re: Professional non-compete clauses

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I don't think you can legally deny someone the right to earn a living. There could be other limits imposed, but not non-compete. I am not lawyer,

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I'd never guessed you weren't a lawyer...

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Anybody ever challenge or violate their non-compete with their company?

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This was all coming out of 2020

Full commission sales rep working a territory selling forklifts and material handling products. The EPA shut down our core product line due to the MFGer lying on some emissions tests. 70% of income was gone or put on hold for TBD. It was great company money at but a miserably toxic work environment. I was ready to take a pay cut to leave before the EPA stuff.

Our NC was entirely too broad to enforce. Kept us from working any industry that the owner was involved in for 2 years. Every lawyer i talked to said it was worthless but would cost a lot to fight if they went after us.


While that was starting to happen an admin assistant was banging an old sales rep. That sales rep got her a job at a competitor. This lady straight up just pushed paper, whatever business secrets she did know was probably forgotten the second she opened a bottle of wine at the end of the day. When she left, she took no precaution on her non-compete. They went after her, and eventually, she was cleared of the NC but was stuck holding the bag for the lawyer for months. This was during peak covid so courts were slow. Extremely petty and frankly disgusting behavior by management.

This scared all of the sales reps shitless. Every single one of us had job offers that would violate the NC to varying degrees. No employer offered to cover the lawyer fees. I had job offers that would have drastically changed my career path for the better that I didn't take cause of that NC.

I changed industries. I am still selling to my old client base, just different products. In no way violating my NC. I was able to call on a lot of my old customers. A few of them took my recommendation on other competitors' products to buy because the EPA still froze all production. Months after I left, my old manager caught wind that was calling on my old customers.

I got a strongly worded email from the chief counsel to cease all conversations with customers I met due to my role at my old company. It was the pettiest shite I ever read. My blood boiled for a few days. Talked to some old reps and heard my boss was trash-talking often about me. I typed and deleted a million replies. Eventually just deleted the lawyer's email and hoped they sue. Nothing ever came of it.

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Exactly what I was told.

Think about it...who the frick are you (company xyz) to tell me WHO I can work for!!!!

Reminds me of what the US COURTS told the NCAA. "Sir, your business policy is not legal in ANY country."

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What you were told was incorrect (depending on many factors), as has been pointed out already.

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It would t go to a judge, it would go to arbitration.

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That’s even worse. You won’t have a jury. Just some random retired judge or old lawyer who can make whatever ruling they want.

I hate to break it to you but you are getting bad advice. Unless you are clearly changing to a different type of employment.

My boss came to me 20 years ago to ask me to sign one after I had worked for the compamy for 9 years. I work in a highly specialized and small field and basically said no or that it would require a significant amount of money to make me whole if I signed it and limited my opportunities with competitors for a period of time.

The conversation ended there and I still work for the company going on 29 years now.

Here in Texas I mostly see it in small businesses, not large, where the ownership is local and where they think they have something unique and proprietary that warrants preventing employees from moving to another company. They get emotionally tied up in it.

Larger companies, like Dell and IBM don't do this for the majority of their employees. IP is protected property, and that's really all they care about protecting.

When a small business uses non-competes, they usually are not decent at promotions and raises, either. Or in the case of sales commissioned employees, they usually pay off of profitability if a sale and then find ways to stuff expenses into a project to lower the commission. I would never sign a non-compete. I bring more to my employer than they bring to me. As an example, just today, I closed a deal where I had a sign off from management to offer the project to the buyer for $2.4 million. Instead, without adding anything else for the client I closed it for $2.62 million and sent a note to the senior VP for my division saying, "Hope you don't mind, but I padded enough into this project to more than cover my salary for the rest of this year." I think they'd be foolish to consider non-competing me.

Better to take their money and wait a year

I draft and enforce these for a living. The ignorance in thread about “right to work” and “freedom” is why I will always have a job.

FTC is banning non competes. LINK /