Comment by waterlesscloud
16 years ago
Isn't the headline offer he's talking about, which he goes into at the end, really just a very standard clause in a layoff agreement?
16 years ago
Isn't the headline offer he's talking about, which he goes into at the end, really just a very standard clause in a layoff agreement?
No, it really isn't.
Not at any of the small businesses I ever worked for, where the guys at the top probably decide these things themselves.
Not at a very, very large business I worked for, where the guys at the top probably didn't know the name of anyone in my building and everything was done by HR and Legal automatons.
And not at any medium sized businesses I have ever worked for, either.
The only time an agreement like this is standard is when you know you're doing something you shouldn't be, and you know you're about to lose your legitimate influence over people who could out you, so you try to buy their silence because to you the cost is cheap.
Hmm. What I meant to get at is that the clause seemed more likely to relate to the "we didn't discriminate against you in letting you go" thing, which he also mentions. In other words, not only will you not sue us for discriminating against you, you won't go around saying we did either.
Bottom line, I think it's much more likely that he's misinterpreted the document than that they're trying to silence him.
What are they afraid of, that he'll reveal big consultancies tell clients what they want to hear? That's not really a news flash, is it?
The only time an agreement like this is standard is when you know you're doing something you shouldn't be, and you know you're about to lose your legitimate influence over people who could out you, so you try to buy their silence because to you the cost is cheap.
What country are you in? In the UK this is pure boilerplate text.
I'm in the UK, and I have never had anything even close to this proposed to me, by any employer, of any size, regardless of how happily I left.
It's only boilerplate text if you're the kind of person who also accepted the "We own copyright to everything you ever do, at work or otherwise" clause in the employment contract.
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It's pretty standard at both banks and large tech companies that when they make you redundant or fire you that they ask you to sign something similar. I'd be surprised if say Google or Microsoft didn't have something similar in their standard redundancy pay-out contracts.
I worked at a fairly large UK-based bank, and whatever I signed when I left the place had nothing of the sort.
But then again I left of my own accord, and wasn't laid off or 'made redundant', so the situation might be different then.
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