Reps asked to sign a possibly secret contract without their consent
So to put into context, my company is in a bad spot. Revenues declining, cost cutting and turnover ever more relevant themes, you know the jist of a dying organization. To keep the salesforce motivated in times of horrifying toxicity (those to hit target in the last four years can be counted on one hand), senior leadership recently came up with a would be nice if not very likely unattainable SPIFF. There was a SPIFF Launch event with a massive banner that was never plastered to any wall, just still remains lying on a table. During the event lo and behold, senior leadership made it awfully awkward asking reps to sign this banner, not a document, to celebrate this moment, a moment of reps commitment to a disgustingly unrealistic number they were forced to forecast in order for the organization to save its ass and look credible to the business. Many signed. What worries a lot of the reps that I know in that organization is the fact that they were explicitly asked to sign their own names with this number, clearly. Could the company use this as a ruse to create a legally binding contract whereby failure to meet the number signed against could warrant rep dismissal? Thanks
A contract requires a meeting of the minds. If one party thought they were just signing a banner, it seems unlikely that it would be viewed as a contract.
Not an at-will site unless their contract is so riddled with unfair terms to simulate those conditions. We do live in a country where the presumption is that a signature is a legally binding instrument signifying intention to be bound by terms, at least as general starting point. So the burden to prove that there was no such "meeting of the minds" sits with the appellant, of course. There is just utter disbelief that Leadership could genuinely believe a procession of reps looking over a number, checking its value, mulling it over for 5 minutes and then putting a rather somber signature on a sheet of printed plastic could be seen as motivational hence the suspicion of ulterior motive.
Laws are different by country. Ask a lawyer in your country.
Probably not legally binding depending on the language being used on the banner but I’m not a lawyer. Either way if working there is that toxic and given that sales is a pretty fluid environment where people move companies a lot, why hasn’t everyone on the team left?
I love the idea: print contracts on birthday banners and invite people to sign it. Brilliant!
Sure why not. Employment is usually at-will anyway