Posted on 11/04/2007 1:13:02 PM PST by lafroste
Hi all. I would like to solicit some advice. My employer of four months is reneging on the terms of my employment. I made full disclosure during my interview process, but they are claiming internal communication errors between HR and the hiring executive. I have technical expertise that they want, and they are trying to beat me up to get the info. They are a very large multi-national. They want me to violate existing contractual obligations, and are threatening dire legal consequences if they don't get their way. Any freepers want to help a david slay a goliath?
2) You are bound by your contractual agreements that pre-existed your employment. Your employer cannot sue you to force you to perform an illegal act (well, he can, but he's unlikely to prevail).
3) The most he can do is claim that he honestly thought that he would get unencumbered access to your knowledge, and demand refund of any signing bonus and terminate your employment. That is, if you are unable to document that you fully disclosed what you could or could not reveal
4) All that said, even if you are entirely in the right, a sufficiently bad outfit can pile lawyers on you until you are bankrupt, which brings me to my final point:
5) get a lawyer
Your choice is basically between money or integrity.
There is no third option.
Tell them you aren’t sure exactly what it is they want. Tell them you can’t do anything unless it’s in writing.
It could just be this one individual manager is trying to cover his butt over his mistake in assuming he would have full access to your head, and is himself afraid of looking like an idiot. Perhaps if his threats were known to HIS boss's boss, the manager might get canned rather than you
AFTER you have consulted with an attorney, I would suggest going as high up the company as you can and say "Look, this manager who works for you is threatening me if I do not perform an illegal act. Are you aware of what's going on?"
Yes, but I should state the monetary hit for quitting is actually relatively small, only a few tens of thousands. But to me, that is still a lot of money. What gets me mad is that despite the up front disclosure, they are still trying this Sh^t.
Good observatiom, but my boss is the COO. There are no people above him (however the situation is more complex than that).
How deep are the pockets of your previous employer, whose intellectual property your current employer wants? Your current employer might not be afraid of you, but would they be afraid of your prior employer's legal dept, since they would have an interest in dealing with people trying to get their IP?
Another piece of advice from me:
Don't be motivated to take action out of anger or revenge.
You need to be quite clear about the result you want.
Do you want to remain in the employ of the company you are working for?
Do you want to leve the company you are working for, and gets lots of money for doing so?
Do you want to humilate your company?
Do you want to invest lots of your time, lots of your money, and lots of your own psychic energy to get whatever result you seek?
In my own experience, it may be best to cut your losses, and move on.
You've obivously got a good set of marketable skills. Leave your current company -- an apparently dysfunctional, dishonest, and dishonorable firm -- and find an employer that is better.
In the end, you'll save yourself a lot of grief.
My “previous employer”(PE) is me. My PE is broke.
Above the COO are the CEO, the Board of Directors, and any Venture Capitalists who might not like to see their investments take the hit of a major lawsuit
Well, in that case, by all means give them everything they want. All the time. Forever.
Best of luck with your job issues and I hope you get some good advice, but this really should not be in “news”.
Having also had to go from having my own software company to working for somebody else, I feel your pain
However, in that case, to whom is your contractual non-disclosure obligation, a prior client? If its IP that you were hoping to retain for yourself, I could see your employer making the assumption that he would have access to all you know. If the IP was done for a client, then that client would have an issue with your employer
You need a good attorney with experience in IP and employment law
Judgmental post is judgmental.
No, the IP originated and was developed by me. My issue with my current employer is that I specifically reserved this IP to me, and now they are trying to say that it is theirs.
?
I would walk in tomorrow and clean out my desk. Do not say anything just sent an email resigning stating reasons and leave.
Now I start to understand. If it pre-dated your employment with them, they have little to stand on. However, they may choose to make handing over the IP a condition of employment, and you have the option of quitting. You could also see if they want to pay a fair price for the IP. Failing that, see if a competitor wants to buy the IP. If nobody wants to buy the IP, then ask yourself if it really has enough value to obsess over
Bubmp for bookmark
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