California-based ex-boss forces former employee to sign NDA 3 months after layoffs: 'I genuinely don't know what triggered this'

Advertisement
  • A model representing an employee sitting on the steps of a building next to a cardboard box of personal items.
  • My old employer sent me an NDA three months after laying me off and is threatening legal action if I don't sign

    Location: California I was I d off in February, part of a bigger round of cuts. Signed a separation agreement at the time,
  • took the severance, moved on. Started a new job in April. Haven't said anything public about my former employer, haven't
  • been involved in anything organized, just quietly got on with things.
  • Last week I got an email from their legal team with an NDA attached. It's backdated to my last day in February and the scope is pretty wide,
  • working conditions, pay, anything related to how the layoff was handled.
  • A photograph representing a man in a business suit presenting a contract to someone across a table.
  • They gave me ten days to sign or they'd pursue legal remedies. That's the whole email, no explanation of what prompted it, no context.
  • I never signed an NDA when I was hired and the separation agreement I signed in February had a basic confidentiality clause but nothing close to what they're sending
  • now. I genuinely don't know what triggered this. There's been some talk among former colleagues about the layoff but I haven't been part of any of it publicly.
  • What I'm trying to understand is whether they can actually enforce. a deadline like this on something I never agreed
  • to, whether backdating a document to a date three months ago is normal practice or a red flag, and
  • whether not signing actually exposes me to anything real or if this is mostly pressure. I want to understand what I'm dealing with before I respond to them
  • An image of a man (not the actual subject) sitting on the steps of a building in business attire next to a cardboard box of personal items and a series of documents.
  • Fine-Comparison-29. Two options 1. Don't sign anything and ignore. 2. Say you'll do it for $100K.
  • IANAL but I do work in tech and do have knowledge about IP and navigating that as a worker. A judge will laugh them out of a room, because there's no contract
  • to enforce. You can't take someone to court for an NDA you didn't sign, and at least from what it seems, you aren't
  • defaming their company or stealing any proprietary secrets or business knowledge.
  • An image depicting a man signing a contract while speaking to a person in corporate attire across a table.
  • This sounds like a company wide generic layoff NDA, but that's not your problem since you don't work for them.
  • I have no idea what actual attorney would advise demanding NDA requests for people who already walked
  • out the door and threatening legal action on people who didn't sign. Seems delulu.

Tags

Scroll Down For The Next Article