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Comment by HeyLaughingBoy | Hacker News Reader

What would you think is illegal about it? They make it clear that age is not an issue.

My thought is that it might be illegal to do consulting without your employer's approval in some places (like the US).

It can certainly be in violation of an employment contract. What makes you think it would be illegal though?

In some places. Not in Poland, as long as you're not competing with your employer. Also clauses like "we own the work you do in your personal time" have no legal implications here, because they directly contradict the labor law.

Generally you're free to do whatever you wish with your free time outside working hours and the employment contract has no power over it.

In some places, it might exceed the allowed working hours, that would be illegal.

It could be a breach of contract, but it would be up to a court to decide if that part of the contact is enforceable.

Guessing it's not illegal to solicit someone under such a contract, but potentially a new hire could be ordered by a court to stop working at the new company, or a 3rd party could make claims that the outputs of their former employees are owned by said 3rd party.

IANAL

A lot depends on the local labor law. Here where I live (Poland and I guess same in the rest of EU), the outputs of your work which were not directly ordered by your employer or were not part of the job are not owned by the employer (and stating that in the agreement is not enforceable), even if done during working hours or done using employer's equipment. Of course you can get fired for doing a side project in the office or using the equipment without prior agreement, but you take your side-work with you.

Important distinction, "legal implications" can mean that an action is unlawful, or that it can result in a lawsuit. This is of the latter sort. If you use your employer's hardware, or your contract forbids secondary employment (or "we own everything you do on or off the clock" type clauses), then there's a risk of your employer's lawyers coming after you.

Many full time jobs include language preventing you from working a second job in a similar role.

I doubt the person they are searching for is currently in a similar role. They want domain specific knowledge about a stable and _old_ codebase. They want the person around as a teacher mentor, and the first gig is something the business needs but would prefer to sub out. Seems like a normal accepted practice when defined that way.

Never accept such jobs unless you are desperate. Your employer does not control or own your spare time. Don’t cede control of it to them!

How far does that extend when interviewing? Some companies claim all code written. In theory that might include your leetcode.

Similar role? Or at a similar company?

I would expect my company to be unhappy if I were to consult for a competitor on the side. There's probably language in the employment agreement that prohibits that, and even if there isn't, it's still the kind of thing you should avoid due to conflict of interest.

But I'm not sure about an agreement not to take a similar role. If the employment agreement says that, I'm not sure that it's legally binding. Even if it is, you may be able to weasel around it with "but it's consulting, not a full-time position".

Note well: IANAL. If you're concerned, get advice from a lawyer rather than from some rando on the internet.

That's still not illegal: it's breach of contract.

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