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The really annoying thing about noncompetes is that they're usually at the discretion of the employer. You might be in a situation where you have a 12 month non
by vostok 9y ago
The really annoying thing about noncompetes is that they're usually at the discretion of the employer. You might be in a situation where you have a 12 month noncompete and nobody wants to hire you 12 months in advance, but then your former employer terminates your noncompete within a month and stops paying you.
- delinka 9y agoIf they terminated the noncompete, that's excellent! I'm thinking you've made a typo. ;-)
- vostok 9y agoIt's not excellent because they stop paying you if they terminate the noncompete, but you also can't look for a new job until the very end of your noncompete period.
- delinka 9y agoPerhaps you're right if they terminate your employment and the noncompete remains in force. But if they've terminated the noncompete, it's no longer in force and you can find work with a competitor.
- phamilton 9y agoSure, but this is equivalent to being let go without severence. You have no buffer to get you through thr job finding process.
- delinka 9y agoSeverance is a wholly different matter. It's completely unrelated to a noncompete clause.
- phamilton 9y agoThe stated case is that you could be let go, but will continue to be paid until the noncompete is terminated. The result is that day 1 of job hunting is day 1 of not getting paid. I'm saying this is akin to termination without severence.
- stupidhn 9y agoI'd love to know where you live that an employer can fire you and expect you to honor a non compete. The second they stop paying you your obligations end. No judge in the land will prevent you from being unable to earn a living.
- vostok 9y agoYou can find a new job if your noncompete is terminated. The problem is that you might have a 12 month non-compete so you might book a 3 month vacation at the beginning because nobody will hire you 12 months in advance. You're just left in the lurch if your former employer then terminates the noncompete within a month and stops paying you. The alternative of just sitting home for those 12 months doesn't sound great either.
- brians 9y agoMost of the USA, including Massachusetts (but not California).
- fnj 9y agoI have been given "agreements" to sign in which the non-compete clause is plainly unconditionally worded: no matter what the cause of termination. I don't know whether they expected to enforce it or not. I redlined the part covering "dismissal", and my annotated agreement was not rejected. This was in Massachusetts. In the end I did get RIFed. They nailed me by conditioning the severance package on accepting a freshly drafted non-compete. I went along with it because I considered my likelihood of continuing in that line of work to be negligible anyway.
- siegel 9y agoActually, even in California, in the limited instances in which a non-compete is enforceable, being fired has no bearing on the non-compete's enforceability.