QUARTERLY BEAT / JULY 2024
NAVIGATING THE EMPLOYMENT LANDSCAPE: UNDERSTANDING AGREEMENTS, BONUSES, AND CORPORATE CONTRACTS FOR EMPLOYEE SUCCESS
DR. CHARLOTTE LACROIX JD
In this VETgirl webinar, “Navigating the Employment Landscape: Understanding Agreements, Bonuses, and Corporate Contracts for Employee Success” on June 18, 2024 Charlotte Lacroix, DVM, JD of Veterinary Business Advisors, Inc. reviews all you need to know before you sign that job contract! In case you missed the webinar, watch it again HERE or read the cliff notes below!
II. CONTRACT FORMATION Legal theory provides that a contract is formed once an offer is accepted. Real life usually is a lot messier. O ffer An offer can be oral or written (e.g., employer advertisement in a professional journal, on a bulletin board or mailed to the applicant). Typically, the prospective employee will ask for clarification and wish to change the terms of the original offer by making a counter-offer. The employer counters such counter-offer with his own counter-counter-offer. This confusing and frustrating process continues until either the parties reach an agreement or, realizing they can’t make a deal, go their separate ways. A void O ral C ontracts Oral contracts generally are binding only if their performance lasts less than a year because the law assumes that the parties’ recollections of what was agreed to become unreliable over time, increasing the tendency to remember events in a self- serving way. Few disagreements are less productive than the “you promised X,” “I don’t remember X but you promised Y” litany. Prevent such wasteful bickering by always insisting on a written contract, regardless of its term.
I. WHAT IS AN EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT?
A contract is a set of bargained for promises between two or more people, where one party promises to do X in exchange for another party’s promise to do Y. Courts require that an enforceable promise meet certain conditions. For example, the parties must be of age (no minors), of sound mind, and not under duress; there must be no fraud or mutual mistake over an important aspect of the transaction, and the deal must not be so one-sided as to be “unconscionable.” C onsideration To distinguish binding promises from charity or gifts (you can’t sue Santa Claus because he didn’t give you enough presents last year), the law requires that the party to whom the promise is made give “consideration” for the promise in the form of a benefit to the promissor and/or detriment to the promisee. Thus, Dr. Newgrad promises to work 50 hours per week in consideration of an annual salary of $58,000 (i.e., a benefit to Newgrad and detriment to Oldguy). Oldguy promises to pay such salary to Newgrad in consideration for Newgrad’s labor (benefit to Oldguy and detriment to Newgrad). Consideration exists for each promise which is therefore enforceable.
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