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I've seen this mentioned off hand, occasionally, by developers, not necessarily game developers. My contract where I work prohibits moonlighting, because they w

by thisone 14y ago

I've seen this mentioned off hand, occasionally, by developers, not necessarily game developers. My contract where I work prohibits moonlighting, because they want your soul (really, they even try to specify how excited I should be every day). They even got their knickers in a twist when they learned I work on my own projects and help out friends and OSS, in my own time, on my own equipment, but there's not thing one they can do about it. I've also had a friend be told that he would need to give up his personal, part time, income generating website in order to take a particular job (not here). The website business was not in competition with or even the same general industry as the job.

philbarr 14y ago
Yes, I've had this in my contract with every job I've had except my current one. My current place was set up by developers though and I think the contract reflects that. It actually specifically states that I can do stuff in my own time as long as it doesn't affect my normal work.
flyinRyan 14y ago
>My contract where I work prohibits moonlighting, because they want your soul (really, they even try to specify how excited I should be every day). Personally, I would just ignore clauses like this. I know of no examples of stuff like this ever being held up in court. At least not at our level. You might have to worry if you were an executive or something.
- thisone 14y ago
  Because I know the guys who wrote the contracts up, I know the reason this is in there. They really believe that if you are working on something then you should be working on something for them 24/7 (without overtime, of course) {long personal crap fest story here} I think these contracts, for anyone, junior, senior, or exec, are quite unproductive. Outside stimulation makes us, programmers and designers, better at what we do. If I only ever worked on work related projects, I wouldn't be able to provide the kind of input I'm paid for. The contract writers know this, when they stop to think about it, but they are very scared.
  - flyinRyan 14y ago
    I appreciate why places might do it. But it's irrelevant what they believe and slavery clauses aren't going to be enforceable even if I sign it in my own blood. What these guys really need to worry about is invalid clauses invalidating the whole document.
    - sukuriant 14y ago
      Unenforcable statements. If I were offered a job by a given company, could I go take that part of the contract to a lawyer and see if that part of the contract was not-enforceable, and then go off and work in my spare time, holding the lawyer on reserve until the day when they sued me? Because, if I had requirements like that in my contract, I don't think I could work for that company, even if I were in very real need of money. I have entrepreneal plans of my own, and they'd start out as just moonlighting.
      - flyinRyan 14y ago
        They're probably not going to try to sue you until you're making enough to be able to defend yourself.

by thisone 14y ago

philbarr 14y ago

Yes, I've had this in my contract with every job I've had except my current one. My current place was set up by developers though and I think the contract reflects that. It actually specifically states that I can do stuff in my own time as long as it doesn't affect my normal work.

flyinRyan 14y ago

>My contract where I work prohibits moonlighting, because they want your soul (really, they even try to specify how excited I should be every day). Personally, I would just ignore clauses like this. I know of no examples of stuff like this ever being held up in court. At least not at our level. You might have to worry if you were an executive or something.

thisone 14y ago
Because I know the guys who wrote the contracts up, I know the reason this is in there. They really believe that if you are working on something then you should be working on something for them 24/7 (without overtime, of course) {long personal crap fest story here} I think these contracts, for anyone, junior, senior, or exec, are quite unproductive. Outside stimulation makes us, programmers and designers, better at what we do. If I only ever worked on work related projects, I wouldn't be able to provide the kind of input I'm paid for. The contract writers know this, when they stop to think about it, but they are very scared.
- flyinRyan 14y ago
  I appreciate why places might do it. But it's irrelevant what they believe and slavery clauses aren't going to be enforceable even if I sign it in my own blood. What these guys really need to worry about is invalid clauses invalidating the whole document.
  - sukuriant 14y ago
    Unenforcable statements. If I were offered a job by a given company, could I go take that part of the contract to a lawyer and see if that part of the contract was not-enforceable, and then go off and work in my spare time, holding the lawyer on reserve until the day when they sued me? Because, if I had requirements like that in my contract, I don't think I could work for that company, even if I were in very real need of money. I have entrepreneal plans of my own, and they'd start out as just moonlighting.
    - flyinRyan 14y ago
      They're probably not going to try to sue you until you're making enough to be able to defend yourself.