not sure. If you're a manager you want to make it an incentive for people to share their knowledge. What if the employee wins the lottery, what would you do?

I as a rule share my knowledge. I document my knowledge and help people when they ask.  But should I always do this?

Some of the issues I help people with took me hours of hard work to figure out. Now someone comes along and takes 20 seconds to solve the same problem because I documented it for them. Now another thing to consider is that I get reviewed against my co-workers. If I help them I reduce my chance of getting the highest review. Matter a fact if I sabotage or don't help them I increase my odds of getting a high review.

What are your thoughts on this issue?