111–120 of 179 posts
Employment will only be more fruitful with freedom to create and innovate. It encourages companies to pay people with skills in their field. As the country moves to project/entrepreneur based contractual employment this is actually a big issue.
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I think the reason some employers want them is because they don't want to put the effort into building up an employees skills just to have them move to a different company right when they become useful. When you are an employee under these laws, you tend to put a lot more thought into choosing a company you would be willing to stay with as long as you are interested in that section of the industry.
It's a valid concern - that by training your employees and giving them experience, you make then so valuable that they can leave. I fight this problem several ways: I turn our services into a products so that I can onboard people quickly and drive down costs - for example instead of telling each employees to setup a backup on a server, I had one employee make a script that we can deploy on all new servers. By turning…
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Cost of stuff is only important if you spend all of your money on stuff. With a tech salary, the cost of food going up 15% should be nothing compared to the rent you will save.
You think the cost of food is only 15% more? That's funny.. still not enough to offset the cost of housing in SF though. Been looking at moving out to San Jose (to work in Los Gatos, that's expensive to live in), and need to make about 75% more to offset the cost of housing and taxes than I do in Phoenix. I totally understand why some large companies would put their IT hubs in Texas or Arizona now. Relative to the co…
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It's a valid concern - that by training your employees and giving them experience, you make then so valuable that they can leave. I fight this problem several ways: I turn our services into a products so that I can onboard people quickly and drive down costs - for example instead of telling each employees to setup a backup on a server, I had one employee make a script that we can deploy on all new servers. By turning…
> I fight this problem several ways This is completely, totally, and nonsensically evil that I'm not sure even where to begin. Supposing your company hired me and I knew this was the opinion of anyone who worked in management I would be polishing my résumé my first day on the job. This is the best way to make sure that the only people working for you are mindless drones and your HR office is a revolving door rather t…
I would rather not having that kind of job prospects.
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Your problem is when someone you have a good relationship with is seduced by something hotter and sexier.
I can see why's that would be frustrating, but my employees are not "mine" - so they are free to go at any time and hence, I need to treat them well. If an employee is seduced by an offer that doesn't work out - they can (and have) come back and can bring back what they learned. One of the thing that I learned from such exits an re-entryies is that money is not always the best motivator - I used to run really lean to…
Wish NY did the same. In NY they get to own all your ideas both at work and "off the clock."
I cross/line out any portion of employment agreements that say such things... I've never had any push back about it.
(throwaway because I don't like admitting I interviewed at a hedgefund publicly on the internet.)
A company I worked for recently had non-competes and non-solicit clauses. A new employees was negotiating their contract, and I told them to push back against the NC/CS clauses. I spoke with the management and asked why they needed them, "to prevent problems" they said. I pointed out that they didn't have the non-competes for their employees in California and asked if they had problems there. They weren't aware of an…
because lawyers...
My firm's done negotiations with banks, and they all do the same vanilla business. Some have lawyers very close to the process, and some keep them at a distance. Of course there's always more back-and-forth when the lawyers are there, even though the business is the same for everyone. They try to sneak in ridiculous clauses and fight you on everything.
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> I fight this problem several ways This is completely, totally, and nonsensically evil that I'm not sure even where to begin. Supposing your company hired me and I knew this was the opinion of anyone who worked in management I would be polishing my résumé my first day on the job. This is the best way to make sure that the only people working for you are mindless drones and your HR office is a revolving door rather t…
I wasn't clear enough - by investing time and energy into simplifying our mundane services into a product, we're able to expand into more interesting projects - and we have the profitability to do charity work and blue sky work. I'm certain that there are employees that like rote work, but for me, I can't stand it and project that onto others.
> it also has the side effect of diminishing job prospects
is a good or desirable thing.
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I always found it weird when employers wanted to start a relationship entirely adversarially. I also found it weird when businesses identified employees as a significant and therefore negative cost center. Employees are life blood. If they aren't, get rid of them and get new life blood - but being so standoffish and adversarial is the antithesis of what an employer/employee relationship should be.
Just to argue the counterpoint, I prefer my employer to be up-front about the legal side. Our relationship is adversarial - mutually beneficial, yes, but also adversarial. Except for possibly in the case of a tiny company where I'm personal friends with the management, they're not going to be loyal to me in any sort of pinch. It'd be great if we could trust each other, but that's not how business works, and if I'm no…
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It's simple. Don't sign a contract with ridiculous clauses like that. Demand for good engineers is high enough that it won't prevent you from finding a job.
Most people who apply to jobs are not seen as "good engineers," they are hazed in the interview process. Meanwhile, the bank account is draining.
I would dare say it's worth going into 1-2 months of debt to work where you're respected versus staying in the black and working where you're not.