Howdy, Blinders, just want to share my story. I landed to at job at startup 6 months ago (TC ~ 400K - salary+stocks and a sign-up, which I should pay back if I will leave in 1 year, pretty standard terms). Unfortunately, I got a workaholic boss. Two weeks passed, and he called me and said, that when he was starting on his job here, he worked 16 hours per day to catch up faster. I said, that it was his choice, and I really admire his dedication, but I really do not see myself doing more that I was obliged in contract (with some exceptions in case of emergency). Long story short, 90 days passed (they was full of 1-on-1's with unhappy boss, his comments about his uncertainty about my capabilities), and I was told that I failed probation. CTO (it's a skip-level boss) invited me to meeting, where he said that they can offer me position in another team with lower salary. I said no, I'm not going to reduce my expectations, we talked a little bit, with HR involved. They said that they will offer me the same compensation, but I need to quit and join again to be on probation again (it's was because of their internal policies). I said ok. So, I'm leaving by mutual agreement, joining again, passing probation on another team. But I felt really not happy - it was like I lost excitement about this company (and lost 3 month of vesting, etc... ). So, I opened my contract, and it turned out that I can leave without paying back sign-up (because of mutual agreement leaving). So I left. Well. It was really hot there, HR was trying to convince my to return bonus, then she was ok if I return only half of that. CTO was angry (or pretended to be), promised bad references. But... I was doing legal thing here. What do you think? Was this fair?
You're not the instigator here, they're the unreasonable ones. Take the signing bonus, it legally belongs to you.
Name and shame!
Well, I can, but it can certainly backfire. I do not want any further escalation here.
Fuck them
did you document the CTO's threat of giving a bad reference? that could be solid legal leverage in the event that he does in fact try to. then they pay a settlement plus your sign-on. That's what happens when you are dumb/sloppy with contracts and you are an asshole.
Nope, I did not. Thanks for advice!
What kind of startup gives 400k TC? Are you counting options as real money?
Yep, it's 160k base and the rest is options valued on previous round.