🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <2691@nsc.UUCP> chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) writes:
>
>A lot of companies, unfortunately, DO have you sign your life away when you
>go on board with them. ...

True.  I was so green after working for two state governments that when I
joined Motorola (my first private company) it didn't dawn on me that I had any
other choice but to sign the agreement.  Turns out if you make a stink when
they hire you you can significantly alter it before you sign it.
>
>What you should NOT do is ignore the situation. ....

In my case though this was the correct thing to do.  Word got around that I
was writing a chess program.  A corporate lawyer called the boss claiming not
only that he had talked to me (a lie) but that the company owned the program.
My boss and his boss and his boss all agreed they would back me since Motorola
certainly is not in the business of entering chess tournaments and they
realized the irony that my chess program could win a lot of recognition
for Motorola's microprocessors.  They just told me to be discrete about it.

I don't have the exact wording but my aggreement says something to the effect
that Motorola owns anything which "is in the current or future business
interest of Motorola" even if done on my own time at home.  The trouble is,
this open-ended statement could mean that if I milked cows on my own
time and since Motorola runs its own food works I would therefore be
doing something "in the business interest of Motorola."  Pretty big hole.

By the way, even though I'm a software person I work in the division which
designs and builds chips.  If I worked in our software division (in Arizona)
then I would be standing on much weaker ground, but I would still insist that
a chess program (computer games) is not at all in Motorola's business
interest.

>                                                                .... If the
>proprietary rights agreement really does own your firstborn programmed
>child, then you SHOULD bitch, because it might give them the idea that this
>is something to be changed... Come to think of it, everyone under one of
>these silly clauses should bitch, whether or not it really applies to
>them...

This is close to what finally happened.  This lawyer had a meeting with
several programmers in the design group who frankly told him that if Motorola
was going to go around treating its employees like children the company would
soon not have any good programmers.  They also stated that what was
done at home on their own time that was not related to their job and done
without company equipment was none of the
company's beeswax.  As far as I know, the lawyer went back to his cave and
for the last 2.5 years nothing has happened and everybody's happy.

By the way, I consider that this mess was caused only because the lawyer
had nothing better to do at the time to justify his salary and I think
that he did/does not represent Motorola's attitude toward outside employee
relationships.  And our lawyers seem so behind in their work today that I
doubt there will ever be any spare time for goofing off like this in the
future.  While I'm on the subject, Motorola's president Bob Galvin has a
walk-in policy for any employee.  I have no doubt that I could have used this
method to resolve the situation as well.

Dave Trissel   Motorola Semiconductor, Austin
{ihnp4,seismo,gatech}!ut-sally!oakhill!davet