3 Employer Red Flags You Should Look Out For Before Signing a Contract

If you are currently looking for jobs or are being offered, you might want to notify the following three red flags to make sure you are not going into a company only to find yourself coming out months later, exploited and burned out.

1. No legal contract

This seems to be a given whenever you sign with a company. You have to have some kinds of legal documents to sign.

But you will be surprised to read about how many people have been scammed into accepting a dead-end job through a text message or an email.

Case in point: I was offered a full-time job after a few months of working part-time for this company. When I was working part-time, I signed a part-time contract. But when I was promoted to a full-time position, I never saw the sight of a new contract, even until the day I quit. The most basic things were verbally communicated: salary and working hours.

I remember asking my boss and her assistant for the contract monthly but I received no helpful response. They only told me that I would be paid exactly the amount we had agreed upon so no worries.

Um, yes worries.

2. No health insurance

This is a more common case. I have heard at least three friends of mine complaining about this.

I'm not sure how healthcare in other countries is but in Vietnam, it is relatively easy to get treatments at a reasonable price. Moreover, my parents are doctors so getting health insurance has never been a great concern of mine.

Still, having health insurance is more secure, especially in the time of COVID when people fall sick left, right, and center.

Yet, one of my previous employers said to me that he never felt purchasing health insurance in my country was worth the price (which really is not a lot), so he didn't pay for mine. I knew this was a huge red flag but could not muster the courage to ask him to include health insurance in my contract because I thought doing so would cost me my job.

But now that I'm in a different position, I'm seeing clearly that any companies that refuse to care about your well-being are not worth your time and effort, especially when they will want you to put in 200% of your energy for their sakes.

3. Verbal promises

I bet you have heard a lot of these.

"Do your best and you will be rewarded!"

"I know it's stressful for you but I promise you, you will learn and grow so much if you work with us."

"I will involve you in huge projects with important clients if you do your job well!"

They are all empty promises that are not written in ink so they will be broken whenever that employer feels like it, which is often. I have been through this before when I was still a wide-eyed naive fresh graduate who believed that the company had my best interest at heart and I needed to learn from the experts and gain more experience, no matter what.

One thing I think every employee needs to know if you haven't already is you are not begging for a job and the employers are not doing a charity. No organization will ever hire someone who they don't believe would bring them benefits. So as a staff, you give them your time, effort, and hard work and in turn, they pay you what you deserve, which must be written down and agreed by both parties.

If you excel at your job, the company can give you bonuses as a sign of encouragement and gratitude, but even how to get the bonuses must be clearly stated (for example: If you as a content writer write more than 15 articles a month for the company website, you get an extra 30% of your monthly wage).

Don't leave room for vague promises: "Do well and you will be rewarded." How do you define 'do well'? What is this said reward? The employer thinks this reward is fair but do the employees think it's what they deserve?

All in all, be extremely aware and conscious before accepting a job offer. Make sure you receive a contract listing out the rights and benefits. Read it at least twice and have someone run it over for you if possible to avoid falling into the traps of companies who want to pay the least to gain the most.

I wish you the best of luck in 2022!