Six to seven unpaid hours a week, in the evenings, helping a friend. Norwegian law says that’s fine. Your contract is stricter — and one part of it is riskier than it first looks.
Probably yes — but you must ask permission in writing first, and there are two things to sort out before you do.
Your project sounds fine in itself: unpaid, your own time, helping a friend. Under Norwegian law that would normally be nobody’s business but yours.
Two things in your contract change that. First, you agreed not to do any work for others — paid or unpaid — without permission. Second, and more seriously, you signed a separate agreement not to help any business that competes with your employer or any company in its group, and that one applies right now, not just after you leave. Breaking it carries a pre-agreed penalty of three months’ salary.
So before anything else: find out exactly what your friend’s project does, and make sure it doesn’t overlap with your employer’s business. Then ask — describing the project honestly, so the company makes that call rather than you.
One more thing worth knowing: you’re still on probation until about 4 November 2026. Asking is the right thing to do, but it isn’t free — it tells your employer you have spare capacity. Waiting until probation ends is a legitimate option if your friend can wait.
Your contract is 15 pages, but three parts of it decide this question. One is hidden in a section about intellectual property, and one is in a separate signed agreement at the very back — both easy to miss.
You need the company’s permission before doing work for anyone else — even when nobody is paying you.
What the contract actually says “Without prior consent from the Company, the Employee is not permitted to undertake paid or unpaid work for others… The Company may only refuse such consent for objective reasons.”
Three things to notice. It says “paid or unpaid” outright — so “but I’m not getting paid” doesn’t get you out of it. That’s exactly the situation this sentence was written for. There’s no minimum number of hours either, so 6–7 hours a week isn’t too small to count.
But the last sentence is on your side. “Objective reasons” means the company can’t just say no because it feels like it — it needs an actual, defensible reason connected to the business. Not every Norwegian contract includes this. Yours does.
This clause has two halves. The approval half probably doesn’t apply to you. The ownership half definitely does — and it’s the one that matters.
What the contract actually says “The Employee shall inform the Employer’s CEO in writing of any side projects involving software development… Such side projects shall not be commenced without the prior written approval of the Employer’s CEO.”
The approval half. Read the wording closely: it applies to side projects “where the Employee claims that the intellectual property rights… shall vest in him/her” — meaning projects where you claim to own the software. On your facts you’re not claiming ownership; the work is your friend’s. So this approval requirement probably isn’t triggered at all. Mention it in your email as a precaution (“to the extent clause 12 applies”), but don’t treat it as a separate wall you have to climb.
The ownership half is the real issue, and it works automatically — no approval, no trigger, nothing anyone has to decide. Your contract says software you create can belong to your employer if any one of three things is true: it relates to what they sell or are building; you used company equipment or know-how; or it results from work you’ve done for them. It says this applies even when you write it outside working hours, and it keeps applying for one year after you leave.
Note that none of those three tests asks whether the project competes. Something can be completely non-competing and still be caught — for example if you reuse a technique or pattern you learned at work.
What this means for your friend — and what to do about it. You cannot simply decide the code is his. The ownership rule operates on its own terms; saying “the IP belongs to my friend” in an email doesn’t change it, and your employer staying silent isn’t agreement.
So don’t assert it — ask them to waive it, in writing, naming the project. And until you have that written waiver in hand, don’t promise your friend that the work is his. If the project ever becomes valuable, that promise is the thing that will hurt.
For context, Norwegian law by default is much narrower: it gives an employer rights over software written as part of your actual job. Your contract reaches well beyond that — into your own time, and a year past your last day. That gap is exactly why a written waiver is worth the effort rather than a formality.
At the very back of your contract there’s a separate signed agreement called Agreement on Restrictions of Competition. This is the part I’d want you to read most carefully, because it’s stricter than clause 9 and it has a price attached.
You agreed not to help any business that competes with your employer or any company in its group — and this applies while you work there, not just after you leave.
What the contract actually says “The Employee undertakes not to, either directly or indirectly, alone, together with or on behalf of other persons… during the employment relationship and for 12 months after… be employed in, participate in, start or operate any business that competes with the business of the Company or its affiliates.”
Three words matter. “During the employment relationship” means it binds you today. “Participate in” is broad enough to cover unpaid volunteer help — you don’t have to be employed or paid. And “or its affiliates” means the whole corporate group, not just the company that employs you.
There’s also a penalty written in. A later clause in the same appendix sets damages at three months’ salary for each breach, plus any further losses, plus any profit made. On a junior engineer’s salary that’s a five-figure sum, agreed in advance.
This is why the first step isn’t writing an email — it’s asking your friend what the project actually does.
The test isn’t “is it obviously a competitor.” It’s whether it touches anything your employer or any company in its group currently sells or is building. Things that can look unrelated to a junior engineer — web performance tooling, edge computing, anything sitting in the HTTP or infrastructure layer — can turn out to overlap.
If there’s any overlap at all, stop and get proper legal advice before doing anything. If there isn’t, describe the project in real technical detail in your email — enough that the company makes the call, not you. That way, if it’s ever questioned later, the answer is “you knew exactly what it was and you approved it.”
If you look up side jobs in Norway, you’ll find lots of reassuring advice saying you’re free to do what you like in your own time. That advice is correct — and it stops applying the moment you sign a clause like clause 9.
Your free time is yours.
There’s no law in Norway stopping you from having a side job. The only general limit is a duty to be loyal to your employer — meaning you can’t compete with them, harm their business, or let outside work make you bad at your actual job. A few professions (police, healthcare) need permission by law. Software isn’t one of them.
You agreed to ask first anyway.
You’re allowed to sign away that freedom, and this kind of clause is valid in Norway. Once you have, it binds you no matter how small or harmless the side work is. Going ahead without asking would break your contract — on its own, even though the project itself is completely fine.
So the problem isn’t your project. Your project is fine. The problem would be not asking. That’s the thing that turns a harmless favour for a friend into a breach of your employment contract.
This matters more right now than it would later, because you’re still in your six-month trial period (clause 3), which runs until about 4 November 2026. During it, the company only needs to give you 14 days’ notice (clause 15.1), and it’s easier for them to end your employment than it will be once the trial period is over. This is not a good moment to be technically in breach of anything.
Here’s every part of your situation against what actually matters. Much of it is in your favour — but the first item has to be settled before any of the rest counts.
Everything else depends on this, and it can’t be answered without knowing what your friend is building. The test is whether it touches anything your employer or any company in its group sells or is building — not just their headline product. Find this out before you do anything else.
Your hours are 08:00–16:00, Monday to Friday. Evenings and weekends are your own time, so you’re not taking anything from your employer.
6–7 hours a week is about one-sixth of a full-time job — far too little to count as a second job. Keep it around this level. If it grows into something much bigger, the answer could change.
Your contract stops you approaching your employer’s customers or recruiting their staff. Helping a friend doesn’t come near either — just don’t bring colleagues or clients into the project.
If side work starts affecting your performance at your real job, that becomes a genuine problem. At 6–7 hours it shouldn’t — but this is the form any complaint would take, so don’t let it show at work.
This one is important. Your employer can look at anything on the company computer, and anything you build using company equipment can end up belonging to them. Use your own machine, and don’t reuse any code or know-how from work.
Nothing from work into your friend’s project, and just as importantly, nothing from your friend’s project into your work code. Your contract requires written permission every single time for the second one, so no general approval covers it.
Get fresh written permission if: it takes investment or starts making money; you’re offered shares, options or any payment; it becomes a real company or you take any formal role; or its direction moves toward what your employer does. Any of these turns “helping a friend” into something your contract treats differently.
You need permission under clause 9 before you start. Mention clause 12 in the same email as a precaution, and ask them to confirm in writing that the work belongs to your friend.
The request is reasonable and there’s a good chance they say yes. But it isn’t cost-free to make while you’re on probation, so it’s worth deciding when as well as how.
Three honest options.
Ask now. The clean, correct thing to do. Be aware it tells your employer you have spare time and outside commitments, while they’re still deciding whether to keep you — and you can’t un-say it. If they say no, helping anyway becomes much more serious than never having asked.
Wait until probation ends (around 4 November 2026), then ask — and don’t start until then. Lowest risk, if your friend can wait ten weeks. After that date you have full protection and three months’ notice.
Say no to your friend, or offer something that isn’t building the product — advice over coffee rather than committed hours.
What is not an option: starting now and asking later. That’s the one path that turns a fine situation into a real problem.
If you do ask, answer all their questions in the first message so there’s nothing left to worry about.
Your contract says you’re bound by the company’s personnel manual. It may already have a side-work policy with its own process or form — which would tell you exactly who to ask and how. Takes five minutes and you already have it.
Your contract never names one. You can look up the registered daglig leder free at brreg.no using the company’s organisation number. Worth two minutes so you’re writing to the right person.
Not a quick chat in the kitchen. You want a written record of what you asked and what they said. And ask before you begin — asking first is a normal request, while mentioning it afterwards looks like you’re admitting something.
Your manager is the CTO who signed your contract, so don’t go around him — that’s the worst version of this. Address both. And if the approval comes back from your manager rather than the CEO, that’s still worth having: a written yes from the person who signed your contract would be very hard for the company to disown later.
These are separate and it’s the easiest thing to get wrong. Permission to do the project doesn’t say anything about who owns what you build. Ask for both, explicitly, or you’ll get a “yes” that settles only half of it.
Unpaid, evenings and weekends, about 6–7 hours a week, nothing to do with your employer’s business, your own laptop, no company information, and the work belongs to your friend. Each of these removes a reason someone might hesitate.
They can only refuse for a real reason, so ask for it in writing. But be realistic: fighting a refusal means a legal dispute with your employer, while on probation, over unpaid favours for a friend. You’d have an argument — and you almost certainly shouldn’t use it. Better options are asking whether a smaller version would be approved, or revisiting after probation.
Subject · Request for permission for an unpaid side project
Hi [name],
I’d like to ask for permission under clause 9 of my contract to help a friend with a personal project in my own time.
What it is: [describe the project in real technical detail — what it does, what it’s built with, who it’s for]. It’s completely unpaid and voluntary, around 6–7 hours a week in the evenings and at weekends.
As far as I can tell it doesn’t compete with us or with any company in the group, but I’m describing it in detail so you can confirm you see it the same way. It doesn’t involve any of our customers, colleagues, confidential information, or equipment — I’d be using my own laptop, and I’ll keep the two entirely separate in both directions.
On ownership: I understand clause 12 provides that intellectual property can vest in the Company in certain circumstances, including work done outside working hours. Could you please confirm in writing that the Company makes no claim to, and waives any rights in, anything I contribute to this project — including for the twelve months after any end of my employment? To the extent clause 12’s approval requirement applies here, I’m requesting that approval too.
It won’t affect my availability or my work, and I’ll come back to you if it ever grows into something bigger — if it takes investment, starts making money, or I’m offered any stake in it.
Happy to answer any questions or give more detail on the technical side. Could you confirm in writing whether this is approved?
Thanks,
[your name]
You’re not breaking working-hour limits. Norway’s maximum-hours rules apply to each employer separately, and unpaid volunteering generally isn’t counted as work at all. The only real concern is being too tired to do your job well — which is about your performance, not about a legal hour limit.