{"id":15705,"date":"2025-11-28T10:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/employment-contract-template\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T10:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:25:09","slug":"employment-contract-template","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/employment-contract-template\/","title":{"rendered":"Employment Contract Template"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let me tell you about the time I almost hired a barista who nearly stole my coffee recipe and opened a competing shop across the street. (Yep \u2013 that actually happened.) When I first started my cozy Brooklyn coffee cart business, I thought employment contracts were just fancy paperwork for corporate suits. Big mistake.<\/p>\n

The Wake-Up Call<\/strong>
\nI found a "free employment contract template" online (probably sandwiched between a coupon for teeth whitening and a conspiracy theory blog). It looked legit \u2013 until my star employee quit and tried selling my lavender-honey cold brew formula to a rival. Turns out, my generic template had zero non-compete language. My lawyer friend Gina nearly spit out her Starbucks when she saw it: "Girl, this is like using a napkin to stop a grease fire."<\/p>\n

What I Learned the Hard Way<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Templates are starters, not saviors<\/strong>: That $25 template from LegalZoom? Lifesaver for my second hire. But I still had to tweak it. New York requires specific break-time clauses \u2013 who knew?<\/li>\n
  2. The 3 Non-Negotiables<\/strong>:\n
      \n
    • Non-compete<\/strong> (Unless you want your ex-employee\u2019s food truck parked next to yours)<\/li>\n
    • Termination triggers<\/strong> (My cousin\u2019s landscaper drama taught me this \u2013 guy kept getting paid for months after quitting!)<\/li>\n
    • IP ownership<\/strong> (That goat logo my niece designed? Make sure it\u2019s yours)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
    • When to call in the pros<\/strong>: Used a DIY template for my first 3 hires. Then a sous chef tried suing over overtime pay. Now I pay a lawyer $200\/year to review \u2013 cheaper than court.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Real Talk from the Trenches<\/strong><\/p>\n

        \n
      • Red flags in templates<\/strong>: If it uses "Party A" and "Party B" like a bad rom-com? Run.<\/li>\n
      • Secret weapon<\/strong>: Rocket Lawyer\u2019s state-specific questionnaires. Feels like TurboTax for paperwork.<\/li>\n
      • Negotiation hack<\/strong>: Always add "This includes any future technologies not yet invented" for tech roles. (Learned that after an intern claimed rights to my cold brew NFT idea. Don\u2019t ask.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        The Happy Ending<\/strong>
        \nToday, my contracts are like my coffee \u2013 strong, personalized, and airtight. That barista with the recipe? We settled out of court after I showed her our updated non-disclosure section. Now she\u2019s managing my new location in Queens.<\/p>\n

        Your turn: Grab a decent template (I\u2019ll DM you my favs if you tweet #CoffeeContractChaos), but treat it like IKEA furniture \u2013 follow the instructions, but don\u2019t forget to tighten your<\/em> specific screws. And maybe buy your lawyer a pumpkin spice latte someday. They\u2019ll need it when they read your first draft. \u2615<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Let me tell you about the time I almost hired a barista who nearly stole my coffee recipe and opened a competing shop across the street. (Yep \u2013 that actually happened.) When I first started my cozy Brooklyn coffee cart business, I thought employment contracts were just fancy paperwork for corporate suits. Big mistake. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}