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That line of argument is mostly a joke based on Corey's history of griping about AWS's terrible marketing. The key argument to that point is made later in the
by skywhopper 6y ago
That line of argument is mostly a joke based on Corey's history of griping about AWS's terrible marketing.
The key argument to that point is made later in the piece. The boss of the person who's now being sued also left Amazon for Google recently, also for a similar position. He also had all of that same knowledge. But he was based in California, so Amazon couldn't sue him. But if this is really such a critical factor worth suing over, why would Amazon allow someone in that position to be based in California at all?
Also, to say that Slack, Twilio, and Dropbox aren't direct competitors is absolutely wrong. The way the non-compete is written, Amazon could sue over him going to almost any other company, because Amazon competes with literally everyone these days.
In any case, given that his hiring boss told him it was not a big deal, and given that HR knew where he was going and didn't warn him off, your suggestions that he "should have known" ring hollow.
- NotSammyHagar 6y agoYes, the key point is AWS actually tries to enforce these non-competes. If you are past a beginning engineer you'll be in terror of amazon suing you if you leave. All my friends (who are experienced) have lived in worry after they left. Noncompetes are a terrible, horrible idea. The Washington state legislature considered legislation blocking them. They got noncompetes removed for sandwich makers (companies literally made people making minimum wage sign non-competes!), I think the threshold was 100k or something. But amazon pushed very hard. Tell your wa state leg rep that you want to end noncompetes.
- kmonsen 6y agoUnless you live and work in California. Many think this is the main reason Silicon Valley exists.
- brodouevencode 6y agoDoes the NC span the gap between AWS and Amazon? It should be pointed out that AWS is a different company than Amazon, with a different CEO, corporate structure, etc. They roll up to Amazon but I'm not sure if the NC will span that gap. So maybe really identifying the bounds of where the NC can apply would be helpful. But to your point if it does that's just down right dangerous. Amazon competes with just about everyone either directly or indirectly.
- the_reformation 6y agoIt does, as mentioned in the article.
- brodouevencode 6y agoThanks! Must have missed that.
- jacobsenscott 6y agoVerbal agreements carry legal weight. He should definitely put the hiring manager on the stand. Then the hiring manager needs to choose between perjury and admitting he said the non-compete will not be enforced.
- darkerside 6y ago"No one has ever" doesn't mean "we never will".