My boss has recently made it known that our company is in dire straits. We do have a couple of last ditch clients we are trying to acquire, but the product we are trying to sell is not complete. My boss is having us work on this software that he plans on selling en masse rather than our previous niche of developing specially-tailored solutions for individual clients. But at this point, rather than feverishly working to pull this thing off, my boss seems to only half-heartedly be into the work, which leads me to believe he doesn't care if the company collapses and has other plans.
So here is my question:
Let's say his plan is to take the finished-to-near-finished software and peddle it to further clients on his own time after I'm not in the picture anymore--is that fair? Granted I have nothing in my contract about getting a share of sales from our products. Our company is very small and rag-tag and so my contract doesn't really say much of anything strict or binding. He pretty much just picked me up off the street and taught me everything I know about computer programming, so I owe him a great deal in that regard.
So is it fair to hire people to make a product for you, leave them behind, and sell it yourself? My guess is the answer is yes, but I'd still like to hear it.
Also, is it common for developers to have a clause in their contract which gives them a portion of product sales?