I love my job and I work for a great company, but we have some very strict internal development policies, so much so that it makes development quite slow and cumbersome, and sometimes impossible. Many requests have to be approved for very simple tasks that need to get done, and my ability to perform my job is hampered by these policies. I love my job don't get me wrong, but outside of work I have much more freedom and can produce value at a much faster rate. In fact, the approval process for using open source is much faster than building something internally.
My question is: If I were to do open source development outside of my job, would it make sense for me to then use my work for my job? Given that I go through all the proper procedures and channels of course and don't use anything proprietary that could be grounds for a lawsuit.
I have good intentions, I want to do my job as best as possible, but the restrictions inside the company are so strict that I'd be better off creating something outside and then bringing it in. Does this make sense? Could there be legal repercussions?
You need to have a lawyer review the IP assignment clauses in whatever you signed. It may be that there is no such thing as "outside of my job." They may own everything you do regardless of when or how you do it, which means their policies apply for everything, all the time.
Even a reasonable IP assignment, that only assigns ownership to the company of work that is directly related to your responsibilities, might conflict, since you'd be making an open source project to help with your responsibilities.
Talk with a lawyer.