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One of the issues with this is that bosses (or their lawyers) just google search for contracts, paste them into a document, and then have people sign them witho

One of the issues with this is that bosses (or their lawyers) just google search for contracts, paste them into a document, and then have people sign them without considering whether or not they are enforceable. The proliferation of these kinds of contracts also makes them less enforceable. Noncompetes are supposed to be for executives and to prevent people from sales roles from just stealing their employer's customers and bringing them to their new job. It's not supposed to prevent the sandwich guy at Arby's from getting a job at Subway to earn an extra $2/hr. Were those kinds of contracts to be enforced consistently, it would bankrupt state courts and create a lot of confusion.

chillydawg 8y ago
I doubt many places really do that. In the UK, for example, it only costs a couple hundred quid for a boilerplate employment contract from a proper employment lawyer that you can fill the blanks in on and re use for a long time. Copying and pasting a Google search contract would be insane. Then again, I'm a sane business owner so maybe I'm not qualified to comment on dumbass ones.
- j-c-hewitt 8y ago
  Nah, I know for a fact that many employers just C&P the contracts.
smelendez 8y ago
I applied for freelance work once for some sort of tech Q&A platform. It was basically answering people's one-off questions, like "how do I change my screen resolution on Windows 10" or whatever. They asked me to sign a contract with a clause saying that I'd assign them any inventions I came up with in the course of my work, sign anything reasonably related to them pursuing patents for these inventions and grant them power of attorney to do so on my behalf if I didn't do so promptly. (There was a separate copyright clause that was itself reasonable). I pointed out that the work wouldn't result in any inventions and that I couldn't possibly agree to sign future agreements or assign even limited power of attorney to them. They seemed genuinely confused at why I was objecting and wouldn't budge.

chillydawg 8y ago

I doubt many places really do that. In the UK, for example, it only costs a couple hundred quid for a boilerplate employment contract from a proper employment lawyer that you can fill the blanks in on and re use for a long time. Copying and pasting a Google search contract would be insane. Then again, I'm a sane business owner so maybe I'm not qualified to comment on dumbass ones.

j-c-hewitt 8y ago
Nah, I know for a fact that many employers just C&P the contracts.

smelendez 8y ago

I applied for freelance work once for some sort of tech Q&A platform. It was basically answering people's one-off questions, like "how do I change my screen resolution on Windows 10" or whatever. They asked me to sign a contract with a clause saying that I'd assign them any inventions I came up with in the course of my work, sign anything reasonably related to them pursuing patents for these inventions and grant them power of attorney to do so on my behalf if I didn't do so promptly. (There was a separate copyright clause that was itself reasonable). I pointed out that the work wouldn't result in any inventions and that I couldn't possibly agree to sign future agreements or assign even limited power of attorney to them. They seemed genuinely confused at why I was objecting and wouldn't budge.