OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
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Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#2I'm not sure how this is legal. My employer certainly could not clawback paid salary or bonuses if I violated a surprise NDA they sprung on me when leaving on good terms. Why can they clawback vested stock compensation?
Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#3[deleted]
Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#4I'm not sure how this is legal. My employer certainly could not clawback paid salary or bonuses if I violated a surprise NDA they sprung on me when leaving on good terms. Why can they clawback vested stock compensation?
My guess is they agreed to it upfront.
Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#5Submission title mentions NDA but the article also mentions a non disparagement agreement. "You can't give away our trade secrets" is one thing but it sounds like they're being told they can't say anything critical of the company at all.
Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#6[deleted]
Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#7Submission title mentions NDA but the article also mentions a non disparagement agreement. "You can't give away our trade secrets" is one thing but it sounds like they're being told they can't say anything critical of the company at all.
They can't even mention the NDA exists!
Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#8So what's open about it these days?
Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#9I'm not sure how this is legal. My employer certainly could not clawback paid salary or bonuses if I violated a surprise NDA they sprung on me when leaving on good terms. Why can they clawback vested stock compensation?
These aren't real stock, they are "profit participation units" or PPUs; in addition, the fact that there is a NDA and a NDA about the NDA, means no one can warn you before you sign your employment papers about the implications of 'PPUs' and the tender-offer restriction and the future NDA. So it's possible that there's some loophole or simple omission somewhere which enables this, which would never work for regular RSUs or stock options, which no one is allowed to warn you about on pain of their PPUs being clawed back, and which you find out about only when you leave (and who would want to leave a rocketship like OA?).
Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#10I'm not sure how this is legal. My employer certainly could not clawback paid salary or bonuses if I violated a surprise NDA they sprung on me when leaving on good terms. Why can they clawback vested stock compensation?
My guess is they agreed to it upfront.
That appears to be the case, although the wording of what they agree to up front is considerably more vague than the agreement they're reportedly presented to sign post-departure. Link to a thread from the author of the Vox article: https://x.com/KelseyTuoc/status/1791584341669396560