Terms of employment regarding other work

Ted001

Hi all,

I am working in a management position in an accountancy firm in Dublin earning sub €50k p.a. There is no annual bonus, recognition of overtime etc. so your base salary is all you get for the year.

My terms of employment preclude me from taking up any other work or profession unless it is agreed in writing by the partners. Although nothing has come to fruition yet, I am considering a number of business ideas/opportunities both personally and with family members.

I do not want to be in a position where a firm can pay me a relatively modest salary and dictate what I do 24/7. I also do not want to be in a position where I have to inform them of any or all of my plans and have them dissect them before deciding if they will give the go ahead.

I am obviously aware that in any case I would need to inform them of any plans which may be connected to or impact on clients of the firm.

Are these kind of terms standard in many jobs? Am I or are they being unreasonable?

davo10

Did you agree to those terms and conditions when accepting the job and signing your contract of employment? And, which is more important to you, your job on the side or your current job? If the T&c's are unreasonable, have you considered looking for an accountancy job elsewhere which pays more?

silent_spark

I think it's common enough - possibly relating to the Working Time Directive, as well as potential conflicts of interest.

Ted001

davo10 wrote: »

Did you agree to those terms and conditions when accepting the job and signing your contract of employment? And, which is more important to you, your job on the side or your current job? If the T&c's are unreasonable, have you considered looking for an accountancy job elsewhere which pays more?

There is no contract. There was an offer letter which specified that I would be bound by the standard terms and conditions of employment upon joining and that a set would be provided upon joining. They were provided 6 months later. I never asked for them as I assumed they would be standard and not be this restrictive!

The current one is important to me but the ability to do something on the side is too as I have a serious drive to run a successful business.

Yeah I probably should start looking around - just trying to get a feel of whether this is standard as it wasn't an issue with my previous employer.

davo10

Ted001 wrote: »

There is no contract. There was an offer letter which specified that I would be bound by the standard terms and conditions of employment upon joining and that a set would be provided upon joining. They were provided 6 months later. I never asked for them as I assumed they would be standard and not be this restrictive!

The current one is important to me but the ability to do something on the side is too as I have a serious drive to run a successful business.

Yeah I probably should start looking around - just trying to get a feel of whether this is standard as it wasn't an issue with my previous employer.

How long are you working there? Did you object to the "restrictive" clause when you recieved the T&c's of employment?

Ted001

davo10 wrote: »

How long are you working there? Did you object to the "restrictive" clause when you recieved the T&c's of employment?

I'm there 1.5 years now. To be honest it was handed to me one day when I was running out of the office so I put it away. I read them a few weeks later and noted this clause but done and said nothing regarding this since.

Mrs OBumble

silent_spark wrote: »

I think it's common enough - possibly relating to the Working Time Directive, as well as potential conflicts of interest.

This.

And also health and safety: as employers are being held liable for the effects of workplace stress, they become motivated to identify and reduce outside sources of stress in your life. The best way to ensure those sources aren't work-related is to remove the other work.

That said, any contract I've had here hasn't been as restrictive as yours: I'm not allowed to do anything which may directly or indirectly compete with my employer, but haven't yet had a T&C which says I need their permission.

TBH, in your situation I would be looking for another job. 50k isn't a large enough salary to warrant that type of restraint. That said - if you're asked why you're looking for a new job, don't say "so I'm allowed to have a side gig" !

seamus

This is generally an ass-covering exercise in many respects.

Your employer can't really dictate what you can and can't do outside of the office, provided that what you do doesn't bring the company into disrepute.

So if you're an accountant who runs a weekend car repair service, there's basically nothing they can do about it, regardless of what your employment contract says. No court would uphold a clause which dictates that an employee cannot do unrelated work outside of work.

The main issue is that most people doing work outside of work, are going to be doing roughly the same kind of work.

So an accountant will probably be doing some kind of nixers doing book-keeping or serving as a company director or providing financial advice. Aside from potentially being in competition with your employer, there is also the risk that you may use inside information to benefit your clients, and you may bring your employer into disrepute. Although you would be operating as a sole trader, your clients would still know that you're employed by <big firm name>. So if you do something that lands you in hot water, your employer's name will get dragged into the mud regardless.

And lastly, keeping the two business strictly separated is relatively difficult. You will answer emails while working for your real employer, and you may use their equipment (laptop, phone) on evenings and weekends.

The clause which requires partners to approve outside business is just so the company can get some oversight to ensure that you can't hurt them.

Ultimately there are plenty of ways around it anyway. No reason why you can't start working on building something and if it starts to grow legs, at that point you either declare it and have it signed off, or you quit and work on it full-time.