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Tip: I've worked at 4 or 5 small/medium companies where I crossed this out of my employment contract before signing it, and had the hiring person initial the mo
by JohnBooty 13y ago
Tip: I've worked at 4 or 5 small/medium companies where I crossed this out of my employment contract before signing it, and had the hiring person initial the modification. I just explain that I have a number of hobby projects that I can't hand over to the company.
In my experience most companies don't even know or care that clause is in there and have no problem waiving it. Remember, employment contracts are almost always just prepared by their legal firm, and the legal firm is just copy-pasting most if not all of the contract.
You can do this with literally any clause of any contract, by the way. The other party might balk (good luck if you try it on your mortgage papers!) but generally it's much easier than you think...
- ryandrake 13y agoYour mileage will definitely vary on this one. I've tried this a couple of times, and the result was always the same: "Sign an unmodified employer agreement or go find another job."
- JohnBooty 13y agoIt doesn't surprise me that mileage can vary; I'm sorry you had to deal with unreasonable companies. Were they tech-focused companies? In my cases, they were companies where software development was necessary but tangential to what they do. For example I currently work at a printing company where I help to automate digital stuff and help drive print sales with online storefronts. I'm not even sure the owner knows what programming is other than the fact that I do it for him and it makes his stuff work. So he's not interested in owning software I write outside of work hours...