It's interesting that employee agreements have evolved somewhat over the years. The first employee agreement I signed with Digital was pretty much unenforceable because it was too broad. The one I signed when I came back in 1996 was much more sensible. It basically said "The software you work on for the company belongs to the company and what you do on your own time is yours (provided you don't steal your ideas from the company's software). There are 'no compete' contracts that tend to be unenforceable as well. They try to prevent you from earning a living in your area of expertise for years after you've left a company. They also don't stand up in court.
-Alex ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Iadonisi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Greater New Hampshire LUG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 4:35 PM Subject: Re: Are American high tech workers obsolete? > On Tue, 2002-08-13 at 14:33, Hewitt Tech wrote: > > [snip] > > > This probably doesn't matter when a disruptive > > technology is in progress but it seems to me that the real assets of most > > high tech companies are there employees. > > [snip] > > Absolutely! I have often said that the absolute most valuable asset > any company has (particularly in tech companies) is an asset it doesn't > own -- its people. Of course, that's why in this field we're all > coerced into signing employee agreements that give up rights to our own > grey matter. The big time investors (not all of them, just those who > are clueless about technology) spurred on by their lawyers have to have > *some* way of extracting value from the people that actual *build* the > companies in question so that they can be expendable. > In reality, ideas have little value without A-player teams to make > them work. Any VC or private large sum investor who doesn't understand > this, deserves any big losses he incurs as a result. Read some of > startup.com's principles (if they're still around ;-)). Startup.com > won't sign NDA's. Why? Too many ideas are too similar, no matter how > unique those who have them think they are. How do you keep all those > ideas separated in your head? You can't, really. Startup.com basically > believes that it's the *team* that makes a great company and is what is > needed to make an idea work. Though startup.com and companies like it > may not be all that 'hot' today, we'd all be better off if at least that > idea caught on a little more in this society. > > -- > -Paul Iadonisi > Senior System Administrator > Red Hat Certified Engineer / Local Linux Lobbyist > Ever see a penguin fly? -- Try Linux. > GPL all the way: Sell services, don't lease secrets > > _______________________________________________ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss > _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
