

Employment documents that require you to violate company policy - thekonqueror
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2014/09/01/10554050.aspx

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justizin
Years ago when I interviewed at Google, upon walking into reception, I was
required to sign an NDA which stated that I wouldn't tell anyone about my
interview, and that I had not told anyone I was interviewing.

I was kind of stranded in Mountain View unless they schlepped me back to the
airport because I happened to be flat broke when they flew me out, so I just
signed it, but I consider it laughably the craziest, most paranoid, least
binding NDA I have ever signed.

Talk about Duress. ;)

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minikites
This is always good to remember. HR exists to protect the company, not as
charity to employees.

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sheetjs
Same with legal/in-house counsel.

~~~
abcabc321321123
This is something that a significant amount of people do not understand. The
fiduciary duty in this situation runs to the company not to individual
employees.

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pkaye
I seemed to have read that in such contradictions, these ambiguities are
resolved in the favor of the one who didn't draft the documents ie the
employee in this case. But i'm also surprised HR wouldn't discuss with their
legal counsel.

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walshemj
I would assume that signing a (legally valid) variation of your contract would
override the company policy - Though it is a shockingly bad oversight on HR's
part maybe the CEO ought to put the HR director and or the General Consul on a
Performance Improvement Plan.

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Aldo_MX
Couldn't you simply write a disclaimer next to your signature?

"My acceptance of the previous terms requires the following company policy to
be waived:

\- Watching pornography at work is grounds for termination."

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gav
It's interesting to me how many companies expect you to sign an employment
agreement that contains terms that you've just broken in the agreement with
your previous employer to go work for them.

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kazinator
This is silly. Seeking out and watching porn is not the same thing as
accidentally seeing porn because it arrived as spam or whatever.

With this line of reasoning you could say that when person A is caught looking
at porn by person B, both should be fired because B happened to see the same
porn over A's shoulder.

If you intercept porn and delete it, you're doing your job. If you retain it
somewhere and go back to look at it, then you're just looking at porn,
violating company rules.

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ggchappell
You are correct (except possibly about the "silly" part). But if the official
policy doesn't make that distinction, then I think there is still a problem.

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ASneakyFox
"Youre not wrong youre just an asshole"

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
I know which party I think is the asshole (the HR flack). But I'm not sure
which one you think is.

~~~
tbrake
It was a quote from The Big Lebowski. Out of context it's odd.

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/quotes?item=qt0464814](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/quotes?item=qt0464814)

