I’m 24,and work as a server in a small restaurant with about 10-12 employees. I’ve been here for two years,while I’ve been attending university as well.
In the past,our chef has had to sign an NDA stating that she wouldn’t reveal any of our recipes or vendors. That wasn’t unusual to me,and I’m pretty sure it’s quite common within the restaurant business. However,we switched owners about 4 months ago,and they are telling us to sign an NDA that states we cannot speak about anything that happens at our job outside of it. I inquired more,and my boss said that we cannot speak about the business outside of work,and that we shouldn’t have been doing so in the first place. In addition,she also said that we cannot talk about any of our coworkers & their personal information. I’m not sure what this means,as most of us are friends & communicate regularly. She used an example of how if we are mad at her,we can only tell people outside of our work that we are mad,but we cannot go into detail and & reveal her personal information. However,what constitutes as personal information is completely undefined.
She also used an example of a story a coworker had shared this morning,about an ex-coworker who had just been arrested. She is friend’s with our old co-workers family,and didn’t think twice about sharing it. Anyways,my boss said that would be illegal under our NDA. Basically,we can’t talk about anything at work,or each other(past & present!) for 25 years. We have to sign it,or we will be fired. Is this..normal? My coworker is planning on calling the labor board tonight.