Whether it is your contract of employment or a contract of service, the document can seem like a lengthy and extremely dry piece. But it is an important document which should be read, absorbed and questions asked if need be.
What reminded me of this was reading a recent article about the infamous Van Halen World Tour rider list. In 1982 Eddie and the band made a request for, amongst other items, "M&M's (WARNING: ABSOLUTELY NO BROWN ONES). The reason why this was included was to make sure that contracts were read and requests adhered to. When going into their dressing rooms, if the brown sweeties were there, then this brought doubt as to whether those involved in putting the tour together had actually paid attention to other things such as lighting, staging etc etc. It was there to catch people out.
The moral of the story is that you should always read your legally binding documents, they are documents you sign after all, as you may be caught out.
- Katharine Liu
Agreed. If you feel you dont understand it then ask advice. There is always someone around who can interpret what looks like gobble-de-gook and break it down into understandable bite sized chunks.
If it is an employment contract feel no shame in asking the employed-to-be who is issuing it to explain what they mean.
It works both ways. I once won a legal case against an ex-employer because they hadnt bothered to give me an appropriate contract. They tried to rectify it with the old 'just sign here' trick when I was 'asked to go' but it was too late then. I would have signed away a lot of rights and a lot of money had I done so. Instead I took a deep breath and went and asked a solicitor for help.
Posted by: Sue | August 18, 2009 at 11:50 AM
I had a quick look and there was no reference to M&Ms in my contract and I am really disappointed now. How do I get a job with Van Halen?
Posted by: John Cooper | August 19, 2009 at 09:34 AM
The problem is not just contracts, but that we often don't know the questions to ask when we start. I would recommend people to ask, at the salary negotiation stage:
- under what circumstances could I receive any salary enhancement, annual percentage increase or bonus and what was the annual increase last year?
- what is the maximum number of hours I might be asked to work in a week (I worked somewhere where you could be asked to work an extra day unpaid in the week because, if it happened once in 3 months, it averaged out within the total hours)
- what is my annual leave entitlement, is it ever likely to increase and, if I'm unable to take any in my probation period, will I be able to carry it into the next leave year?
I'm sure people can think of other questions 'if only I'd known!' to ask when we started.
Posted by: Katharine Schopflin | August 25, 2009 at 10:19 AM