Employment Contracts: A Pre-Flight Safety Checklist for Engineers

RE: Employment Contracts: A Pre-Flight Safety Checklist for Engineers

tcottle — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:43:30 GMT

After reading "She just looks for places where parts of the ungreement unfavorable to me maybe contrary to statute or case law or "unconscionable" I was pretty sure that I did not understand the meaning of unconscionable.

Excellent Wikipeda article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconscionability

Thank you Internet!

RE: Employment Contracts: A Pre-Flight Safety Checklist for Engineers

DAB — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 22:34:54 GMT

Hi Dave,

Excellent Post.

I know that the "contract" is probably an engineers least favourite task and is therefore the least understood. Unfortunately, it is also the most important task on the list. Especially if you are a consultant or a contract engineer.

I totally agree about all of your points about knowing exactly what you will do, what you get paid and when do you know when you are done. I would also add to this list to include "Absolutely No Change Is Free!" Most people or companies hiring engineers and consultants like to inflate your requirements slowly, get you to agree verbally, then refuse to pay because it was not in the contract. Your only correct response to these requests are "Give me a list of what you want and I will price it out for adding to the contract!" QED. Do anything else and you will get burned.

Also, if you are buying components for the work out of your own money, make sure you add a materials handling fee to your contract. Also make sure all bills are paid in 30 days after submission.

I know this stuff sounds boring, but if you want to fly on your own, you need to learn this stuff before you begin, not on the job.

One final note, get yourself a lawyer to review all contracting documents. Include the cost in your fee. A good lawyer can save you a lot of grief later.

I hope this helps.

DAB

RE: Employment Contracts: A Pre-Flight Safety Checklist for Engineers

gervasi — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:02:39 GMT

I approach this negotiation like Dave Young: Two people sit down and work out on paper exact what each one promises to do and no to do. The idea is you could bring them back to that room if you think they're not doing their part of the agreement.

My wife is a Madison Estate Planning Attorney with a different outlook. I've shown her disputed contract and explained we sat down and shook on this deal. She just looks for places where parts of the ungreement unfavorable to me maybe contrary to statute or case law or "unconscionable". She may pick on portions I really stand by, but once an attorney is involved she is looking to win, not to get the parties back to what they were thinking and feeling at the outset. So work hard to see eye-to-eye in disputes. I try to see their side. But I'm candid about my views. I don't worry about comming off curt because the next step is lawyers.

RE: Employment Contracts: A Pre-Flight Safety Checklist for Engineers

gervasi — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:44:27 GMT

The people you're dealing with should respect you for freeding the contract. Taking the contract as a binding document and thinking it through shows interest than someone just signing where the check marks indiciate. Showing intrest helps show the other party that you don't see this as a burecratic step but instead as an agreement where each party is promising to do certain things and not to others. If you're inclined to keep your promises, you need to read what your promising.

You have the max negotiation power after the company wants to hire you but you haven't signed officially yet. It is much easier to fix at this point. If they don't want to hire you because you can't promise all of these things that many people don't even read, it has been an inexpensive way to learn this isn't a company where you want to work anyway.