A repost from the discussion on NDAs and Wave (a software company). Wave was recently publicly revealed to have made severance dependent on non-disparagement agreements, cloaked by non-disclosure agreements. I had previously worked at Wave, but negotiated away the non-disclosure agreement (but not the non-disparagement agreement).
But my guess is that most of the people you sent to Wave were capable of understanding what they were signing and thinking through the implications of what they were agreeing to, even if they didn’t actually have the conscientiousness / wisdom / quick-thinking to do so. (Except, apparently, Elizabeth. Bravo, @Elizabeth!)
I appreciate the kudos here, but feel like I should give more context.
I think some of what led to me to renegotiate was a stubborn streak and righteousness about truth. I mostly hear when those traits annoy people, so it’s really nice to have them recognized in a good light here. But that righteous streak was greatly enabled by the fact that my mom is a lawyer who modeled reading legal documents before signing (even when it’s embarrassing your kids who just want to join their friends at the rockclimbing birthday party), and that I could afford to forgo severance. Obviously I really wanted the money, and I couldn’t afford to take this kind of stand every week. But I believe there were people who couldn’t even afford to add a few extra days, and so almost had to cave
To the extent people in that second group were unvirtuous, I think the lack of virtue occurred when they didn’t create enough financial slack to even have the time to negotiate. By the time they were laid off without a cushion it was too late. And that’s not available to everyone- Wave paid well, but emergencies happen, any one of them could have a really good reason their emergency fund was empty.
So the main thing I want to pitch here is that “getting yourself into a position where virtue is cheap” is an underrated strategy.
This is one benefit to paying people well, and a reason having fewer better-paid workers is sometimes better than more people earning less money. If your grants or salary give you just enough to live as long as the grants are immediately renewed/you don’t get fired, even a chance of irritating your source of income imperils your ability to feed yourself. 6 months expenses in savings gives you the ability to risk an individual job/grant. Skills valued outside EA give you the ability to risk pissing off all of EA and still be fine.
I’m emphasizing risk here because I think it’s the bigger issue. If you know something is wrong, you’ll usually figure out a way to act on it. The bigger problem is when you some concerns but they legitimately could be nothing, but worry that investigating will imperil your livelihood.
I agree, and it seems important, but could you perhaps give more examples (maybe as a separate article)?
“If you never sign an NDA, truth-telling becomes cheaper.”
(Question is, how much cheaper. I mean, people can still sue you. Not necessarily because you said something false, just because they can, and because the process is the punishment.)
How to generate more examples? Go through a list of virtues and think: “what preparation could I make in advance to make this easier / what to avoid to prevent this becoming harder”? Let’s try it:
prudence—study things, be (epistemically) rational
fortitude—practice expanding your comfort zone? or rather, practice martial arts and build a safety network?
temperance—practice self-control? or rather, make sure that your needs are satisfied all the time, so that you are not too strongly tempted? (the latter seems more in spirit of your example)
justice—don’t do things that would allow others to blackmail you, gather power
A repost from the discussion on NDAs and Wave (a software company). Wave was recently publicly revealed to have made severance dependent on non-disparagement agreements, cloaked by non-disclosure agreements. I had previously worked at Wave, but negotiated away the non-disclosure agreement (but not the non-disparagement agreement).
I appreciate the kudos here, but feel like I should give more context.
I think some of what led to me to renegotiate was a stubborn streak and righteousness about truth. I mostly hear when those traits annoy people, so it’s really nice to have them recognized in a good light here. But that righteous streak was greatly enabled by the fact that my mom is a lawyer who modeled reading legal documents before signing (even when it’s embarrassing your kids who just want to join their friends at the rockclimbing birthday party), and that I could afford to forgo severance. Obviously I really wanted the money, and I couldn’t afford to take this kind of stand every week. But I believe there were people who couldn’t even afford to add a few extra days, and so almost had to cave
To the extent people in that second group were unvirtuous, I think the lack of virtue occurred when they didn’t create enough financial slack to even have the time to negotiate. By the time they were laid off without a cushion it was too late. And that’s not available to everyone- Wave paid well, but emergencies happen, any one of them could have a really good reason their emergency fund was empty.
So the main thing I want to pitch here is that “getting yourself into a position where virtue is cheap” is an underrated strategy.
This is one benefit to paying people well, and a reason having fewer better-paid workers is sometimes better than more people earning less money. If your grants or salary give you just enough to live as long as the grants are immediately renewed/you don’t get fired, even a chance of irritating your source of income imperils your ability to feed yourself. 6 months expenses in savings gives you the ability to risk an individual job/grant. Skills valued outside EA give you the ability to risk pissing off all of EA and still be fine.
I’m emphasizing risk here because I think it’s the bigger issue. If you know something is wrong, you’ll usually figure out a way to act on it. The bigger problem is when you some concerns but they legitimately could be nothing, but worry that investigating will imperil your livelihood.
I agree, and it seems important, but could you perhaps give more examples (maybe as a separate article)?
“If you never sign an NDA, truth-telling becomes cheaper.”
(Question is, how much cheaper. I mean, people can still sue you. Not necessarily because you said something false, just because they can, and because the process is the punishment.)
How to generate more examples? Go through a list of virtues and think: “what preparation could I make in advance to make this easier / what to avoid to prevent this becoming harder”? Let’s try it:
prudence—study things, be (epistemically) rational
fortitude—practice expanding your comfort zone? or rather, practice martial arts and build a safety network?
temperance—practice self-control? or rather, make sure that your needs are satisfied all the time, so that you are not too strongly tempted? (the latter seems more in spirit of your example)
justice—don’t do things that would allow others to blackmail you, gather power
chastity—get married to a person who enjoys sex
faith—observe miracles, avoid nonbelievers
This seems like a great thing to exist and you have my encouragement to write it.