Even the grand old red state I'm working in doesn't allow these claims but it sure didn't stop the company I work for from asking me to agree to them.

After I moved and started working.

I made a small stink about it but they were adamant and eventually I caved. These laws are important.

Yep, I now ask to see these agreements before signing a job offer after making a similar mistake at a previous company.

I did too, and they made verbal promises that they went back on. Next time I'll make sure to ask in an on-the-record communications medium.

Same here. Was working on some research projects and the future employer's recruiter said my new manager loves giving back and while I would have to reduce my hours on the project it should be fine. Legal did not agree, minor he-said-she-said spat and I reneged on the offer. I hate feeling like I'm an indentured servant for a company that wasn't even willing to match my existing pay.

Oh, wow. Nice to start off a working relationship by lying to the new hire. I might have signed if I were in a financial bind (e.g., just moved cross-country and couldn't afford to be unemployed), but I would immediately start looking for another job.

Sadly this is fairly commonplace in IP contracts. Though some companies provide potential hires with an option to list "own inventions" wherein he/she can list projects they may continue to develop in their own time and retain ownership of. Granted, all entries therein are subject to approval by the company - obviously they won't let you pursue a project that is actually in competition with their business.

My understanding of the “list all inventions/projects” activity is that its purpose is to let the employer know what past projects they can’t grab, but it is not a way for you to continue working on them while still owning the IP. Their lawyers will say, “we can’t go after the parts of this project that were disclosed to us, but we can go after it based on the parts you’ve worked on since joining us.”

One of the many things that attracted me to my current company is that the employment contract specifically states that you own your stuff that you do on your own time, that doesn’t compete with the company, as long as you use your own equipment. Not really a problem for me since I have no creative ideas to start a business outside of generic cloud consulting and screening potential employees for other companies.

This blog post has a decent explanation of the rationale for why they are written that way: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2016/12/09/developers-side-pr...

I understand their rationale, but the problem is that unless your state protects you from nonsense, they are still written in a way where they literally are saying they own everything you do outside of the job. Likely? Who knows. But if an employer was really interested in the value of one of your projects, they could potentially bring up a suit against you for it.

It doesn't stop them from suing you though. Do you really want to deal with this stuff in court?

Anything I do in my private life I keep on the down low.