NDA Trap!

   When I say I fully understand why a company would ask its employees to sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), I mean it. Businesses have proprietary processes, trade secrets, and client lists they need to protect. They don't want the world to know the exact recipe behind their secret sauce. In most cases, signing one once you’re hired—or even when you're deep into final-round strategy discussions—is a total gimme.

    But asking a candidate to sign an NDA before even discussing the job description, expectations, or compensation? That's just suspect to me. I don't say "sus." I’m not cutting the word down.  It doesn't feel right.

    Today, after applying for a 100% remote claims adjuster position, I hit this exact wall. The owner of the firm refused to discuss the role, the day-to-day details, her expectations of me, or even a ballpark figure for my pay until I signed her Non-Disclosure Agreement. Curious—and a little skeptical—I told her to send it over so I could review it.

    Now, when I tell you this woman is so far out in left field she’s practically in the parking lot, let me start by saying she genuinely believes her document is both legal and binding. That alone is enough to make any seasoned professional laugh.

    If you’re out there job hunting, especially in remote or specialized fields like claims adjusting, keep your radar up for this kind of gatekeeping. Here is why demanding an NDA before a basic conversation is a massive red flag:

• You can't protect secrets you haven't shared. Standard job descriptions, pay scales, and basic workplace expectations are not proprietary trade secrets. If a company treats its base salary like classified government intel, they are usually trying to hide low pay, high turnover, or disorganized management.
• Contracts require "consideration." For a legal agreement to actually hold up in court, both parties generally have to get something of value out of it. If you haven't been offered a job, paid for your time, or even given actual confidential data, a blanket agreement shoved in your face before a 10-minute phone call is often legally toothless—no matter how intimidating the legalese sounds. WHAT DO I GET from the NDA? Oh, you're going to tell me about the job? Well, yeah, no.
• It sets a terrible precedent. Hiring is a two-way street. You are interviewing them just as much as they are interviewing you. Starting a professional relationship with an immediate demand for silence and compliance tells you everything you need to know about what it would be like to work under that leadership.

    You have to trust your own gut about these things. There is a massive difference between a company protecting its legitimate business interests and a business owner on a power trip using scary paperwork to control the conversation. When someone demands your signature before they’ll even tell you what the job pays, they aren't protecting their business—they're testing to see how easily you'll fold.

    After telling her I wouldn't sign her NDA, she wanted to know why, so I told her. I told her I am a professional adjuster with decades of industry experience. If I can't be trusted to have a conversation, an interview, and allow me to ask a few questions, there's no reason to assume you can hire me. 

    Then, she goes all out and tells me that the job is a 1099 self-employed position without benefits; so what exactly am I getting from this place? I'm supposed to dive in, work hard, maybe get people to pay, and HOPE she pays me what she has agreed to pay some 6-8 weeks down the road? No. I had specifically told her I wanted a W2 position if I took another job, and she understood that. She literally said, "We can discuss it after you sign the NDA." -- No.

    I asked her, "Ma'am, why do you distrust people so badly that you force them to sign your NDA to have a conversation?" She told me where she was from and that it was common practice for people to say one thing and do another —Minnesota. Oh...well, there you go. I let her know I was from the South, and more specifically, I'm from the Great State of Oklahoma. 

    We trust until you give us a reason not to, and then we don't ever let you in again—she said, with her NDA, she didn't have to trust and get burned. I told her her paper wasn't worth squat, and if she ever came to the Sooner State, I'd show her what it means to be honest with a side of integrity.

    I left her with a "Have a blessed day" and ended that conversation.

Photo Credit: IronClad