Antiwork

I am going to answer this twice. Once for my current job with a strong union and once for any of my crappier jobs. These are across 4 states in the US.

Now: I have a job description and work plan. These I have a hand in modifying yearly along with my supervisor, but they're guides not contracts. The cleaning is also union, so they absolutely couldn't ask me to do it without getting push back from that union. There is a process for disciplinary action that mostly won't result in instant firing as long as I don't do anything dangerously negligent. Promotions are approved by an established process and come with increasing responsibility and changes to a work plan and a raise. There is a union agreement that defines my benefits. I could quit on a minute's notice if I thought that was a good idea.

Then: Job description/posting gave basic responsibilities, but for all of my crappy jobs that included cleaning and other work like that. They could fire me whenever. Promotions/pay increases were verbal. I always checked the paystubs to make sure that there weren't any 'clerical errors'. My benefits were defined by legislation, so I had no sick leave, no vacation, and no retirement to keep the company on track with. Still, I could quit whenever I wanted. I never had any problems with getting shorted or asked to do unreasonable things. I did have to take my boss aside and correct how they treated me and other employees at couple of places. Just as context I check most of the privilege boxes, and I know that my relative ease navigating these jobs is not universal.

My general thought is that if it isn't collectively negotiated the contract probably favors the company because they have a disincentive to write a contract that protects your rights. If you have the means, you could bring your work contract to a lawyer and see what they think about it. In my experience companies try to write a bunch of stuff in that is unenforceable/illegal so employees will read and abide by it without looking into whether they actually have to. I would rather have a union at my back than have to worry about an individual contract. At this point in my life, I wouldn't sign a work contract if I didn't like the terms or the tone - time to look for a place that isn't trying to screw me over before I even start work.