If It’s Not an Offer Letter, It’s Not an Offer

Why are so many people in Tech afraid to consult with attorneys? This article, from a legal point of view, is nonsense. There are three elements to an American contract and all of them were met. If the author suffered damages, e.g., funds expended in preparation for a move, quitting his other job, etc. he would have an action for damages against the company that "reneged." In a legal analysis, the synonym for "renege" is breach. And where a contract has been breached and there are damages, they will be awarded. There is no "email exception" to rules governing contract formation.

This sucks, but it's not accurate -- in both directions. Offer letters can get broken too, and legitimate offers don't always come in the form of offer letters.

I've both taken employment (including flying thousands of miles, one way, etc.) and offered employment on handshake basis, although usually with terms in email just so they're written down.

Big companies do offer letters via HR and some formal process, but there's no fundamental difference between email from an authorized party offering something. vs. a scanned PDF attached to an email. You need to show the elements of contract were met, but the form doesn't matter -- email is a big step up from verbal contract, which also exists.

The real rule is: don't do work for lying assholes. If you can't trust your counterparty, you need a lot of compliance and enforcement machinery, and that's usually well beyond what an individual employee can bring to bear.

A contract is a contract is a contract. Every lawyer TV show has an episode on this - even if you write an agreement on a napkin, it's binding.

this entire article is nonsense. An offer can be verbal, written, or implied. Easy as pie to enforce a verbal contract, especially if work was performed as a result.