How to Spot Red Flags in a Job Offer Before It’s Too Late
Thoroughly reading and understanding a job offer letter is essential. Knowing what you are offered and potentially agreeing to impacts your role, income, and career.
Uncovering red flags in your job offer could indicate bigger organizational problems. Therefore, you should ask follow-up questions to determine whether to negotiate the offer or look for other opportunities.
Unclear Salary and Benefits
A job offer should detail the terms of your employment, including information on your salary, benefits, and total compensation. If you sign an offer letter that does not clarify this information, you could work for a lower income than agreed upon or lose out on specific benefits.
Although you can negotiate salary and benefits after receiving a job offer, an offer letter with unclear compensation information indicates that the employer might not respect its employees, is disorganized, or both. Therefore, you should consider continuing your job search.
Lower Salary Than Discussed
A job offer letter detailing a lower salary than agreed upon could indicate a mistake or dishonesty. An employer who tries to hire for lower compensation than discussed might engage in other deceptive activities that adversely impact employees.
Avoid signing a job offer letter that provides a lower salary than expected. Losing out on compensation when starting work could lead to lower bonuses and raises in the future. Instead, follow up to correct the error or learn more about the job offer.
Long Waiting Period for Benefits
Many employers require a waiting period to qualify for employee benefits:
- Because this requirement saves on costs, the waiting period can last up to 90 days.
- An extended waiting period for employee benefits could indicate high turnover rates.
- Companies with new hires who quit or get fired during the waiting period avoid increased benefit expenses.
If your job offer letter includes a long waiting period for employee benefits, consider negotiating for the company to cover your COBRA or other health insurance costs. Otherwise, you might need to budget for these increased expenses.
Non-Solicit Agreement
A non-solicit agreement bans employees from taking clients to a competitor after leaving their job or soliciting the company’s clients and customers if a former employee starts a business. Pay attention to the following if your job offer letter includes a non-solicit agreement:
- Whether you can keep the clients you brought with you for your next employer
- How long the non-solicit agreement lasts
- The legal implications of violating the agreement
Ownership of Work Product Clause
Depending on your industry, your job offer letter might include an ownership of work product clause that applies to inventions, patents, discoveries, materials, research, designs, recipes, and/or ideas you develop while working for the company. For instance, if you work in the tech industry, the code you write for software would be included in the clause. Therefore, your employer would own the copyright or intellectual property rights for anything you conceive at work or on your own time and use for your job.
You can negotiate exemptions to the ownership of work product clause. For instance, you might ask the employer to add language to your job offer that exempts the work product you developed before starting your job or that is outside the scope of your role.
Are There Red Flags in Your Job Offer?
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