🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <ADLER.96Mar29011739@pulsar.wku.edu>,
Allen Adler <adler@pulsar.wku.edu> raised several good points:
>
>Before I say anything else, let me emphasize that this is a legal
>question and I am not qualified to give legal advice. I'm just
>giving my own naive and incompetent opinion in the hope that
>it will be useful. I assume no responsibilty for what happens
>to you if you take anything I say seriously.
>
>First of all, I think you have to take responsibility for what you 
>sign. The time to ask your question was before you signed. On the other
>hand, there might conceivably be details of the agreement 
>which would render it illegal or nonbinding. 
>

Oh sure, it's not that I am denying responsibility.  But the way I look 
at research has changed over the past few months, and I really hate the 
postdoc I am in right now, would like to do "something else" but feel my 
options are somewhat limited by the fact that I could be forced to give 
someone a lot of montye.  I was really asking about the experiences that 
others have had with this system.

>For example, from what you say, the agreement makes you liable for the
>money even if you become unemployed and are therefore unable to work in
>medical or health related teaching or research (MOHRTOR).
>That seems so unfair that it could hardly stand up in court.
>
>Second, I find it hard to believe that the agreement can be binding
>without a time limit for expiration. If the agreement says that
>for the rest of your life you must work in MOHRTOR, it might be
>unenforceable.
>

Right, you incur a liability during the first year, and gradually get 
rid of it during the second; but I don't want hang around for another 16 
months until I am free to go.

>Third, if the agreement does not say how much money you have to
>earn from the work you will do in MOHRTOR, then presumably
>the agreement would not be violated if you did pro bono work
>in MOHRTOR. Similarly, if the agreement doesn't say how many hours
>per week you have to spend on this work in MOHRTOR, then presumably
>you could do it part time.
>

Sure, volunteer work may be a possibility; you have to do it 20 hours per 
week, though.

>Fourth, if the agreement does not say that while you are doing MOHRTOR
>you cannot also earn some money from other sources,
>then it seems to me that there is no reason why you can't do the
>following: get a job doing whatever you think you would like to
>do instead of MOHRTOR, but with the proviso that they leave you
>a certain amount of free time to spend on pro bono work in
>a health clinic, e.g. either as a care giver or as someone who teaches
>first aid or AIDS awareness, or in some capacity in a research
>facility. In fact, some businesses encourage their employees to
>do community service work, so you would be killing n birds with
>r stones.
>

This is what I am persuing right now.

>Finally, perhaps a closer look at the agreement would not rule out
>other kinds of work for medical research or educational institutions,
>such as administrative or fundraising work.
>
>Naively,
>Allan Adler
>adler@pulsar.cs.wku.edu


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