Resigning and oath of confidentiality?

8 comments

1. Two words: pay me.

   If it wasn’t in your original contract, they can’t do anything. If they wish for you to sign it, make them pay you full salary for the term of the contract.

2. Non-competes here are basically worthless, especially at your level and in teaching. Ask them to read the constitution, spelled out there.

3. Regarding non compete clauses:

   Breaking a rule in a contract only gives the other person the right to terminate it. Example, Costco’s membership rules requires you to let them check your shopping cart before you exit the store. If you one day decide to run past them without letting them see it, they can terminate your membership without a refund.

   Similarly, an employment contract would be subject to the same process; break a company rule, get fired. A non compete clause is a rule or terms of the employment contract. Although in that case, you are already leaving so the threat of being fired is presumably of little concern.

   Hypothetically speaking, the only time you would want to follow a non compete clause is if there is predetermined indemnity (Not legal for employment contract) or some kind of a bonus offered after a set amount of years (most companies too cheap to do this).

   Examples of predetermined indemnity:

   “Renter agrees to rent apartment for a full duration of 1 year, leaving early will result in a 1 month penalty”

   “[Insert name here] who is quitting agrees not to compete against our company or will pay a fine of 100,000 yen.” <- Again, not legal but just showing an example.

   As for confidentiality, there are anti corporate espionage laws out there so if you wilfully leak confidential information with the intention to damage the former company, then there could be consequences.

4. Wait till they give you the document, don’t sign it but just take it and tell them you’ll submit it to the Labour Standards Bureau. Teach them a lesson for trying to pull illegal shit.

5. DONT SIGN SHIT

6. There are two different things being discussed as if they were the same here: No-compete clauses and confidentiality clauses.

   No-compete clauses that prohibit you from working in the same industry for a year (or something similar) are generally unenforceable (since it would be a pretty egregious violation of your basic right to work and support yourself if they were). You absolutely should not agree to something like that, especially if this is a new thing they are introducing at the end of your employment (which they have no right to demand).

   Confidentiality clauses on the other hand – which are usually just clauses that require you not to disclose any private information, trade or business secrets, etc of your former employer are not as problematic since its basically just a promise on your part not to talk about stuff that, for the most part, you probably wouldn’t talk about anyway and it doesn’t affect your ability to work or anything.

   The above can vary quite a bit though depending on how broadly or narrowly the clauses are worded. A confidentiality clause that just prohibited you from, say, taking the personal contact information of customers from your previous employer and giving them to a rival company in the same business is, I think, pretty reasonable. But something more broadly phrased – like saying they will sue you for saying anything even remotely related to your job, like if you so much as talk about where your co-workers like to have lunch or something – would be pretty unreasonable.

7. I’ve never even had to sign resignation letters when I submitted them on my own initiative to give notice I’m buggering off.

   And a confidentiality clause at this point sounds suspicious. It should have been something they asked you to sign at the start of your employment, not at the end. What, did they realize they did/said something they shouldn’t have and now they have to keep you quiet about it?

8. It means absolutely nothing, probably worth less than nothing. This sounds like a Kids Duo tactic, is this where it’s from? It was made to scare you.