Anyone else (possibly) getting a mandatory vacation come Tuesday?

[Krill]

I have no problem with people deciding to agree on employment contracts if that's what the two interested parties decide makes sense. However, as is demonstrated by the fact that most places with competitive labor markets do NOT end up with employment contracts, there must be a reason that these impose deadweight losses of some kind. In my opinion, this loss takes the form of information asymmetry between the worker and the employer (the employer know less about the quality of the worker than the worker does). In this case, employees who insist on employment contracts will be sub-par relative to observable quality, and employers offering such contracts will face a market for lemons. Requiring employment contracts therefore raises barriers to entry by new employees, increasing the gap between those in jobs (whose quality the employer has had more chance to observe) and those out of work. This can partly be mitigated by by schemes generally in place which allow workers to be fired during a provisional period.

If the dynamics were simply "employees wish to purchase insurance through employment contracts" then you would see a lot more of them in the us and other liberal labor markets.

TBH every time I've worked for a private company (in a ****ty entry level job) the employment contracts contained such a provisional period that didn't give any protection to the employee. All that the employment contracts did was specify exactly what the responsibilities of both parties were an other benefits such as the amount of vacation time etc (which was basically the minimum required by law). I don't understand what you mean about competitive labour markets not having employment contracts, because wouldn't such contracts exist even if it's just "You get paid $X per hour you work"? Or do you mean employment contracts with clauses that affect termination of said contract?

[KrazyHorse]

I mean employment contracts which go beyond the minimum necessary to actually engage in regular work. I've signed an employment contract at both places I've worked in real jobs (e.g. not hourly or as a graduate student) but both were lightweight and acknowledged my at will status.

[Krill]

Ah k.

[pchang]

The patent ownership parts of my employment contracts really take the buzz out of my creative juices......

[regexcellent]

Why do you think we don't have guns?

You do have them. It's not even hard to get a shotgun in Britain although it is harder than it should be.

[MRT144]

It should be harder than filling your low brow maw with substandard pizza, but alas its easier.

[KrazyHorse]

The patent ownership parts of my employment contracts really take the buzz out of my creative juices......

I feel the same way about my noncompete.

[pchang]

I feel the same way about my noncompete.

Move to California. Non-competes are harder to enforce there.

[KrazyHorse]

Are you valuable enough for a company to go to court over you?

[Ben Kenobi]

The Republican Party has done more to damage the United States than Putin could have ever dreamed.

It makes you wonder who the real enemy is.

Obama? All that has to happen for the government to start right back up is for the senate to pass the house bill. That's it. The House has done their job. Now the other two branches have to do theirs.

[kentonio]

You do have them. It's not even hard to get a shotgun in Britain although it is harder than it should be.

It's not trivial. You have to have a locked gun cabinet and the police have to approve you for a firearms license. This is absolutely acceptable.

[kentonio]

You do have them. It's not even hard to get a shotgun in Britain although it is harder than it should be.

It's not trivial. You have to have a locked gun cabinet and the police have to approve you for a firearms license. This is absolutely acceptable.

[pchang]

Are you valuable enough for a company to go to court over you?

Once so far.....

[KrazyHorse]

Nice.

Individually or as part of some class?

[pchang]

Part of a few people, definitely not a class.


My side won BTW - in fact we were even awarded court costs.