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Total Members Voted: 13

Voting closed: December 11, 2005, 11:28:20 pm

[slink]

I figure maybe some of you have interesting perspectives on this situation I find myself in. Some of you are the lawyerly type, some have done the whole freelance/self employed thing, and many of you partake in the creative side of things. So I look for advice.
I'm here to pick brains. It's what I do. A lifetime obsession with the zombie arts (I was Juillard trained) pay off...

I have just been supplied with a contract of emplyment at work. This is several months after they employed me with a verbal agreement (March). Now, this is a job I have been hating for a couple of months now. My friend who got me the job and I was working with has been on extended sick leave due to bizarre brain issues, and the job has been going downhill with me as the only employee in the field. I've been doing web design for them, putting together various sites for clients, without any appraisal from my employers. I was just left to it.
They've since decided that we should be throwing simple sites out the door fast and efficient, ignoring issues such as w3c compliance and how long it takes to set up merchant accounting for a customer and the like. I am unable to do my job to the best of abilities due to management. But then I guess that's what work's about.
So, these contracts turn up, with many many offensive addendums. Right to search us or our vehicles randomly. No sick pay for Mondays. No headphones (and remember I code all day). And, probably pretty normal, but niether I nor my partner would be able to set up a competing business within a 20 mile radius of work (where I live) within 2 years.

You see, I kind of want to leave and do just that. I want to do web design on my own terms, and properly. I want to have time to make music and write and do something that way. I want to do what I want to do.
I also have a couple of ways of making some money if I leave. A big database job that would keep me going for 6 months. A couple of online ventures, that kind of thing.

So, my question to you. What do I do? Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated, although I left it late, and have only a few days to really make a decision as to whether I sign away my rights to business and stay there a couple more months, somewhat limiting my opportunities, or do I walk out Jerry Maguire style and utterly fail to have a cute girl walk with me...



Side question: If I leave based on the terms of the contract, it would be understood legally, that I did not agree to those terms, and thus am not bound by them? I just want to be doubly sure before I go making a rash decision.

[wombat]

Leave!  No sick pay for Mondays?  No headphones?  Restrictions on using your skills if you leave? And you think the work sucks?  And you have an alternative that will last you six months?

I don't think this is even a choice.  What is the argument for staying? The only possible argument might be job security but I don't buy it.  It's not like you can even be sure this job will last longer than the six month alternative, seeing what jerks your employers are.  And if they do fire you they've put a limit on what you can do to make a living afterwards.  It seems riskier to stay than to leave under those circumstances.

[V-Adore]

I have to agree with Wombat here. Those restrictions are total bullshit; unless you truly love the job, you should never work anywhere that restricts you that strongly. When you hate the job anyway and have other options for surviving until you can do your own thing... walk.

[Bozack]

Do it, Doug.

[Choop]

Ditto Wombat, VA, Ash, and Bozie. The smartest thing I could have done professionally (and didn't) was to begin contracting, formally, incorporated, in 2002. I left a job I hated [because of a problem (with mgmt.)], was damned good at what I do, and had the opportunity to move out of town. Instead, I quit and moved, and took a different shite job. Which paid me nothing, and made me hate so much what I am so good at and what I love to do that I tried a completely (radically) different industry that I couldn't stay happy professionally, because I wasn't good enough to play that market.

Since then, I've incorporated and contracted and only known that two weeks' work was good for two weeks' pay, and that's all the job security one can have in IT recently anyway. Plus, I'm making better money than I've ever made, and am as happy in my job life as I am in my home life (I'm a fuckin9 happy cat.)

Take the 6-mo. db position, and scrap these fuck*rs that want such control over your career. You're design, they're e-commerce or some shit. They should have no hold over you. Don't let them.

[Doc]

I am nought but a naieve uni student but I would drop that job like so much week old giraffe for all the reasons already listed. It's a shit job, they are making it impossible to do your job and making it impossible for you to do it on your own after you leave, in my limited experience this sounds like the sort of thing that leads up to people getting fired anyway, making the situation even worse for those who remain. You have other options my man, take them before it's too late.
I would set fire to that contract in front of your boss. It will be the most wonderfully cathartic experience of your life, you will be able to tell that story for years to come.
Maybe in a dust bin or something though. Don't want it to be a fire hazard.

[slink]

Thanks guys.
I guess I will be leaving then. There are things about the place I'll miss. Mainly the staff, not management. I really get on with some of the people who work there (most of) and will miss that. It's nice seeing people day in, day out when you work for a company. But I can't justify that and a steady income for the amount I hate my job now and the fact that there are more important things to me I have to try and achieve.

So, like I say, I guess I'll be moving on.
Has to be said, no one else has signed the contract yet, and all are refusing to until it is improved, so I shall probably hang on while that is in dispute, but then leave before I would have to sign it. An extra week or two's cash and all.

[Doc]

Leastways now you know who to blame if you do end up in box-city, but somehow I do not see this in your future.

[JorgeFabregas]

What the hell kind of people drew up the contracts? I'm not anything like a lawyer, but I doubt their lawyer is saying "You know what, put in no sick days on Mondays and you better be able to search their cars, too. There's no telling what might come up." Someone is really paranoid, or had a really bad experience with an employee, and laced that thing with all kinds of ridiculous provisos. For contract work I think, at least, "no business involving our clients for a couple years after you leave" is pretty standard, but establishing that you can't set up any business at all seems ridiculous.

[wombat]

Leastways now you know who to blame if you do end up in box-city.

Yeah, I guess we'll all have to chip in if Slink's bank account runs dry... but dammit, it will be worth it to watch him stick it to The Man.

[CortJstr]

My current job (at a non-profit) has a "no expectation of privacy" clause that let's them search our cars if they're in the lot. It also allows key-loggers and phone calls to be recorded for quality assurance. We also need a doctor's note if we miss more than 3 days counting weekends/holidays.

[AlohaDawg]

Get out of there.

Your happiness and health is way more important and you aren't old.

Did you actually sign the contract? If not, I would redline it and give it back to them - strike out the offending clauses, add that you can in fact wear headphones and be ill on a Monday, even raise your pay - just make it clear that you are not happy with the terms but that if they feel like they need you around, they aregoing to have to be flexible.

Then, if/when they refuse your terms, split. At that point you won't be bound by anything (and particularly the noncompetition clause).

IF they do accept the terms, hurray, they're your terms! just be sure that when they mismanage their business at the expense of customers (like the issues you mentioned) it's clear who's accountable.

Or, just split - that is the easiet and if you are comfortable with your options, certainly a better option.

[jough]

If you're thinking of splitting anyway, and are ready to just walk, then you have nothing to lose by re-writing the contract to your favour.  That's what a contract is - an agreement between both parties as to what's expected of EACH party.

If they're expecting you to make some concessions, then you should expect the same of them.  No headphones at work - no problem.  But you want them to pay for your petrol.  No paid sick days on Mondays?  No problem.  You want every other Friday off (paid).

It's all about give and take.  It sounds like they want to just take, but that's silly of them.  They are silly people to expect that of you.

[Doc]

They are silly people to expect that of you.

This is in fact exactly how you should put it to them if they question your negotiating.

[pmcd9]

Why isn't this in People and Places?  Just wondering because I am going to start a similar thread about my situation, but i'm going to do it over there.

~Paul