Employer terminates the agreement without cause.Of course, employers are reticent to lift restrictions at least until the date on which the term would naturally have ended if they going to have to pay out the employee’s salary to the end of the term anyway.This scenario would occur after, say, they shut down the management division for whatever reason.It is very difficult to deal with a firing without cause.Although the employer usually has to pay out the remainder of its obligations, there is always some damage done to the employee, if only to his or her reputation.There exist many state, federal, and even constitutional provisions that can reduce the impact of such provisions, but a litigation may ensue that can be very expensive in terms of time, money, and the stress it brings to the litigant.At a minimum, you should try to exclude from such prohibition your personal assistant or secretary, or any person whose services are more or less indispensable and not easily replicated.Sometimes the employer may be vengeful enough to refuse to allow you to take an assistant with you, then terminate the assistant’s employment shortly thereafter, thereby inconveniencing all concerned but the employer.This is a fine point, but it can free up the employee a bit and creates more room for discussion before a real legal claim for violation is brought.It is easy to prove that a former employee violated a Thou shalt not hire clause, but it is much harder if the clause is limited to Thou shalt not solicit. The problem, of course, lies in the proof.The employer may feel that, because it is still paying out the employee’s salary, it is entitled to any and all anticompetition restrictions.The employee’s career is, in a real sense, on hold.The careers of his or her clients are also on hold, and they very well might have no other choice during this period of limbo but to move on and hire other managers to serve their professional needs.It would not even be outside of the range of fairness to build in a penalty if the promise of the employment term is unfulfilled due to the failure of the company’s executives to keep the company afloat.In order to put a value on a stock option offer or even to know what to ask for, a great deal of information is necessary and it is useful to have a business manager familiar with such issues assist your attorney in counseling you as a prospective employee.But there are many ways to equalize an offer from a public company with that from a privately held one.The principal way is to seek to ensure that the executive’s compensation is commensurate with that of other people at that level in the industry.Participation in compensation programs can take many shapes, and stock options are not necessarily the most advantageous to the employee.This price is usually the market price of the stock on the day you received the option.You may have to sell it to get enough cash to pay the tax, and in closely held, nonpublic companies, it is often difficult, if not impossible, to sell your shares until the company goes public or is bought out.Do unvested options lapse?Remember, you will have no job and maybe no cash.Or must you write a check and fork it over to the company?You may prefer to forgo the risk of stock options becoming ultimately valueless by substituting a provision that will provide you with future bonuses to be paid in cold cash.School fees for children’s education is a popular perquisite, one that is nothing less than a necessity in certain cities.This can amount to many thousands of dollars in the child’s junior or senior year in high school.Financial Planning AssistanceOne of the more impressive perks I have seen recognizes that employees, like their bosses, have financial goals.One large company agreed to provide financial counseling through a partnership with a financial management company.The first year of counseling was 100% company paid.Each year thereafter, the company agreed to pay 50%.Alternatively, the company offered a reimbursement of $5,000 annually to be used by the employee with the financial planner of his or her choice.How resentful an employee feels after he has taken off his allotment of personal days to run errands, or attend a parent’s funeral, and then suffers a debilitating illness in November or December and the employer says, Too bad.There is a misconception held by most employees that if they sign a contract, they are assured of being employed throughout its term.Indeed, both parties to an employment agreement can terminate at will.Just as the employer can terminate the employee at any time, so also the employee is free to resign at any time.Both can act for any reason.Two main categories of termination are termination without cause and termination with cause, and their consequences differ.If the termination is with cause, there may be no more payment of the contractual salary, or other compensation, such as perks, as of the date of termination, and the employer may even claim damages from the employee.Termination without cause is more difficult to define.It occurs when, for example, the employer decides that the employee’s job definition is not correct or not being filled as well by employee A as it might be by employee B, or simply because the budget for the division has been reduced, leaving the employer with no alternative but to cut staff.In this situation, the contractual provision usually requires payout for the entire term of the agreement, with mitigation.This means that the employee must seek, in good faith, another job equivalent to the one that he or she had with the employer.During the job search, the employee’s contractual salary will be paid out, for the term of the original agreement, until such time as the employee finds another job.But the employer will surely not pay this absent a specific provision in the employment agreement requiring it to do so.This is difficult to get.Yet, if the employer believes that insolvency of the business or such a severe scaling back of the business that the employee’s entire division must be terminated is unlikely to occur, the employer may agree to such terms.It is worth a try in any event.In cases where the employer wants to limit the payout term, it is possible to agree that with cause results in no payment and without cause results in a payment equal to the lesser of base compensation for three to six months or base compensation for the then remaining natural term of the agreement.Change of ControlIn some cases, the employee may wish to end the contractual relationship if a change of control in the company occurs.This can be negotiated in the contract to constitute a termination without cause, but the consequences may be different from the consequences