[ogreyonder]

In regard to working on side projects:

> Just ask. The worst they can say is "No."

And that's where I have to ask: what do you do when they say no? I followed this advice a year back or so and it essentially put the brakes on any serious side-projects. I work for a big company that you've absolutely heard of.

[mooreds]

You have a number of options:

  * just do it, and ask forgiveness or deal with the consequences.
  * ask a lawyer to look at your contract and state law and see if the company has the right to what you do off hours on your own equipment
  * try to sell the side project as beneficial to the company (cross training, extra publicity)
  * do a side project, but expect to throw it away
  * pick different ways to do a side project--there are many way.  Contribute to open source via QA, documentation, user support.  Do user group talks.  Reach out to authors in the space that you are in and offer to review technical books.  Join an email list and answer questions of other users.
  * walk--find a different boss in the same company who will let you do this
  * walk--find a different company

What you choose depends on what your side project is, what your skills are, how much you care about the side project, how monetizable the side project is, and, most of all, what you are trying to get out of your "serious side projects".

[doppel]

I think it very much depends on whether or not you have any bargaining power or leeway in the company. As he says further down, if they won't allow you to do ANY side projects (or at least severely restrict you), you counter by demanding for more pay or other compensation for your "loyalty" (for a lack of better word) to focusing solely on the company's products and code.

Alternatively, argue that letting you work on solo projects will be beneficial to the employer; Risk-free testing of new frameworks and languages that leads to an experienced developer.

For some very big companies (I've worked at one myself) they seem to have a zero tolerance policy of outside work and you might be SOL in that case - I guess you have to ask yourself whether it's worth it then.

[steveklabnik]

The next paragraph:

You might consider asking in the context of a more general compensation discussion than just "Hey boss, can I work on OSS?" That way, if they say "No side projects", you'll say "OK, in lieu of the side projects, I'll need more money." It's easier to be sticklers for the stock agreements when there's absolutely no cost to the company to insist on the usual boilerplate, but minor concessions on the boilerplate are often easier than concessions on things which actually appear on the company's books.

[boyter]

You do it anyway. So long as its outside normal working hours and whoever you are working for's market it will be fine.

Otherwise big companies could claim they own the the capitol improvements to your property which you do on your own time.

Generally don't be a dick and work on your stuff while at work and you will be fine.

[nostrademons]

In a "big company you've absolutely heard of" it can be very hard to claim that you are outside of your employer's market. Several such big companies define their market as "everything tech-related".

(Whether this would stand up in court is dubious, but do you also want to go up against a billion-dollar company's crack legal team in court?)

Also, I've heard the main issue isn't actually getting sued, it's that VCs or investors won't even touch you if there's the slightest hint that you might not own your code. If your side-project takes off it's nice to be able to enlist other peoples' help instead of miring yourself in legalities.

[boyter]

Unless you are shooting to make 100 million a year, any company I have heard of (thinking Google, Microsoft, Apple etc..) will not consider that a big enough market and you should be fine.

Agree with the VC thing, but assuming you are doing it outside of work it shouldn't be a huge problem, but check with a lawyer.

[icedchai]

Exactly. It's best not to even mention it. Just keep it to yourself.

[a3voices]

> Generally don't be a dick and work on your stuff while at work and you will be fine.

Why not? These large corporations would pay you $1/hour if the market conditions let them.

[boyter]

Because you are opening yourself to legal issues. Just because you think the system is unfair does not mean you should "be a dick".

The people in companies make the decisions and if you are good to them generally they will be good to you. Don't make bad blood by doing the wrong thing.

[a3voices]

They promote you very slowly in big companies (years between), so really they aren't that good to you.