non-compete agreements

[Antiganon]

Depends on scope. I had to sign one at my current job, it stipulates that i will not work for another Sage reseller within 50 miles within 6 months of ending my employment. That is sufficiently narrow that it was a no brainer - I was not a Sage consultant before taking this job, my current employer is the one who has provided and paid for any Sage specific training I have had, and I am not barred from seeking other IT employment that doesn't deal with Sage.

Were I a Sage consultant beforehand, I might have thought differently. Several of my co-workers did, they are 1099 contractors working under their own LLC, and are not subject to a noncompete, but they also don't have access to the same health benefits, and they likely pay higher taxes as a 1099 employee than a W-2 employee (unless they make considerably more than I do).

[Themius]

Are you in radio or broadcasting. Outside of those I've never heard of them.

jimmy johns actually has a non compete so you can't work with restaurants or other sandwich places after you leave.

[Antiganon]

jimmy johns actually has a non compete so you can't work with restaurants or other sandwich places after you leave.

That's completely ridiculous IMO.

Non-competes, imo, should be restricted to the following:

Specialized training
Specific proprietary knowledge
Clients

You can't take this training we paid for and go get a new job with a competitor, essentially stealing our investment with no possibility of return.
You can't take this specific proprietary knowledge about iPhone hardware and sensors and go get a job at Samsung implementing our tech into the next Galaxy S.
You can't take our clients with you to start your own business or join another firm.

[McFuu]

Do you agree with non-compete employment agreements? I've signed my first one when I started my new job this past month because I needed the job. But I feel like non-compete agreements should not exist. It gives the employer far too much control over a subordinate.

I've had to sign one. I'm an electrical engineer, but we work on UPS for data centers, 911 call centers, and other equipment that requires critical uptime.
The non-compete we sign is basically along the lines of don't go off starting your own company with other guys you work with and undercut our prices and take customers with you. While I work directly for a manufacturer in a service group, there are other 3rd party companies that provide maintenance and repair, but in general if you work for us you are the top of the mountain, so if someone is fired and immediately starts working for one of these 3rd Parties we don't care, even though it violates the non-compete.

[Forogil]

To me it depends on the duration of non-compete after the employment, and what kind of severance payment (or what-ever it is called) you are guaranteed.

As far as I recall I have a non-compete agreement (for half a year) and similar payment.

[Wikko]

Dont know about anywhere else but here the non-compete clauses can only be up to 6 months after leaving the company, and the company has to pay you your salary the whole time of that non-compete contract, so sure I'd sign it and get paid for doing nothing.

[Vargulf the Happy Husky]

if i liked the company i was working for and planned on being there for a long time, sure i would sign one.

so someone please answer me this, say i sign one of these...im using the salesman scenario laid out by @Hubcap ...and i bring in a ton of customers but then i quit and find a new job in the same field. obviously, i can't poach all my former customers even though i am their connection to whatever. but what if they willingly come back to me, without me asking them? does that break the agreement?

[unbound]

Do you agree with non-compete employment agreements? I've signed my first one when I started my new job this past month because I needed the job. But I feel like non-compete agreements should not exist. It gives the employer far too much control over a subordinate.

They really shouldn't, but congress is controlled by large corporations at this point.

There are 2 major reasons for non-compete agreements...to keep you from using current knowledge at a competitor, and to keep your salary down. Only idiots believe corporate PR which only talks about the first.

Non-compete agreements also demonstrate (one of many, many pieces of evidence) that while corporate PR loves to talk about the competitive market, they do everything they can to eliminate actual competition.

[Spectral]

I have one that I'm not very enthusiastic about. I have enough banked that if I really wanted to consult or otherwise work for someone that I have a one year non-compete with, I could just screw around for a year, but it's not great that I have to screw around for a year with other things other than working. It's pretty hard to see any actual public interest in this being a legally valid agreement, it's really just a way to shift power away from labor.

[Deleted]

Do you agree with non-compete employment agreements? I've signed my first one when I started my new job this past month because I needed the job. But I feel like non-compete agreements should not exist. It gives the employer far too much control over a subordinate.

If you don't agree with them why sign one? o.O

[Grapemask]

If you don't agree with them why sign one? o.O

because I needed the job

This is where all free market style philosophical mumbo jumbo becomes mumbo jumbo. The free market worship of money ignores that money is a necessity of life, and only assumes that everyone simply has it and can throw it around, or accept it or choose not to accept it, with freedom of choice.

[Deleted]

This is where all free market style philosophical mumbo jumbo becomes mumbo jumbo. The free market worship of money ignores that money is a necessity of life, and only assumes that everyone simply has it and can throw it around, or accept it or choose not to accept it, with freedom of choice.

Are IT jobs really that difficult to get?

[Deja Thoris]

Are IT jobs really that difficult to get?

Stop being facetious, you know nothing of his circumstances.

[Deleted]

Stop being facetious, you know nothing of his circumstances.

Honestly I suspect this thread is utter BS. Besides I was simply asking a question

[Deja Thoris]

Honestly I suspect this thread is utter BS. Besides I was simply asking a question

Not really, I can imagine a lot of people that need a job that take them on less than ideal terms because they know or feel they have little bargaining power.

Theres a time and place for non competition agreements but when Jimmys sandwich shop prevents you from working at places that sell bread for 6 months it starts to smell more like indentured servitude.

[Rathwirt]

I've worked for a few different banks and other places with confidential data, all had non-compete clauses for the term of the employment and all contracts were very clear that you not bring any data from one company to another. It makes sense to me in that context. It's their data, not yours. If you're working for multiple banks at the same time, it's a bigger risk to the bank that you might be tempted to move data around, especially if you work in sales and are paid on commission.

But if I were, say, a lineman, I don't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to take those skills to any or all employers at once if I wanted to make more money. Those are my skills, and who I am using them for shouldn't really matter.

[Tijuana]

Do you agree with non-compete employment agreements? I've signed my first one when I started my new job this past month because I needed the job. But I feel like non-compete agreements should not exist. It gives the employer far too much control over a subordinate.

I think there are some that are ok, and some that not ok. The ones that ban you from chasing the customers of your former business are fine. The ones that ban you from working in the field at all, should be illegal.

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I've worked for a few different banks and other places with confidential data, all had non-compete clauses for the term of the employment and all contracts were very clear that you not bring any data from one company to another. It makes sense to me in that context. It's their data, not yours. If you're working for multiple banks at the same time, it's a bigger risk to the bank that you might be tempted to move data around, especially if you work in sales and are paid on commission.

But if I were, say, a lineman, I don't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to take those skills to any or all employers at once if I wanted to make more money. Those are my skills, and who I am using them for shouldn't really matter.

I generally agree. But, I would carve out the instance where the skills were acquired via company training. I used to be an electrician actually, and the union banned me from leaving and working for a non-union company for 5 years after my apprenticeship. But keep in mind, they gave me the schooling for free. So, I feel that was fair.

[Doctor Amadeus]

It depends, if a workplace has spend thousands of dollars worth of resources and and invested in a employee, ten yes, none compete agreements make perfect sense.

I don't however think it should apply to say someone who works at KFC, who later wants to work for Popeyes Chicken, I mean the likelihood said individual is going to retain anything valuable from KFC is pretty limited.

[roninwookie]

It's in the company's interest so they want you to sign one. Sales people are another group that sign non competes, say you're a salesman who's worked for the company for years and you've brought in hundreds of customers, if you quit and took all your customers with you that would devastate the company. My guess is that it is the same at your new job, they don't want you to get friendly with all their best customers and then quit and start your own business stealing all their customers.

This. My company has all of our employees (from minimum wage to higher ups) sign non compete. We have specialty training that can be taken somewhere else if employee was so inclined as well as customer info that employees would be able to take to other businesses. Our minimum wage employees won't really see the customer info part and the training could be taught somewhere else so it's more of a fear tactic than anything for them.

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It depends, if a workplace has spend thousands of dollars worth of resources and and invested in a employee, ten yes, none compete agreements make perfect sense.

I don't however think it should apply to say someone who works at KFC, who later wants to work for Popeyes Chicken, I mean the likelihood said individual is going to retain anything valuable from KFC is pretty limited.

There's plenty that can be taken from one to use at the other. Probably not recipes but in HOW they cook, schedules, vendors, pricing strategy, marketing strategy (if they are privy to that knowledge).Inside knowledge can also be used as leverage to get employment at another similar or competing facility.

[kendro1200]

Do you agree with non-compete employment agreements? I've signed my first one when I started my new job this past month because I needed the job. But I feel like non-compete agreements should not exist. It gives the employer far too much control over a subordinate.

It's important to know how the "non-compete" was worded, often they'll be worded in that you can't use techniques and skills learned at the company at another job, which in and of itself is a very grey area. It is also important to know how long contracts are legally binding in your state, such as in California contracts are only legally binding for about 7 years (often used for the entertainment industry, but the court ruling back in the '70's that set the precedent never dictated that it was only applicable to that industry).

I've signed non-competes before, as you get into more technical work in the private sector they become pretty standard, as well as NDAs. If someone doesn't ask you to sign an NDA or non-compete then you better be scared because either they are clueless or are planning to backstab you once they got everything they want out of you. Refusing to sign non-competes or NDA's is also a pretty big sign that the person in question is either inexperienced or treacherous. Never sign any contract without carefully reading them and stating what concerns you have about the wording in as an articulate form as possible. The point of contracts is to set up the ground rules for a working relationship, and for both sides to formally acknowledge what basics they expect from either side of the work. By default contracts are not something to be scared of, but who gives them and how they are written can be, also under what laws they are working under. A contract can contradict the law of the place where they are signed, and the law takes precedent as the contract will be considered illegal. All in all, it basically comes down to doing your research before you sign anything, that is usually why most places will give you at least a day to read over stuff before requiring you to sign anything.