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>there's the goodwill of the owner of Squad who had the foresight to invest in his employee and his employee's skillset Sure if you ignore the whole once Squad

>there's the goodwill of the owner of Squad who had the foresight to invest in his employee and his employee's skillset Sure if you ignore the whole once Squad realized they had a cash cow they treated the developers like shit until they all left. Companies investing in skill sets generally try to keep their cash cow men around.

ryandrake 7y ago
It’s an interesting example to bring up next time one of those HN threads pop up about “Should I work on a side project while still working for my employer?”
- StavrosK 7y ago
  I don't understand how the answer to that question can be anything other than "fuck yes, if you want to", though.
  - rl3 7y ago
    >I don't understand how the answer to that question can be anything other than "fuck yes, if you want to", though. Sure, but it probably makes sense to first have a reasonable, flexible, non-draconian invention assignment agreement in place—even if you don't think the side project will be worth anything.
    - Rapzid 7y ago
      Depending on where you live it might not even be enforceable either implicitly or explicitly due to local laws if all resources are employee owned(time, equipment, etc etc).
      - ChickeNES 7y ago
        Yup, that would be illegal in Illinois for sure
    - cableshaft 7y ago
      Ideally, but even if not, just work on it and don't release anything about it until you quit the company (preferably with a bit of a buffer for deniability sake). I wouldn't normally advocate for this behavior, but these draconian rules shouldn't be so commonplace to begin with, and also companies shouldn't be able to control what you do in your free time.
  - LoSboccacc 7y ago
    > anything other than "fuck yes, if you want to" ownership transfer clauses. some are in the fine print, some are directly in the standard contracts i.e. Italy has these in the C.C.N.L., no way to avoid them, so you can't cash in a side project, you need first to severe your employment contract.

ryandrake 7y ago

It’s an interesting example to bring up next time one of those HN threads pop up about “Should I work on a side project while still working for my employer?”

StavrosK 7y ago
I don't understand how the answer to that question can be anything other than "fuck yes, if you want to", though.
- rl3 7y ago
  >I don't understand how the answer to that question can be anything other than "fuck yes, if you want to", though. Sure, but it probably makes sense to first have a reasonable, flexible, non-draconian invention assignment agreement in place—even if you don't think the side project will be worth anything.
  - Rapzid 7y ago
    Depending on where you live it might not even be enforceable either implicitly or explicitly due to local laws if all resources are employee owned(time, equipment, etc etc).
    - ChickeNES 7y ago
      Yup, that would be illegal in Illinois for sure
  - cableshaft 7y ago
    Ideally, but even if not, just work on it and don't release anything about it until you quit the company (preferably with a bit of a buffer for deniability sake). I wouldn't normally advocate for this behavior, but these draconian rules shouldn't be so commonplace to begin with, and also companies shouldn't be able to control what you do in your free time.
- LoSboccacc 7y ago
  > anything other than "fuck yes, if you want to" ownership transfer clauses. some are in the fine print, some are directly in the standard contracts i.e. Italy has these in the C.C.N.L., no way to avoid them, so you can't cash in a side project, you need first to severe your employment contract.