When You're Offered the Part: Pre-Employment Contracts Promise Protection for Everyone

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Although your verbal job offer covers such specifics as the term of employment, duties, and compensation, what happens if disputes arise in the future and memories fade? It's your word against theirs. He said-she said. That's why getting your offer in writing is to your advantage. (Would you buy a house or an insurance plan without a written contract?)

A written pre-employment contract, or its little brother, the job offer letter, also benefits an employer because you as an employee agree to provide specific work benefits and make certain promises (like you promise not to reveal company secrets or steal company customers).

Legally, no iron-clad contract rules apply in every state, and each employment contract is different.

Fifty years ago employment contracts were reserved for theatrical royalty and big-shot corporate executives. That's changing. Employment relationships are increasingly contract-oriented for professional, managerial, technical, and administrative positions.

So when you're asked to sign a pre-employment contract, you know that the company considers you an investment it wants to protect. But what should you do when a contract's provisions include factors that you don't like and have not verbally agreed to? Can you negotiate the boilerplate? In most cases, the answer is yes - to a degree. You have more leverage to negotiate a contract to get what you want in tight labor markets; you have less leverage in surplus labor markets when ten people are standing behind you ready to grab the job.

What do pre-employment agreements cover? Usually they regulate one or more of the following issues:

• The position being offered and accepted
• The compensation that will be paid
• Whether the job is for a specified length of time or at will (You or the employer can call it quits at any time for any reason.)
• Specific benefits regarding paid leave time (like vacation and sick days) and whether such time accrues from year to year
• Responsibilities of both parties concerning the work to be done

Danger points for you to recognize and investigate fully before signing your acceptance include the following:

• Repayments of training cost or relocation expense that are required under certain conditions.
• Non-compete clauses that prevent you from working elsewhere in a given locale for a specified period of time.
• A statement that the terms of the agreement are subject to change in the future.
• A statement that you are to be bound by the terms of the company's employee handbook, which you may not yet have seen. (The handbook itself usually notes that it is subject to change at any time by the company.)
• Agreement to arbitration and other alternate dispute resolutions that come with a muzzle clause prohibiting you from discussing settlement details of disputes. Arbitration is a contentious issue with employees often feeling that arbitrators (wishing to be hired again) may side with companies because they're more likely to be repeat customers. St. Louis employment attorney Sheldon Weinhaus comments: "Companies keep track of previous awards. It is much harder for a worker to know the history of any arbitrator."

If you're required to sign a pre-employment agreement that mandates arbitration, ask that language be inserted requiring that the arbitrator be chosen from a list maintained by the American Arbitration Association or another selection organization that operates with a code of ethics.