Hey everyone, I'm reviewing a vendor contract for a new analytics platform we're considering, and I've hit a clause that's giving me pause.
The force majeure section lists the usual suspects like natural disasters and government actions, but it also explicitly includes "labor shortages" as an event that could excuse their performance. This seems... incredibly broad? Our data pipeline would depend on their support team. If they have high turnover or can't hire, could they just invoke this to stop fulfilling their SLAs?
I'm used to writing SQL to define specific conditions, so vague terms like this stand out. For example:
```sql
-- In my world, I'd want to define 'labor shortage' clearly
CASE
WHEN support_staff_count < agreed_threshold FOR 30_consecutive_days
THEN 'event_triggered'
ELSE 'no_event'
END
```
But the contract has no such metrics. Has anyone else negotiated this? Is it becoming a standard catch-all? I'm worried it could leave us without recourse if service degrades because they're understaffed, which feels like an operational risk they should manage, not an "act of god."
Any insight from those who've been through this would be super helpful. Trying to learn what's normal in these agreements.