In a leaked memo, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke put limits on employees having side hustles, saying Shopify requires ‘unshared attention’::Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke discourages employees from side hustles in company memo, saying their jobs require their undivided attention.
If you’re an engineer employment contracts generally include clauses to give them anything you invent at home
These are typically limited to business relevant intentions (e.g., in theory if you work for shopify you would be able to work on code for rocket powered roller skates but not anything related to commerce – this tends to be the extent of what’s legally enforceable anyways). I wouldn’t accept one that gobbles up any work that I do, too much red tape.
Staying away from big companies typically makes this all easier, because in the worst case it ends up in court … and the mega corp may make an argument for way too many things and drag out the court to proceedings with a near infinite number of lawyers.
Alternatively, live somewhere that forbids this stuff (I think California is included in that list).