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A contractor's business is based upon providing the best possible service to their clients. If you retain a contractor, you're one of their clients and any imp

A contractor's business is based upon providing the best possible service to their clients. If you retain a contractor, you're one of their clients and any improvements they make to their business benefits you. If an employee on your payroll starts a business, they're not doing so with your best interest in mind and their work's focus will change accordingly.

ryanwaggoner 18y ago
If an employee on your payroll starts a business, they're not doing so with your best interest in mind... Ah...I see. You're looking for employees whose primary interest is enriching your life, not what's in it for them. Good luck with that.
mightybyte 18y ago
Hmmm, I missed the clause in the employment contract that said "every life decision I make must be in the best interest of The Company".
Tamerlin 18y ago
That's a pretty broad generalization. I'm actually working on building a business on the side of my work, but I do my job. I focus on my own thing when I'm not at work. I also get my work done, and take time to test it. There will in theory come a time when my side efforts will require effort enough to get in the way of my regular job, which is in fact the goal, but I have the integrity to face that -- and when I reach that stage, I'll leave the regular job. If you're running a small business where everyone working for you has to put in 80-hour weeks in order to keep up with their work, then the fault is yours for your poor management -- though to be honest, I'd never consider working for you just because of your attitude toward your ownership of me. Get it straight: you don't own your employees, period. What they do when they're on the clock is your business. Everything else is not. If you can't get that through your head, you shouldn't be attempting to run a business that requires employees. That's not an opinion, it's actually law -- don't forget, we abolished slavery.
LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
If an employee on your payroll starts a business, they're not doing so with your best interest in mind and their work's focus will change accordingly. Fuck. That. Shit. Everyone is a contractor. There is no loyalty on either side of the employer-employee relationship. It is a hurtful delusion to harbor fantasies otherwise. Judge an employee on their performance. Nothing more, nothing less. What happens off the clock is none of your business. Literally.
- tom_rath 18y ago
  Good use of someone else's life-affirming stick-figure profanity! As The Man in this case, I feel totally stuck to, dude. I'm still waiting to read of even a single example of a full-time employee who is working on (not preparing for) a business of their own while collecting a full-time salary. If it's such an awesome thing, there must be dozens of examples to choose from, right? Why the silence? Because that employment arrangement does not work, and any person running their own full-time business would know why. Working as a contractor while getting your business up and running? Great! That'll work fine. Working as a full-time employee while starting a business? Doesn't work. If you walk the talk and start your own company, you'll understand why you wouldn't want to be paying a person out of your own pocket while they're going through that process.
  - LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
    The burden is on you to find evidence that an employee's work is slipping. They prima facie have zero obligation to you to justify their off-the-clock activities. Even informing you of those activities I would take as a token gesture of goodwill. In your specific case you have not given any evidence of failure to perform on this employee's part. You've projected your own insecurities onto this third party but not demonstrated any issue actually being present. If this employee's work has objectively suffered then can his ass and get on with life. If his work has not deteriorated then you've got your example right there. Sitting under your nose. Quit worrying about what this employee can or can't do. Pay attention to what he does or doesn't do.
    - 18y ago

ryanwaggoner 18y ago

If an employee on your payroll starts a business, they're not doing so with your best interest in mind... Ah...I see. You're looking for employees whose primary interest is enriching your life, not what's in it for them. Good luck with that.

mightybyte 18y ago

Hmmm, I missed the clause in the employment contract that said "every life decision I make must be in the best interest of The Company".

Tamerlin 18y ago

That's a pretty broad generalization. I'm actually working on building a business on the side of my work, but I do my job. I focus on my own thing when I'm not at work. I also get my work done, and take time to test it. There will in theory come a time when my side efforts will require effort enough to get in the way of my regular job, which is in fact the goal, but I have the integrity to face that -- and when I reach that stage, I'll leave the regular job. If you're running a small business where everyone working for you has to put in 80-hour weeks in order to keep up with their work, then the fault is yours for your poor management -- though to be honest, I'd never consider working for you just because of your attitude toward your ownership of me. Get it straight: you don't own your employees, period. What they do when they're on the clock is your business. Everything else is not. If you can't get that through your head, you shouldn't be attempting to run a business that requires employees. That's not an opinion, it's actually law -- don't forget, we abolished slavery.

LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago

If an employee on your payroll starts a business, they're not doing so with your best interest in mind and their work's focus will change accordingly. Fuck. That. Shit. Everyone is a contractor. There is no loyalty on either side of the employer-employee relationship. It is a hurtful delusion to harbor fantasies otherwise. Judge an employee on their performance. Nothing more, nothing less. What happens off the clock is none of your business. Literally.

tom_rath 18y ago
Good use of someone else's life-affirming stick-figure profanity! As The Man in this case, I feel totally stuck to, dude. I'm still waiting to read of even a single example of a full-time employee who is working on (not preparing for) a business of their own while collecting a full-time salary. If it's such an awesome thing, there must be dozens of examples to choose from, right? Why the silence? Because that employment arrangement does not work, and any person running their own full-time business would know why. Working as a contractor while getting your business up and running? Great! That'll work fine. Working as a full-time employee while starting a business? Doesn't work. If you walk the talk and start your own company, you'll understand why you wouldn't want to be paying a person out of your own pocket while they're going through that process.
- LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
  The burden is on you to find evidence that an employee's work is slipping. They prima facie have zero obligation to you to justify their off-the-clock activities. Even informing you of those activities I would take as a token gesture of goodwill. In your specific case you have not given any evidence of failure to perform on this employee's part. You've projected your own insecurities onto this third party but not demonstrated any issue actually being present. If this employee's work has objectively suffered then can his ass and get on with life. If his work has not deteriorated then you've got your example right there. Sitting under your nose. Quit worrying about what this employee can or can't do. Pay attention to what he does or doesn't do.
  - 18y ago