This just sounds sensible. I know how companies in general like to think about this but I just don't understand that. If I had a company, I'd ask my employees

This just sounds sensible. I know how companies in general like to think about this but I just don't understand that. If I had a company, I'd ask my employees to solve problems and write software that the company needs to sell products or service. I'd pay them to do that and give them the necessary tools to do their work. When they would deliver, we would roughly be even. Now, if an employee is doodling some code of his own on the laptop given to him by my company, why would I care as long as he will do the things the company asked him to do? If he was doodling on his own laptop the company laptop would just be unused. A laptop doesn't effectively wear out because of personal use. In effect, when it comes to software engineering I would be paying for results. For reference, in auto shops the mechanics can often use the company tools and facilities for personal evening/weekend projects or repairs. That's because the shop is closed anyway and the shop doesn't consider it a loss if their employee is fixing his own car, or his wife's car, or friend's car, during after hours. I understand why companies require their employees to not do the same work for competing companies or for free. That would be like letting the employees cash in twice for the same solutions, and contributing to the competition. But trying to own what employees might do with company computers on their spare time doesn't make sense, much less trying to own what employees might think on their spare time. If such a rule is enforceable an employee who did get a profitable idea not related to his line of work would just keep his mouth shut, quietly resign and slow-start a company of his own or sell the idea to some other company. Nobody would be so stupid anyway as to invent something while being bound by a possessive employment contract, and then bring it up just to tranfer the IP to their employer for free. On the other hand, if the employer is reasonable and doesn't try to own the idea it's much less of a hassle to make a deal with them and continue with the current employer and letting both parties profit from the idea.