5 Ways to Tell How Well a Potential Employer Would Treat You as an Employee

[AnotherMcIntosh]

21. Good points. A couple more if you are being hired as an executive.

Many such employment relationships (if not all) are back-loaded with promises of bonuses and deferred compensation. A basic question is what are the odds that such compensation will be collectible?

1. Does the company want you to work without a written contract? Oral agreements are not businesslike. In addition, unless you are being hired by a family member who you can trust and who will continue to have control over the company or influence after you come aboard, oral agreements are next to worthless. Written agreements with ambiguous provisions, and provisions subject to conditions and take-away clauses, are also next to worthless if the provisions are important but unenforceable.

2. To what extent do those in hiring positions have long-term relationships with their spouses. And, if you can determine it, to what extent do they tolerate infidelities? Those who tolerate infidelities and cheat on their wives, for example, will seek to benefit in unfair and unexpected ways at the expense of lower-level executives. If they want you to work with such persons without a written contract or a written contract with provisions which are arguably unenforceable, recognize that the position is a short-term or temporary one and, at a minimum, get a signing bonus. The bigger the signing bonus, the more that they will be committed to you. If they won't give you a signing bonus under any circumstances, that will show you your potential standing in the company.

3. To what extent have the executives that you have come into contact with played team sports? Look at the situation and make a guess. Basically, what are the percentages?

4. To what extent does the top executive or executives rely upon MBAs? A reliance upon MBAs indicates, for example, a desire for charts and graphs.