3 ms·

Yeah. I think a lot of people who write these contracts (or work in HR) simply never consider the idea that people would create things outside of business hours

Yeah. I think a lot of people who write these contracts (or work in HR) simply never consider the idea that people would create things outside of business hours. They don’t want to steal your fanfic or that song you’re writing or whatever. Just talk to them and make the contract look right.

j-bos 2y ago
It's a slog because at big companies anyone below a "department head" is not getting custom addendums added to their contract.
- josephg 2y ago
  Depends on the company. I've had companies do this for me. In one large company I won't name, the way we did it was to have someone with enough authority give me a statement in writing acknowledging that anything I made outside of business hours, using my own computing equipment wasn't owned by the company. That was good enough for me.
- KPGv2 2y ago
  > anyone below a "department head" is not getting custom addendums added to their contract. Nonsense. My wife negotiated modifications to her employment contract in her first job out of school. This included a diabolical adjustment to the non-compete clause that essentially made it worthless because it granted her the right to work so long as it was more than one mile away from one of the branch offices. And since two of the branch offices were more than a mile from each other, that meant she could work anywhere, since any location, including in the same building as one of the branches, was at least a mile from a different branch.
Tomte 2y ago
I‘m currently trying to get a mechanism established at my employer where developers can (optionally and voluntary) show their „private projects“ and get an official statement that the company does not consider it company property. Parallel to how the company can release inventions it does not plan to patent. It‘s not supposed to change any legal rules, but to document a usually silent agreement, if the employee wants that peace of mind. Obviously, nobody is under any obligation to show what they are doing in their private time, but especially when there can be a question if it is „too close“ to what the company is doing, it should be valuable to establish that line early and give the employee something tangible.

j-bos 2y ago

It's a slog because at big companies anyone below a "department head" is not getting custom addendums added to their contract.

josephg 2y ago
Depends on the company. I've had companies do this for me. In one large company I won't name, the way we did it was to have someone with enough authority give me a statement in writing acknowledging that anything I made outside of business hours, using my own computing equipment wasn't owned by the company. That was good enough for me.
KPGv2 2y ago
> anyone below a "department head" is not getting custom addendums added to their contract. Nonsense. My wife negotiated modifications to her employment contract in her first job out of school. This included a diabolical adjustment to the non-compete clause that essentially made it worthless because it granted her the right to work so long as it was more than one mile away from one of the branch offices. And since two of the branch offices were more than a mile from each other, that meant she could work anywhere, since any location, including in the same building as one of the branches, was at least a mile from a different branch.

Tomte 2y ago

I‘m currently trying to get a mechanism established at my employer where developers can (optionally and voluntary) show their „private projects“ and get an official statement that the company does not consider it company property. Parallel to how the company can release inventions it does not plan to patent. It‘s not supposed to change any legal rules, but to document a usually silent agreement, if the employee wants that peace of mind. Obviously, nobody is under any obligation to show what they are doing in their private time, but especially when there can be a question if it is „too close“ to what the company is doing, it should be valuable to establish that line early and give the employee something tangible.