What I don't get is why companies in states that allow non-competes just seem to do them by default. Someone on their legal team or board pushes for them, and t

What I don't get is why companies in states that allow non-competes just seem to do them by default. Someone on their legal team or board pushes for them, and then just just become defacto and no one can seem to justify them. I may have had a conversation with a company recently where a friend was trying to get hired for a temporary 3 week position, and the company wanted them to sign a non-compete in MA that would exclude them from working in the industry for a year. The same company has presence in California. I asked the company if they have problems with people taking their experience and running off to another company and exposing their secrets- the company said they had never had such a problem in California. I asked them why they thought they'd have a problem in Massachusetts then, and why they needed/wanted a non-compete for a problem that didn't seem to actually have any material risk (they've had hundreds of employees now, if an issue were to pop up, it would have popped up by now). They didn't have a good answer, aside from the fact that HR/the board wanted it that way.