I unknowingly found myself in a similar employee situation. I had left a company to work at a startup. The startup failed. Around the same time a key person on the team I used to be on went on maternity leave. I was available so I agreed to contract employment to the end of the year. They put a clause in the contract that if I don't stay to the end of the term there would be a $10k penalty. I didn't think twice and signed it, though at the time I thought it would be better for me to give my word on it since we all knew each other.
Well anyway, during the summer there was this coding contest and I won 2nd place. The contest was a recruiting stunt, no surprise, and I was offered a job. I said yes for Jan. They really wanted me ASAP and I explained my situation. They offered to pay that out and a signing bonus, so I said yes negotiating to start in a month to hand over ongoing work. Funny thing is, if I'd given my word I would have stayed to the end of term. Putting the penalty clause in the contract actually made it so much easier to leave because the conditions were so cut-and-dry for both parties. So my take is that you shouldn't run your business on money and fear, but rather get to know who you're dealing with.
Now that I'm thinking of this, I was in another similar situation, where I had my full-time programming job but was bored and got a summer job at Sporting Life (upmarket sportswear + equipment chain). I onboarded for a week with a bunch of highschoolers off for the summer, aced the textiles knowledge. At one point they pointed out that I was far overqualified for the position, and I said that I was bored and the employee discounts are pretty good. Anyhow I ended up staying there all summer, fall, and most of the way through the winter, outlasting multiple waves of staff turnover. I gave it up because it was stressful to get there on time, finding parking, and the parking tickets were racking up. The best part of the job was when ladies trying on clothes would ask how things looked and I'd give it to them straight. I don't recall anyone being offended and many thanked me for my honesty and bought stuff. I wasn't on commission but would have done the same anyway. [I'm a bit socially autistic-like, I once declared that a friend "wasn't at all photogenic" and there was dead silence. Part of the problem might have been that I looked at a lot of photos of them before I said it. I still didn't think there was anything wrong with saying that. It seemed the same to me as saying you're not tall.]
Well anyway, during the summer there was this coding contest and I won 2nd place. The contest was a recruiting stunt, no surprise, and I was offered a job. I said yes for Jan. They really wanted me ASAP and I explained my situation. They offered to pay that out and a signing bonus, so I said yes negotiating to start in a month to hand over ongoing work. Funny thing is, if I'd given my word I would have stayed to the end of term. Putting the penalty clause in the contract actually made it so much easier to leave because the conditions were so cut-and-dry for both parties. So my take is that you shouldn't run your business on money and fear, but rather get to know who you're dealing with.
Now that I'm thinking of this, I was in another similar situation, where I had my full-time programming job but was bored and got a summer job at Sporting Life (upmarket sportswear + equipment chain). I onboarded for a week with a bunch of highschoolers off for the summer, aced the textiles knowledge. At one point they pointed out that I was far overqualified for the position, and I said that I was bored and the employee discounts are pretty good. Anyhow I ended up staying there all summer, fall, and most of the way through the winter, outlasting multiple waves of staff turnover. I gave it up because it was stressful to get there on time, finding parking, and the parking tickets were racking up. The best part of the job was when ladies trying on clothes would ask how things looked and I'd give it to them straight. I don't recall anyone being offended and many thanked me for my honesty and bought stuff. I wasn't on commission but would have done the same anyway. [I'm a bit socially autistic-like, I once declared that a friend "wasn't at all photogenic" and there was dead silence. Part of the problem might have been that I looked at a lot of photos of them before I said it. I still didn't think there was anything wrong with saying that. It seemed the same to me as saying you're not tall.]