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Is it just an American boilerplate type thing? Americans just think they should have non-competes? As I work for an American parent company and my non-compete

Is it just an American boilerplate type thing? Americans just think they should have non-competes? As I work for an American parent company and my non-compete covers basically any other security or enterprise company. No IBM or EY or SAP for me. Ironically the subsidiary I work for is included on the list and the list includes no actual direct competitors. So walking away to our competitor and building them the exact same thing is interestingly legally fine.

kortilla 5y ago
> Is it just an American boilerplate type thing? Americans just think they should have non-competes? No, they aren’t even legal in California so it’s just some employers and in some states. The financial ones in NY are actually pretty reasonable because employers will pay you during the time after you leave when you aren’t allowed to go to a competitor. Not sure if that’s legally require there or just the market expectation.
- dilyevsky 5y ago
  AWS is based in Seattle and WA does have non competes so almost every tech company there will try to have you sign one. One of the reasons why Seattle will never become a real tech hub. And I’ve never seen any stipulations of payment while non compete is pending for engineering roles
- eru 5y ago
  Are you mixing up gardening leave and non-competes? In any case, I think above some level of compensation basically all crazy clauses that people agree to voluntarily should be fine as far as the law is concerned: there's no need to protect well-off people from themselves. There might or might not be an argument that poor people need to be protected from themselves like little children, and thus that there should be some contracts they shouldn't be allowed to enter. (Just like we only allow some very carefully considered contracts for children to enter into. Eg buying candy is fine; but going into debt is not enforceable against them.)
- destitude 5y ago
  Correction, MOST USA states still allow non-compete clauses.
  - pkaye 5y ago
    Seems like California, North Dakota and Oklahoma are the ones that don't allow non-compete clauses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-compete_clause https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-compete_clause
wheelinsupial 5y ago
I’m in the Vancouver, BC area and there are a few Canadian companies that have non-competes that I’ve heard of. These are not tech based companies either.

kortilla 5y ago

> Is it just an American boilerplate type thing? Americans just think they should have non-competes? No, they aren’t even legal in California so it’s just some employers and in some states. The financial ones in NY are actually pretty reasonable because employers will pay you during the time after you leave when you aren’t allowed to go to a competitor. Not sure if that’s legally require there or just the market expectation.

dilyevsky 5y ago
AWS is based in Seattle and WA does have non competes so almost every tech company there will try to have you sign one. One of the reasons why Seattle will never become a real tech hub. And I’ve never seen any stipulations of payment while non compete is pending for engineering roles
eru 5y ago
Are you mixing up gardening leave and non-competes? In any case, I think above some level of compensation basically all crazy clauses that people agree to voluntarily should be fine as far as the law is concerned: there's no need to protect well-off people from themselves. There might or might not be an argument that poor people need to be protected from themselves like little children, and thus that there should be some contracts they shouldn't be allowed to enter. (Just like we only allow some very carefully considered contracts for children to enter into. Eg buying candy is fine; but going into debt is not enforceable against them.)
destitude 5y ago
Correction, MOST USA states still allow non-compete clauses.
- pkaye 5y ago
  Seems like California, North Dakota and Oklahoma are the ones that don't allow non-compete clauses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-compete_clause https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-compete_clause

wheelinsupial 5y ago

I’m in the Vancouver, BC area and there are a few Canadian companies that have non-competes that I’ve heard of. These are not tech based companies either.