<story><title>OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?</title><url>https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2024/5/17/24158478/openai-departures-sam-altman-employees-chatgpt-release</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>twobitshifter</author><text>If I have equity in a company and I care about its value, I’m not going to say anything to tank its value.  If I sell my equity later on, and then disparage the company, what can OpenAI hope to do to me?</text></item><item><author>modeless</author><text>A lot of the brouhaha about OpenAI is silly, I think. But this is gross. Forcing employees to sign a perpetual non-disparagement agreement under threat of clawing back the large majority of their already earned compensation should not be legal. Honestly it probably isn&amp;#x27;t, but it&amp;#x27;ll take someone brave enough to sue to find out.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>modeless</author><text>They can sue you into bankruptcy, obviously.&lt;p&gt;Also, what if you can&amp;#x27;t sell? Selling is at their discretion. They can prevent you from selling some of your so-called &amp;quot;equity&amp;quot; to keep you on their leash as long as they want.</text></comment>
<story><title>OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?</title><url>https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2024/5/17/24158478/openai-departures-sam-altman-employees-chatgpt-release</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>twobitshifter</author><text>If I have equity in a company and I care about its value, I’m not going to say anything to tank its value.  If I sell my equity later on, and then disparage the company, what can OpenAI hope to do to me?</text></item><item><author>modeless</author><text>A lot of the brouhaha about OpenAI is silly, I think. But this is gross. Forcing employees to sign a perpetual non-disparagement agreement under threat of clawing back the large majority of their already earned compensation should not be legal. Honestly it probably isn&amp;#x27;t, but it&amp;#x27;ll take someone brave enough to sue to find out.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chefandy</author><text>&amp;gt;  If I sell my equity later on, and then disparage the company, what can OpenAI hope to do to me?&lt;p&gt;Well, that would obviously depend on the terms of the contract, but I would be astonished if the people who wrote it didn&amp;#x27;t consider that possibility. It&amp;#x27;s pretty trivial to calculate the monetary value of equity, and if they feel entitled to that equity, they surely feel entitled to its cash equivalent.</text></comment>