8 ms·
We really need general regulations on non-competes. Bare minimum, it should be required that a company pay you a full salary if they want to block you from seek
by TulliusCicero 4y ago
We really need general regulations on non-competes. Bare minimum, it should be required that a company pay you a full salary if they want to block you from seeking employment elsewhere with your skills.
If a company really cares that much about stopping competitors from taking advantage of your skillset, they need to be willing to pay up.
- dfcab 4y agoWhole heartedly agree.
- cma 4y agoThat still is anticompetitive.
- exabrial 4y agoMeh I dunno, I'd take it
- mcronce 4y agoI think that's why the "bare minimum" language was used: It's a lot better than the status quo, but doesn't go far enough.
- h0l0cube 4y agoThe competition could still poach the employee for more money, if they deemed them worth it. Which is plain old competition.
- TulliusCicero 4y agoWell, maybe, but in practice companies would only rarely use it, since they wouldn't want to pay for someone to not do work.
- avsteele 4y agoThen how would a company protect it's trade secrets?
- charcircuit 4y agoUsing an NDA like everyone else.
- throwaway2847 4y agoAn NDA, same way they do now.
- runnerup 4y agoTrade secrets are already strongly and strictly protected at national and state level regardless of non compete agreements. You are never allowed to steal trade secrets or use them elsewhere even if you didn’t sign any agreement about it. An NDA isn’t even technically required. There are state and national laws which blanket ban using trade secrets outside of the company you worked for.
- jjallen 4y agoHow would a previous employer know what a former employee is telling their current employer about what they know from their former employer? Not saying anything is right or wrong, just that when something is illegal doesn't mean it prevents that crime.
- xphos 4y agoYeah but than the person is liable and could be charged in that case
- shagie 4y agoExample: Former Uber Executive Sentenced To 18 Months In Jail For Trade Secret Theft From Google https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-uber-executive-sentenced-18-months-jail-trade-secret-theft-google https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-uber-executive-s... > Anthony Scott Levandowski pleaded guilty and was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for trade secret theft related to Google’s self-driving car program, announced United States Attorney David L. Anderson and John F. Bennett, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Levandowski was also ordered to pay a $95,000 fine and $756,499.22 in restitution.
- duskwuff 4y agoOn top of that, non-competes shouldn't be enforceable on employees who are laid off or fired. If a company doesn't want to retain an employee, they shouldn't have any say over what that employee does with their skills afterwards.
- ocdtrekkie 4y agoThis seems like the barest of minimums, yes. I conceptually understand wanting to ensure an employee can't use their connections at your company to then "cut out the middleman" and deal direct for a better cut. But obviously if a company lets you go, they are no longer choosing to invest in that employee's skills.
- tony69 4y agoBut then if you want to avoid the non-compete you would just get fired on purpose. Classic unintended consequence of regulation. But I do agree that non-competes should be illegal or somehow highly disincentivized.
- nkrisc 4y agoRegardless of the specifics of any regulation, the burden should be on the company and should err on the side of the employee’s benefit. It’s never fair to pit an individuals livelihood against a corporation.
- SideQuark 4y agoCan a salesman leave and take all his clients with him, even if there were given to him by the company?
- wikibob 4y agoPreventing a sales person from soliciting their former customers is entirely covered by a non-solicitation contract, and claiming that a non-compete agreement is needed is a total straw man.
- 4y ago
- downrightmike 4y agoI train myself, I educate myself, I continue all that, the company just rents an expert, but I own me.
- slymon99 4y agoAs long as "full salary" is defined as your total compensation. Financial firms set base salaries low relative to total compensation (bonus can be 200-500%+ base) so that your TC drops dramatically if you leave. Sometimes the next job will buy you out, but with 18 month non competes being common, sometimes you are just screwed.
- topkai22 4y agoI posted on the parent as well, but I find non-competes reasonable only if they are time limited (like 6 months to a year), very narrowly tailored and affect a very small number of job openings. I think Google blocking someone from going to Bing ridiculous, but a stoping a move from being the chief of staff at Google Maps to the chief of staff at Bing maps is far more reasonable.
- devnullbrain 4y agoEven preventing direct lateral moves prevents... competition. Where would we be without the Traitorous Eight?
- wikibob 4y agoIt’s far less reasonable. If you are skilled in being the chief of staff at google maps, it is likely your highest market value is in that particular niche. Restricting your employment opportunities to those where you don’t have the highest market value through the use of non-competes is absolutely unethical and needs to be banned.
- ClumsyPilot 4y agoits not about ethics - its theft. They are fraudulently manipulating the market for competitive salaries in a particular job. It should be treated in the same way as other kinds of market fraud, insider trad8ng and rigging are treated.
- ShredKazoo 4y agoI think the argument would be that if Google knows that Bing could hire its chief of staff at any time, that will cause Google to invest less in R&D because that R&D could fairly easily be obtained by a competitor. I assume intellectual property law is sufficient to cover this case in practice though, because Silicon Valley is in California where noncompetes are unenforceable, and Silicon Valley is not exactly known for lack of R&D investment.
- tobinfekkes 4y agoBing Maps has a chief of staff?? Chief of what? People use Bing Maps?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- closeparen 4y agoOk. Your salary is $1, but we reliably pay a bonus of $250k.
- TulliusCicero 4y agoI meant total compensation.