Mr eel
The Grim Tale of a Hideous, Ancient and Terrifying IT Contract! Aiieeeee!
I’ve had an interesting experience lately. It’s led me to reflect on a few things and if anything has made my views on a few issues a little bit firmer.
Firstly, let me preface this by saying I am bloody-minded at times and I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. Principles are pointless if you’re willing to easily set them aside. You might be convinced that they’re wrong, but that’s a very different thing to letting yourself be compromised.
Gosh, that sounds very dramatic doesn’t it? Well the truth is it’s all a bit mundane. I got offered a job which I was very interested in. I didn’t like the contract the company presented to me. I wouldn’t sign it, they wouldn’t change it. So I didn’t end up taking the job.
The particular conditions I objected to required me to gain written permission to undertake any external work. As if I would give any company that power over my life! What I choose to do in my time is my concern only and I’m not about to ask anyone’s bloody permission.
I’m told this is a common clause in IT contracts, so I should just sign it. Upholding the status quo isn’t much of an argument. The only reason it’s common is because not enough people refuse to sign it. They just suck it up.
It may be that in reality this requirement isn’t particularly onerous. After all a company might be casual enough that it’s rarely enforced. But that’s beside the point. It could be. At any point. For any reason. The clause is sufficiently broad that they could deny the right to take on work for any reason and under the contract you’d just have to turn down the work. Unless you feel like being naive, you shouldn’t assume anything that’s not written down and signed off. It’ll bite you on the bum one day.
Ostensibly this requirement is intended to deal with any potential conflicts of interest; an employer is given the opportunity vet potential external work an employee might wish to undertake and thereby has the opportunity to identify any conflict. This is based on a couple of assumptions.
One is that clauses requiring an employee to report any existing and avoid any future conflicts are insufficient.
The other is that your employees are ignorant of what would constitute a conflict and so couldn’t identify any.
That’s all pretty easy to deal with. Clearly outline what your business considers a conflict of interest and put it in the contract!
But oh and well, it doesn’t seem like this will change. I’ve been led to believe that since this type of agreement is so common I’ll have a hard time finding any other job in IT which doesn’t entail agreeing to it. Which is perfectly fine with me. I’m quite comfortable being an obstinate bastard and also quite comfortable avoiding an ‘IT Career’. I’ll just keep poking along doing things I find interesting. It’s worked out well enough for me so far 