Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Fired? Speak No Evil

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

341–350 of 378 posts

Re: Fired? Speak No Evil

#341

Post by dmoney »

geebee wrote: post #109

I have serious misgivings about this sort of "hush money". In general, I'd prefer not to interfere in private contracts, but this one has such serious implications for everyone else. In particular, it can end up creating an information imbalance, enforced by the courts, that allows a certain group of people to remain "in the know", with everyone else unaware of what is going on. I read a while back about a law firm t…

> In general, I'd prefer not to interfere in private contracts...

One could argue that such cookie-cutter contracts are no longer "private" if they're presented to the employee as the industry's standard operating procedure. I don't know if such an argument would hold legal weight, but there's something wrong with an agreement where it's expected that only one side gets to decide what's being agreed to.

Re: Fired? Speak No Evil

#342

Post by jwatte »

Employees are supposed to give two weeks of notice before leaving, and employers have traditionally (?) Given two weeks severance. If that severance is now conditional, what is the converse that employees change?

Btw: whenever there is a limitation (and non-disparagement is common in employment agreements, too,) I insist it be time limited. Who knows what kinds of trolls have bought the other party ten years from now?

Re: Fired? Speak No Evil

#343

Post by jwatte »

ibrad wrote: post #207
nemesisj wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love it whenever anyone insists something "isn't a big deal" or they don't care about it that much. I will simply say that it is a big deal to me, so if it's not a big deal to them, they might as well do it my way. This works in almost all cases, or the other party has to backtrack and then at least we're negotiating on more transparent terms.

So what happens when I sign and still rant about the company. Say on my blog. The company is already struggling financially it will cost them to fight back.

But let's say you win the lottery, and a troll buys the cheap remains of the failed company. Now the troll can go after you.

Re: Fired? Speak No Evil

#344

Post by leoromanovsky »

vidarh wrote: post #211
chimeracoder wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL, but while that may be true in general, California (where the author was employed[0]) is an at-will state, and most people reading HN (in fact, most people working at startups in general) are likely to be employed at-will. AFAIK, that means that they are not entitled to any severance unless their initial contract stipulated otherwise. [0] Actually, where the company was based we don't know which employment laws…

> and most people reading HN (in fact, most people working at startups in general) are likely to be employed at-will I'm not so sure about that. While Silicon Valley particularly, and the US in general, has a disproportionate number of high tech startups, you also have some of the weakest workers rights in the world, and while I don't know the exact demographics of HN, I'm not so sure it is that focused around Califo…

wow 1-3 months of notice, that's insane.. seems impossible to let go of a poor performer.

Re: Fired? Speak No Evil

#345

Post by mrgriscom »

throwaway7808 wrote: post #334
throwaway3471 wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You said context is critical and this is interesting because a friend of mine is currently dealing with how to handle termination for a contract job (1099 not W2) they were performing. They had worked for this company for about about half a year now and every single itemized invoice, which should have been paid in X days, was paid over over 4 times X days late every time and the CEO was unresponsive to emails address…

Your friend had made a mistake. He should not have continued working without pay. There is nothing to be done here now . This CEO have an upper hand and your friend is not in a position to make any bargains. A take-away lesson - do not work without pay. (just for a reference, what nationality is the CEO?

It is further questionable whether this person could even legally work as a contractor. Depending on the level of control the company exercised over how your friend performed their duties (and "admin stuff" sounds pretty hands-on to me), the government may actually consider them an employee. In that case the company is withholding wages, which would get them in a much bigger amount of trouble.

Re: Fired? Speak No Evil

#346

Post by chrismcb »

x0054 wrote: post #338
Florin_Andrei wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to see some fairness in the matter. I will sign all the non-disparagement clauses you guys like, if you do the same. In other words, the company cannot make any negative comments about me. In general, I think fairness should be pushed way up front. Want me to give you two weeks notice? Okay. You give me two weeks notice before you "terminate" me. It's all a contract, and there are two sides to it. I don't se…

The mutual non-disparagement contract is not all that mutual. As an employee you are prevented from talking bad about the company, so you will say nothing about them. However, if you are looking for a new job, your new employer may call your old employer to check up on you. If there is a mutual non-disparagement contract at play, they will be passed to the corporate console who will tell them that so and so employee…

This is all most large corporation will do, confirm you worked for the company. So is it a red flag that you worked for a large company?

Re: Fired? Speak No Evil

#349

Post by flurdy »

chrismcb wrote: post #346
x0054 wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mutual non-disparagement contract is not all that mutual. As an employee you are prevented from talking bad about the company, so you will say nothing about them. However, if you are looking for a new job, your new employer may call your old employer to check up on you. If there is a mutual non-disparagement contract at play, they will be passed to the corporate console who will tell them that so and so employee…

This is all most large corporation will do, confirm you worked for the company. So is it a red flag that you worked for a large company?

Exactly, many large companies have a company policy that limits them to only confirm the dates and title at the company. Any further elaboration is prohibited (positive or negative) and a former colleague of my missus did get into trouble for elaborating positively in a proper reference when they had such a policy in place.

Re: Fired? Speak No Evil

#350

Post by klausjensen »

leoromanovsky wrote: post #344
vidarh wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and most people reading HN (in fact, most people working at startups in general) are likely to be employed at-will I'm not so sure about that. While Silicon Valley particularly, and the US in general, has a disproportionate number of high tech startups, you also have some of the weakest workers rights in the world, and while I don't know the exact demographics of HN, I'm not so sure it is that focused around Califo…

wow 1-3 months of notice, that's insane.. seems impossible to let go of a poor performer.

It is quite common with a 3-6 month trial period, where you can be fired with shorter notice.
Post reply on HN