Failing the Startup Game at Unbabel – Take 2
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Failing the Startup Game at Unbabel – Take 2
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Re: Failing the Startup Game at Unbabel – Take 2
#2Don't take the criticism and questioning too hard. The comments on this forum is from people you barely know and vice versa.
By the way,
> The contract was presented to me on paper and in Portuguese
... given what the company does, I might have taken it as a joke.
Re: Failing the Startup Game at Unbabel – Take 2
#3> The contract was presented to me on paper and in Portuguese, 7 pages in total. The only thing I understood was the caption, 'Contrato de Trabalho'. At the time no one said anything about being able to break the contract without reasonable cause before 3 months had passed.
This is pretty appalling. I don't think the burden is on the offerer to explain the contract in full to you. I feel bad for you, but you kind of shot yourself in the foot on that one.
Re: Failing the Startup Game at Unbabel – Take 2
#4You need to find out what is in the contract you signed and get legal aid. Continuing to post on it in public is likely to be counterproductive.
Re: Failing the Startup Game at Unbabel – Take 2
#5> The contract was presented to me on paper and in Portuguese, 7 pages in total. The only thing I understood was the caption, 'Contrato de Trabalho'. At the time no one said anything about being able to break the contract without reasonable cause before 3 months had passed. This is pretty appalling. I don't think the burden is on the offerer to explain the contract in full to you. I feel bad for you, but you kind of…
Spot on.
Re: Failing the Startup Game at Unbabel – Take 2
#6[deleted]
Re: Failing the Startup Game at Unbabel – Take 2
#7[deleted]
Re: Failing the Startup Game at Unbabel – Take 2
#8> The contract was presented to me on paper and in Portuguese, 7 pages in total. The only thing I understood was the caption, 'Contrato de Trabalho'. At the time no one said anything about being able to break the contract without reasonable cause before 3 months had passed. This is pretty appalling. I don't think the burden is on the offerer to explain the contract in full to you. I feel bad for you, but you kind of…
Providing an unreadable (to the person signing) contract violates the principals of natural justice for one.
Re: Failing the Startup Game at Unbabel – Take 2
#9> The contract was presented to me on paper and in Portuguese, 7 pages in total. The only thing I understood was the caption, 'Contrato de Trabalho'. At the time no one said anything about being able to break the contract without reasonable cause before 3 months had passed. This is pretty appalling. I don't think the burden is on the offerer to explain the contract in full to you. I feel bad for you, but you kind of…
I don't know if this is common practice, but in Japan when I got an appartment for the first time, I was brought into a room where there was the real estate agent, the contract I was supposed to sign, and another person.
This last person went through the entire contract and explained in layman's terms what each section meant. Considering I'm close to illiterate in Japanese (though I could decipher enough to realise the part that says "you can leave so long as you give 1 month's notice"), I pretty much trusted the guy on what he was saying, but I imagine it's a nice service to have.
Considering that startups are often talked about like a sort of second family sense, the fact that some sort of deception happened on the employment contract is good cause to not want to ever associate with such a startup.
If the founders knowingly presented a contract that he couldn't possibly understand without an explanation, then this seems to be an abuse of trust, plain and simple.
Re: Failing the Startup Game at Unbabel – Take 2
#10IANAL, but if you didn't understand the contract, chances are its not valid.
If labor law is like in France, this could mean that your employment is assumed to be of the indefinite variety (since no valid contract dictates otherwise), and your firing could be illegal. In France this means they could owe you 6 months of wages.
This is Portugal, so some EU directives might cover a similar concept, and you could be entitled to a little settlement on the issue (granted French labor law is pretty intense, so your results may vary).
Anyways, a lawyer would be good. If you have any portuguese friends with good google-fu (or knowledge of employment law) they might be able to at least smell test this path.