They can set their own penalties, but the most common penalty for the business would be paying the full term of agreed employment (so probably 1-2 years) even if they want to fire you early. The most common one for the employee would be repaying any signing bonus and/or all or part of the salary for the full term of the contract.
You can enforce upon any legal and valid contract, but that’s obviously in a perfect world- many people can’t make the choice to take time off of whatever other job they might have found and pay an attorney/stay organized enough to find someone pro bono.
However, if you’re working with a company large enough to have a legal department larger than one overwhelmed lawyer, the contract will likely have a chilling effect on them fucking you over (which is imo the ideal situation for the type of company you need to do this with, they’ll be on their best behavior)
As someone living outside the US, your whole comment and the surrounding ones are absolutely wild.
Here in Germany, work without a contract is absolutely unthinkable. If anyone offered me a job without a contract, I would have to immediately report them to the authorities on the suspicion of tax fraud.
Also, even without a single word about it in my contract, they would have needed to notify me way in advance if they wanted to let me go. The exact duration varies by how long you’ve been there but the minimum is four weeks. For me it would have been four months because I had been there for over ten years. Also, the requirement for an employee to quit can never be stricter than for them to be fired. If you’re interested in the details, I recommend you find a translation of § 622 BGB.
And yes, these rules do get enforced reliably. The mere mention of the word “lawyer” usually gets even the most stubborn boss to comply in these cases because they know that every judge would rule against them within minutes.
Never accept a counteroffer, they’re just going to use it to buy time to find your replacement.
Just make an employment contract part of your counteroffer
Contracts only protect you from the honorable, or those you can enforce upon.
If they’re honorable, you don’t need a contract. If you can enforce upon them, its only utility is to gaslight their peers.
They can set their own penalties, but the most common penalty for the business would be paying the full term of agreed employment (so probably 1-2 years) even if they want to fire you early. The most common one for the employee would be repaying any signing bonus and/or all or part of the salary for the full term of the contract.
You can enforce upon any legal and valid contract, but that’s obviously in a perfect world- many people can’t make the choice to take time off of whatever other job they might have found and pay an attorney/stay organized enough to find someone pro bono.
However, if you’re working with a company large enough to have a legal department larger than one overwhelmed lawyer, the contract will likely have a chilling effect on them fucking you over (which is imo the ideal situation for the type of company you need to do this with, they’ll be on their best behavior)
As someone living outside the US, your whole comment and the surrounding ones are absolutely wild.
Here in Germany, work without a contract is absolutely unthinkable. If anyone offered me a job without a contract, I would have to immediately report them to the authorities on the suspicion of tax fraud.
Also, even without a single word about it in my contract, they would have needed to notify me way in advance if they wanted to let me go. The exact duration varies by how long you’ve been there but the minimum is four weeks. For me it would have been four months because I had been there for over ten years. Also, the requirement for an employee to quit can never be stricter than for them to be fired. If you’re interested in the details, I recommend you find a translation of § 622 BGB.
And yes, these rules do get enforced reliably. The mere mention of the word “lawyer” usually gets even the most stubborn boss to comply in these cases because they know that every judge would rule against them within minutes.