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Contracts you should never sign

vadimkravcenko.com

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Re: Contracts you should never sign

#231

Post by pixl97 »

thwayunion wrote: post #151
claytonjy wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you in finance? That kind of compensated-non-compete seems common there, but rare elsewhere.

A garden leave clause is literally required for any noncompete contract to be enforceable in MA [1]. Hilariously, none of the FAANG companies include a garden leave clause for MA employees. NB: giving post facto garden leave isn't enough to enforce a non-compete; an actual clause needs to be in the signed noncompete contract in order for the contract to be enforceable. My employment lawyer friend is fairly certain th…

Enforceable versus written in a contract are two different things.

The question is what is the rate of voluntary compliance in what would otherwise be an illegal contract.

Re: Contracts you should never sign

#232

Post by [deleted] »

chadash wrote: post #57

There's this HN obsession with negotiating on non-competes. Here's the problem. Say that I work for Acme Corp that makes Fancy Widgets for Bridgettes with 11 Digits and I'm hiring a software engineer. We put out the offer and give them time to respond. They come back saying they would like the offer to be $10k higher. No problem... As the hiring manager, I might already know that we have $10k leeway, or at the most,…

[deleted]

Re: Contracts you should never sign

#233

Post by CrimsonCape »

I work in an industry that is very much “at-will.”

I signed an “Employee Handbook Acknowledgement” which says “I understand and agree that the handbook is not a contract of employment, or a promise or guarantee of continued employment”

The “handbook” contains statements like “company owns all employee creations and IP ,etc etc etc”

It’s ambiguous enough to seem to apply to side projects.

What is your opinion of this? Sounds like they want their cake and to eat it, I can’t see how this is legally enforceable.

Re: Contracts you should never sign

#234

Post by Asooka »

mkl95 wrote: post #107

Noncompetes are mostly bullshit in the EU. Startup lawyers know the CEO has read too much SV literature so they write down that clause to make them happy. "Everything belongs to your employer" clauses seem scarier to me although I have never seen them enforced either. But if you are making your employees sign those you should know it will likely kill their motivation to work on side projects, which will make them les…

Oh for sure. I just keep any ideas I have in my head and not tell them to anyone (inside or outside of the company).

Re: Contracts you should never sign

#235

Post by whatshisface »

johndhi wrote: post #177
whatshisface wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are still right about EULAs. The terms and style of negotiation are "we do what we want and change things when we feel like it, and you check accept or stop using the software," and guess what that implies about using the software - they do what they want and change stuff when they feel like it and you accept it or stop using the software. Contrast that to the open source pattern of making the license a header i…

I agree that, from the user perspective, I'd prefer if all of the software terms and EULAs I sign online were more favorable to me. But I think it's a major overstatement to say you'll save yourself a headache by not agreeing to one-sided terms. They are literally everywhere. This very website we're posting on right includes these terms in its terms of service: We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change…

>They've told you how they do business the first time — believe them the first time.

I'm agreeing more with that than the idea that there are no good nonmutual commercial interactions.

Re: Contracts you should never sign

#236

Post by jmugan »

Everybody talks like they have a lawyer just sitting outside on their patio and all they have to do is give them a couple hundred bucks to look over a document here and there. How does one find a lawyer that will work piecemeal like that?

Re: Contracts you should never sign

#237

Post by dustingetz »

chasing wrote: post #137

Treat contract negotiation as a trial run for your future relationship: Do they try to slip nasty stuff in there? Do they do stupid shit? Do they refuse to answer questions clearly? Is it a hassle trying to get them to make modifications? Are things vague, open to too much interpretation, or missing key information? How someone behaves during contract negotiations is an indicator of how they'll behave generally. If y…

There's another side to this: corporations are not people, your champion may be a person but when they're gone next year your contract is with the corporation, and the only "behavior" you can expect is for it to optimize future cashflows. Do you want the money or not?

Re: Contracts you should never sign

#238

Post by dgb23 »

jmugan wrote: post #236

Everybody talks like they have a lawyer just sitting outside on their patio and all they have to do is give them a couple hundred bucks to look over a document here and there. How does one find a lawyer that will work piecemeal like that?

Most are teams right? And they go through stuff in bulk just like everyone else?

Re: Contracts you should never sign

#239

Post by dustingetz »

jmugan wrote: post #236

Everybody talks like they have a lawyer just sitting outside on their patio and all they have to do is give them a couple hundred bucks to look over a document here and there. How does one find a lawyer that will work piecemeal like that?

https://www.upcounsel.com/, "working piecemeal like that" is exactly what most lawyers do

Re: Contracts you should never sign

#240

Post by jmugan »

dustingetz wrote: post #239
jmugan wrote: post #236

Everybody talks like they have a lawyer just sitting outside on their patio and all they have to do is give them a couple hundred bucks to look over a document here and there. How does one find a lawyer that will work piecemeal like that?

https://www.upcounsel.com/ , "working piecemeal like that" is exactly what most lawyers do

Yeah, this is what I was looking for. In the past, Google searches have showed up with nothing. There wasn't a good way to hire someone for a small amount of work. Bookmarked!
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