If you have to read the employment contract extremely closely for gotchas, then you shouldn't work there!

An employer being clever by extracting more in a zero-sum game commits them to adversarial negotiations in future iterations of the game.

If you're playing "clever" games, that will eventually come out and become known by your counterparties.

Then people will interpret every bit of ambiguity as "how are they trying to screw me?"

If you work for a Machiavellian then you have to assume that every leaf that falls is part of a plot or scheme.