[phsource]

> If the employer is a good one, they want the contract to be fair, and if the contract is unfair it's probably by accident.

This definitely sounds about right -- I'm pretty sure most places I worked and most other Y Combinator companies in my batch just took the standard forms from somewhere (e.g., the Orrick forms library) and used them, without thinking too much about the terms. [1]

If there's something in the terms that actually seem objectionable, it's likely the hiring manager, recruiter, and other people in your recruiting process have never thought about it either. By pointing it out, you're often educating them too on what the offer letter says, and providing valuable feedback for the recruiting process.

[1] https://www.orrick.com/en/Total-Access/Tool-Kit/Start-Up-For...

[djbusby]

So, it's a bug and counter-party are testers?

[hodgesrm]

Also, good contracts are difficult to write. There are templates for most contract types but it can take a while to work out the kinks. IP clauses around open source, for example, are incredibly hard to get right. We've had multiple iterations on this topic at my company.

[phsource]

Yeah, that's pretty much it -- usually nobody stress-tested this before they just sent it out in a rush to employee #1, who's probably a referral anyways