Posted: 7/18/2013 7:32:02 AM EDT
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I need an opinion on a letter of intent I was just given. Background is I work for a company that is a federal contractor. There is a program that I have worked on in the past in which the contract is coming up for re-compete.
My concern is whether it leaves me room to pursue employment elsewhere. I understand the intent of the letter is to keep me from accepting a position at another company bidding for the same project; but I'm not clear if it would prevent me from accepting an unrelated job elsewhere or at least give my current employer legal reason to say they were harmed due to my resignation. (I think I'm saying that right) Here's the full text with the company, project and my name obviously replaced: <EMPLOYEE> authorizes <EMPLOYER>, exclusive use of my resume in support of the <PROGRAM NAME> contract. <EMPLOYEE> intends to continue his employment with <EMPLOYER> specifically for <PROGRAM NAME> if <EMPLOYER> is selected for award. The second sentence is the one that bothers me a little. Thanks for taking a look. |
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1. Your employer cannot demand exclusive right to your resume for a Federal contract proposal. What if they don't win the recompete? That's not enforceable. 2. The key word is "intends" in the second sentence. IF they win (no guarantee of that), you INTEND to continue employment. "Intend" - not "promise on pain of death". Your intent in that sentence does not bind you. My biggest issue is there is no reciprocal intent. My letters of intent usually include something like: "Contingent upon award of (contract), XYZ Company will offer employment to (NAME) for the position of XXXXXX." I tell the "identified work force"that "if we win, will offer you the job, but you have the choice of accepting it or not.". Right now, we're waiting on an award for a proposal we submitted in January. All our resumes were our incumbent employees, but its unreasonable of anyone to think people won't take other jobs, move away, die, etc. in 6 months (even though the USG does think that way).. And I actually had a guy die one time. Right now you are giving them exclusive use of your resume (which is improper for them to ask and illegal in NC as a right to work state) with no reciprocal stated intent on their part - as in "we won - thanks for your resume - oh, you're fired". Having managed Federal contracts since 1996 and managed hundreds of proposal efforts (and evaluated proposals in the Army and for DOJ), my advice is to get your resume to every competitor in the recompete that you'd work for (understanding that some companies are not good to work for) and work for whoever wins (unless they are turds). The only people that will see all the proposals and all the resumes is the technical evaluators - and that information is confidental (yes, crooked KOs have passed competing proposals to vendors but that's a quick path to prison). |
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I forgot to say that while the second sentence fails to rise to the level of an explicit non-compete - but generally non-competes aren't really enforceable anyway (unless you knuckle under). The criminal sociopath I used to work for (I was stupid) used to tell people that if they worked for him they could never work for anyone ever again - even in other fields and even if he fired them. He had them sign agreements to that. Lawyers laughed. Lincoln freed the slaves.
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