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Imagine that you're unemployed and need to get a job. It takes a lot of time these days. You call in all your favors, badger the FBI (friends, brothers and in-laws), send out your resume, go on some interviews. Some days, you replay a dead-end interview conversation over and over again in your mind, 'What did I say? What didn't I say? How could I have said that when I'd already rehearsed that question?' You worry, pace, lay awake and occasionally sit staring mournfully at your breakfast, wondering how much longer your favorite cereal is going to be on the menu.
Then the day you've been waiting for: you're hired.
One catch.
The HR rep puts a piece of paper on the desk in front of you and says you have to sign it to get the job. So you look it over. It's barely comprehensible, something about dispute resolution, but you see a word that makes you start reading a bit more closely.
"... in the event employee is raped by coworkers ... company complicit ... agree not to go to court ... civil suit settled through private arbitration firm of employer's choosing ..."
In the event, wait ... what!? You'd probably wonder what country you were in, wonder if you were really reading English, as you had innocently suspected when you sat down. Surely, I mean, come on, that can't be right. Is it even legal to sign away your right to go to court if someone commits a crime against you?
Yes. Let's take it as read that it is.
So really, think about it. You need this job, your family needs you to take it, and you don't know when another one will be on offer. Would you sign that piece of paper?
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