Ask HN: How do you deal with “Obligation to Keep Informed” clauses?
3 by throwaway85467 | 0 comments on Hacker News.
I'm a creative person. Not just sometimes; it's a constant aspect of my day to day life. And not just in one way; it crosses domains. Art, writing, music, and yes, programming. I don't mind a reasonable noncompete, nor a reasonable assignment of inventions ("works created on company time or with company resources"). But I'm finding it exceedingly difficult to find a job offer that doesn't include an excessively broad "Obligation to Keep Informed" clause that requires me to tell my employer, in writing, of every single idea of any kind (not scoped to the employer's business) that I think of at any time (not scoped to working hours), just in case they might need to claim ownership of it via the other clauses. How can any creative person live under this kind of blanket constraint? I may have several "ideas" every day, many of which might never get written down at all, but all of which would technically fall under the letter of these contracts. How is this workable for anybody who does personal projects with any amount of regularity? Is this clause practically unavoidable in our industry? Do I need to change career paths to escape it? I'm in Texas, for what it's worth