Q & A Table of Contents
They Promised Everything But Are Treating Us As Nothing
From: Eric, Florida
Question: Several colleagues and I were recently hired by a company and given joining/sign-on bonuses and moving expenses. However, the company required that we sign our acceptance letter, which said that if we left the company before 1 year we would have to pay the bonuses and moving expenses back.
We've all been here between 7 and 9 months and we're hating it. We're all professionals with advanced degrees and several years of professional experience each, however, they treat us like we should be "mindless-drones" and do whatever they say without giving any thought or analysis to the problem. We were hired for our expertise with respect to Software Design & Development, Database Design and Development, and Java programming experience. Our experience has been thrown out the window and we've all been relegated to "coder-boys" and "hacks", and our experience and judgement are not valued or respected.
The company environment has changed since we hired on as well. The company was purchased by another company and a lot of the things that were used as incentives to lure us here have either changed or not materialized. For example, the tuition reimbursement program completely changed and the stock options are pretty much non-existent. We feel that the contracts have changed and can be modified as a result of the company changes.
Lastly, the company attached the sign-on bonuses to our wages, and as a result, we've paid taxes, Social Security and Medicare on these bonuses. We're all ready to jump ship, but we're unsure about what to do with the money we may owe the company. Could we negotiate that as we leave? Since the bonuses were included as wages, would we have to pay those back?
Any insights and negotiation advice you could provide would be greatly appreciated by "us".
Response: If your letters accepting the job(s) are the only documentation of the agreement between the company and you, then those letters may possibly be construed as documents which describe the entire contract between you and the company. Under those circumstances you should examine your legal and tax liability. If you have to return money to the company, my guess is that most likely the taxes you've paid on that money should be counted as an overpayment and you are probably going to be able to receive credit for those taxes you have paid on income which you ultimately did not get to keep. A qualified tax accountant should be your source of advice on that issue.
Should no other contract documents exist (including recruitment letters or other exchanges of documents that led to your acceptance of the job) you need to take a look at your individual situations: if you quit your jobs and have to return funds to the company, do you have job prospects that will ultimately make you whole and perhaps even better off? Once you have a sense of that, it is important for the individuals involved to take a look at their personal situations, determine the costs and benefits of taking action, and develop their negotiation strategy. It may be that someone with five months of lousy conditions facing them is better off biting the bullet and leaving. Someone with three months to go may feel that a twelve week paid job search is an acceptable price to pay to avoid having to return funds to the company.
On the other hand, if there are more complete contract documents dealing with the other issues you've raised (tuition reimbursement and stock options, for example), and if you can demonstrate that the company has not or is not fulfilling its obligations, a local attorney with expertise in employment contracts may be able to help you develop a workable strategy.
If your relationships with your superiors is good, or at least civil, you may be able to approach them with a series of questions about the troublesome elements of the employment relationship. You should ask open-ended questions; not ones that can be answered with a simple yes or no. It may well be that they would love to get rid of you, but don't know how to do it without risking a lawsuit from you. If severing the relationship is likely to be mutually beneficial, it may be that the questions you ask them help you understand how best to develop a proposal that will help them save face, save money, and save you aggravation.
Do not approach the company as if you are the victims of some fraudulent scheme who feel like you're being treated like dirt. Someone who undertakes negotiation with the image of a victim will most likely emerge as a victim.
You should consider what your bargaining chips may be. For example, perhaps you are willing to give up on the stock options in trade for not having to refund the signing-on bonus. Think as creatively as possible about the broadest possible range of bargaining chips. The more elements there are to discuss, the more likely the negotiating parties will each walk away feeling as if they have gained by the process.
Your choices depend on whether there is a full-fledged contract, whether you have attractive alternatives, whether there is a joint interest in ending the relationship. Think about your options, examine your potential tax liabilities and legal rights, and try to put yourselves in the company's shoes. I can assure you the company folks don't think of themselves as evil any more than you think of yourselves that way. So approaching the negotiation with a good-guy/bad-guy attitude won't yield favorable results.
It sounds like a major challenge. Good luck.
Steve
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