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Discussion on: What to do if my current workplace doesn't allow me to do what I want in my free time?

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victorioberra profile image
Victorio Berra

risks damaging their reputation or their business.

  • This is probably their main concern. If everyone knows John Doe works for ABC and John writes some pretty horrible code that could end up looking very bad for the company.
  • Even worse, if John Doe contributes some code with obvious security holes one might think to try some specific attacks against ABCs apps.

In both of these situations, ABC might want to talk to John and give him permission about which projects he should be contributing to.

Otherwise, create an anonymous GitHub, do whatever you want, if you quit or get fired change the GitHub name to your real name (surprise! it was me John all along! muahaha) and then call their bluff on the lawsuit part.

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byrro profile image
Renato Byrro

I was thinking more about profanity, obscenity, getting involved in violent extremist groups, or the like. I wouldn't want an employee contributing to web apps related to KKK, Antifa or anything violent such as. But that's more about whether the person fits the company culture or not.

Although I get your point of view, I still don't think it should be grounds to limit what an employee can or cannot do in their free time.

What the company could state in their contract is: "You agree that we can monitor your public projects and contributions to open-source. The code contributed publicly can be used to assess your performance and continuity of the contract with Company XYZ".

That would be reasonable and acceptable.

Becoming a toll to proactively limit what the person can/cannot do is unacceptable. An employer is hiring hours of his time, not his life or free will.