Quote:Original post by Hodgman
No-one pays attention to them though, and I've never seen them enforced. I'm not even sure if they are legally enforceable after your employment has been terminated...

I know one guy who quit recently to start his own company, and the CEO just threatened him to not try to poach any of our staff for at least a year (or they would try to enforce the clauses).

That is the difficulty of any contract. In order to enforce it, you must be willing to go through the courts.

For some contract disputes it can be done through small claims courts. Those are fairly inexpensive, costing only a very small filing fee --- but consume several days of work.

Other contract disputes must go through a very long, very expensive process.

Generally it isn't worth the cost and effort to enforce contracts. Even if an infringement takes place, there isn't enough value involved. It is rare for former employees to subvert major contracts or steal high-end customers, significantly abuse contact information, significantly financially harm the company they left, generate a windfall based on corporate information after leaving, or otherwise become a good target for a lawsuit. However, you can be certain that if it does become cost effective, a lawsuit will soon follow.

Quote:Original post by Hodgman

Quote:Original post by ToohrVyk
... in return the company pays you a fraction of your previous salary for that same duration.

Wow, I've never heard of people being paid during the non-compete duration. That would make it slightly more palatable, I suppose.

If the non-compete would prevent you from finding work in the field then this is a general concession the employers will make. This kind of compensation is very common in other career fields, where a non-compete agreement equates to not working.