First course of action: ignore it. Just because someone gives you a piece of paper to sign, doesn't mean you have to sign it. Don't make an issue of it. Just

First course of action: ignore it. Just because someone gives you a piece of paper to sign, doesn't mean you have to sign it. Don't make an issue of it. Just don't sign it until they make an issue. This worked for me at one company. Second course of action, get some legal advice from a lawyer in your area who knows employment law. Based on that info, seek to ammend the contract to be more reasonable. The lawyer may say that such contracts are void in your state, in which case just sign it. In other cases, the lawyer may give you some reasonable things to talk to your employer about. Oftentimes, companies get bad advice from lawyers who give them boilerplate contracts to use. Sometimes if you explain how this impacts you, they will change it. If they see it puts them at a disadvantage, for example.