I totally respect that stance and I wish it was more widespread. Just speaking from my own experiences – I’ve been presented 2 or 3 very unreasonable contracts that I renegotiated and the employers were fine to work with. I think the non-compete clauses were there out of their own insecurities about competitors rather than any intention to screw me over. I can’t know that for sure, but at the end of the day the only thing that matters is it was all out of the contract before I signed it.
In business, a lot of people like to play hardball. Doesn't mean they’re all assholes. Taking them on and negotiating mutually agreeable terms can be a good outcome in itself. It’s a very useful skill to have.
>In business, a lot of people like to play hardball. Doesn't mean they’re all assholes.
Playing negotiation hardball with somebody who is potentially reliant upon you to put a roof over their head and food on the table makes you an asshole. Let's stop pretending that it doesn't.
It's entirely different to negotiating a 20 million dollar exit.
If I'm going to be paid a LOT of money I might consider some of these terms (> $250k), but generally I find anyway that the more the employer pays you the more reasonable they tend to be.
In business, a lot of people like to play hardball. Doesn't mean they’re all assholes. Taking them on and negotiating mutually agreeable terms can be a good outcome in itself. It’s a very useful skill to have.