Well I had kind of the reverse situation: I wanted to contribute to Cygwin, owned by RedHat. RedHat would not accept my contributions unless I got a signed release from my employer, IBM at the time. Well I tried to get this signed release, but all I got was the run-around. Nobody would bother taking the risk. It's one of the reasons I left.

I'm also surprised at how natural people talk about that, like it's totally ok your employer "owns" your free time.

If that baker intends to sell that bread they also may run afoul of non competes.

See https://www.eater.com/2017/10/13/16459044/non-competes-chefs...

> Doesn’t it bother you that you have to ask some manager if you can do something (a side project) in your free time?

Not at all. A salaried position comes with more open-ended expectations than an hourly position.

Besides, why the resistance to simply asking making it open and honest and the boundaries clear? My agreements on those things tended to be 2 or 3 sentences. I'd sign it, I'd get a veep to sign it, make a copy, and file it away.

It's just good business to do such things.

I've just been accumulating all my contributions for when I quit or come up with a good enough alias to contribute them under.