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Outside
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Some
employers explicitly prohibit additional employment. They
might require new hires to agree, as a condition of employment,
that any outside employment, whether or not it's related
to the profession, must be reported and sometimes even
approved by the employer. In the absence of a stated company
policy, you are expected to provide your best effort in
return for your salary and benefits, and outside activities
that interfere with that should be avoided. If the outside
work is related to your primary job, you run the risk
of competing with your employer.
Case Study: A chemical engineer, hired by a manufacturer,
signed over to his employer the rights to any inventions.
While fishing one weekend, he developed a patentable fishing
lure. Even though this extra-professional activity was
unrelated his employer's core business, he informed his
employer of his wish to patent and market his invention.
In this case, the employer provided a written disclaimer
of ownership of the invention, allowing the engineer to
proceed with his plans.
Was this formal communication necessary? In this case,
the activity was not professional, nor was there any likelihood
of competition with his principal employer. However, the
engineer took the safer, more conservative path by informing
his employer. Does an employer have any right to rule
on your activities outside your employment? Generally,
your evenings and weekends are considered your discretionary
time, and your employer should not care what you do with
this time as long as you report for work as expected and
meet your assigned responsibilities. The critical factor
regarding outside employment, hobbies, or volunteer activities
is not whether the activity produces extra income, but
whether the amount of time devoted to the hobby affects
what you owe your primary employer. |
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