Comment by josh3736

> the company prevent you from working in any open source work, including personal ones without a written permission, and everything you do will be the company property on or off duty

PSA: If you're in California, these kinds of employment contract terms are (mostly) illegal and unenforceable.

Labor Code 2870 outright invalidates any employment contract provision which attempts to claim ownership of IP rights to anything “that the employee developed entirely on his or her own time without using the employer’s equipment, supplies, facilities, or trade secret information” unless it relates to the employer's business or results from other work performed for the employer.

Labor Code 96(k) prohibits employers for disciplining or firing an employee who engages in “lawful conduct occurring during nonworking hours away from the employer’s premises,” with an exception for contracts that prohibit conduct by the employee that is in direct conflict with the employer’s “essential enterprise-related interests.”

So blanket prohibitions are out. If you're doing something that closely relates to your employer's products/business or could be construed as a conflict of interest, that's when you should consider written permission, but a company can't say “no” unless it actually relates to the company's business.

California is relatively unique in these worker protections, and they're a big reason why Silicon Valley became what it is.