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Are America's Non-Compete Laws Too Strict? (nrtoday.com)
Slashdot reader cdreimer shared an article from the New York Times:
Idaho achieved a notable distinction last year: It became one of the hardest places in America for someone to quit a job for a better one. The state did this by making it easier for companies to enforce noncompete agreements, which prevent employees from leaving their company for a competitor... The result was a bill that shifted the burden from companies to employees, who must now prove they have "no ability to adversely affect the employer's legitimate business interests." The bar for that is so high that Brian Kane, an assistant chief deputy in the Idaho attorney general's office, wrote that this would be "difficult if not impossible" for an employee to do...
For the most part, states have been moving toward making it easier for people to switch teams... The most extreme end of the spectrum is California, which prohibits noncompete agreements entirely. Economists say this was a crucial factor behind Silicon Valley's rise, because it made it easier for people to start and staff new businesses. But as states like Utah and Massachusetts have tried to move closer to this approach, legislators have run into mature companies trying to hold onto their best employees... A recent survey showed that one in five American workers is bound by a noncompete clause. They cover workers up and down the economic spectrum, from executives to hairdressers.
Two economists tell the newspaper that since 2000, U.S. workers have changed their jobs less and less, which is sometimes blamed on strict employment contracts as well as the occupational licensing laws which affect a third of America's workforce. The Times reports that noncompete clauses ultimately end up keeping workers' salaries lower, "because most people get raises when they switch jobs."
For the most part, states have been moving toward making it easier for people to switch teams... The most extreme end of the spectrum is California, which prohibits noncompete agreements entirely. Economists say this was a crucial factor behind Silicon Valley's rise, because it made it easier for people to start and staff new businesses. But as states like Utah and Massachusetts have tried to move closer to this approach, legislators have run into mature companies trying to hold onto their best employees... A recent survey showed that one in five American workers is bound by a noncompete clause. They cover workers up and down the economic spectrum, from executives to hairdressers.
Two economists tell the newspaper that since 2000, U.S. workers have changed their jobs less and less, which is sometimes blamed on strict employment contracts as well as the occupational licensing laws which affect a third of America's workforce. The Times reports that noncompete clauses ultimately end up keeping workers' salaries lower, "because most people get raises when they switch jobs."
IIRC from the BLAW 20x or 30x classes I took a long time ago, for a contract to be binding the two parties have to be equals.
Someone that needs a job is – generally speaking – not ever going to be the equal of a potential employer that's dangling a contract saying "sign it or no job." Such a contract should be unenforceable AIUI. And you always have the option to strike out that clause as you're negotiating. (Whether the potential employer accepts it is something else.)
Now, whether a court is going to agree that such a contract is unenforceable is a different question.
As for me, when I resign from my jobs I don't tell my soon to be ex-exployer where I'm going. When they ask, I tell them I haven't decided and I'm taking some time off before I decide what I'm doing. Well, Saturday and Sunday are time off. It's really none of their business where I'm going next.
So between a) (that clause of) the contract being generally unenforceable, b) it being none of their business, and c) I'm perfectly capable of not using any of previous employer's IP in my new job, I personally feel like I'm in pretty safe territory. It has served me well for the 30+ years I've been working as a software developer.
And BTW, IANAL. Ask your own lawyer for advice in your particular situation.
Fascism. Odd how such an important part of recent history has been completely forgotten and turned into an empty symbol. Even intelligent discussion (rare but it does happen) gets shut down by the Godwin bots.
The philosophy and ideas NEVER die after the battles they can not be stopped completely, it is a non-stop fight which has NOT been waged as the very same ideas get implemented in new ways which could manifest in equally bad ways in the future with nobody seeing it coming. History rhymes, it never repeats and if all we do is memorize dates we will not be equipped to recognize it.