Yes, people like me are considered at will employees and we can be fired from our jobs at any time for any reason. And our employer doesn’t even have to give us a severance package.
It doesn’t matter if you get into the office early. It doesn’t matter that you stay late. It doesn’t even matter that you don’t go to the bathroom all day as Michael Bloomberg would say. Most of all, it doesn’t matter if you close big deals for over $100,000 like I do. That’s only one sale and I still have to reach my quota or I’m history since my job is month to month now.
In the past five years, I’ve lost nearly $30,000 a year in commissions. I know for a fact that my salary is under $20,000 compared to other people in my industry. Not to mention all the opportunities I lost on management positions or positions where I had a chance to enhance my skills. Yes, as employment lawyers will say, being under a non-compete agreement is a career of indentured servitude.
So, now it’s time to hear all about non-compete agreements. It’s not a pleasant subject. It’s not meant to be. It’s a story that needs to be told. Most of all, there are two sides to this story. Now, for the first time, you will hear what employees like me have to say about non-compete agreements. I think that by the time you’re finished with this book, you will see big government stayed out of the way of big business and that is the main reason that non-compete agreements have flourished throughout our country.
Make no mistake about it. A non-compete agreement is a very powerful weapon that a company has in their arsenal. Laws have been changed in just about every state because of it. Special interest groups use it as leverage to force state and local governments to continue to use them and enforce them. Law firms who specialize in non-compete agreements are growing, making them some of the top law firms in the country.
It’s a huge industry now. If you’re employee and you are presented with a non-compete agreement, the first thing you should do is seek an employment lawyer even though it will cost you $400. That may be tricky since choosing a lawyer will depend on where your employer is headquartered in. For example, if you live in New York and your employer is headquartered in Texas, then you will have to find an employment lawyer in Texas since that is where the non-compete agreement was executed.
Yes, we’re not off to a good start. Don’t worry, it only gets worse. The only good thing is that they are illegal in North Dakota and California.
By the time you finish this book, you will see that it isn’t about me. It’s about you, the employee. If anything, this is about big business having their way and big government stood out of the way and let it happen and the media wouldn’t report it. As a result, big business has been allowed to play around with our livelihoods for over 15 years.
As the great Sidney Pottier said in the movie A Piece Of The Action “having a job means that you need to feed your family.” Instead of doing that, employees are forced to sacrifice their education, their finances, and their future in order to make sure that companies can have their non-compete agreements.
You’re going to hear about my career before I was on a non-compete agreement and what happened afterwards as well as interviews with companies in other industries. If anything, you will know that companies and their lawyers across this country have abused this privilege of being allowed to have non-compete agreements and being allowed to fire employees so they can keep them from working in their industry.
As far as the stories in this book are concerned, I can assure you that everything you will be reading is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent as well as me.
Chapter 1
The Beginning
I was very unhappy in my last job and felt it was time to move on. Rather than go into my reasons here, I have devoted a chapter to the reason I left this job which is called Non-Compete Agreements and the Nature of the Business.
The interview went well since it was a company that competed with my current company. They were the only ones that had a job opening at this point and I was happy to make this move.
The phone call came from Henry Jones. He wanted to offer me the job and give me a $3,000 raise. I said that was great. Then he had a question.
“Do you have a problem signing a non-compete agreement?”
Tough question. I had signed a non-compete agreement about 10 years ago but it wasn’t as drastic as the ones are today. What was I going to say? “Well, what is it like? I may have a problem with signing one.”
No, the rules are that when you’re in this situation, you say yes. So my answer was I signed a non-compete agreement with a company many years ago so I don’t have a problem with it.
Later, I took that job and signed that non-compete agreement. It didn’t seem drastic but I had a friend who advised me to see an employment lawyer. She recommended one and I went to see him.
The conversation wasn’t long. He said not to worry about it. “It’s not a well written contract. I don’t think they’ll take you to court over this because they’ll probably lose.” I said fine and his response was that will be $350.00.
Yes, most lawyers don’t work for free and I agreed to pay him and he said that if I have questions, then I should call him. Yes, that could be money going towards my rent or mortgage or vacation but we live in a world where companies have rights now and I’m working so I shouldn’t have a hard time paying $350.00 to a lawyer for a consultation that took about 10 minutes. Doesn’t matter what my salary is.
It was about eight months after that that I received a memo. Basically, it was an announcement that employees were supposed to sign a new non-compete agreement. In the memo, it said that if you don’t sign this non-compete agreement, then you may be terminated.
Obviously, my company meant business. The contract must have been five pages and on one page, it mentions that I’m an at will employee and I can be fired at any time for any reason. It also said that I can’t work for a company that has a competing product which meant that I would not be able to work in most of the companies in the industry.
I paid a visit to that lawyer and he looked at the agreement and said “I can’t advise you on what to do. You’ll have to hire an attorney in a different state.” Why? Because my company is headquartered in a different state and the contract was executed out there.
The lawyer had no one he could refer me to. So, here I was again, about to spend another $350.00. I decided not to do it because I was happy with my job and I didn’t have any plans to move to another company.
I signed the non-compete agreement. Of course, I heard rumors around the water cooler that other people didn’t sign it. Yes, that is discrimination but that doesn’t matter since the non-compete agreement stands up in court.
Time had passed and things were changing in the company. I was growing unhappy but here I was with this non-compete agreement that I signed. So I called an attorney and he said “send me the contract in the mail along with a check for $350.000 and I’ll review it.”
I sent it by Federal Express. The lawyer would call me the next night and said that the contract was good and that if I’m planning to look for a job, then it should be in another industry. In addition, they could enforce the agreement even if they fire me and keep me from getting a job in the industry for two years. I can fight it but the legal fees are over $10,000 and there is a very good chance that I could lose because I signed the non-compete agreement.
Maybe I shouldn’t have signed the agreement but the memo was clear in stating that I may be fired if I don’t sign it. I didn’t want to make a bad impression for my boss. In addition, I saw a woman whose name will be Marcia Wallace being told to sign the non-compete agreement. She said no and my manager called her into his office. She was out after a few minutes and I could tell that she was upset. Years later, she was laid off and she didn’t get a job in the industry. The manager who made her sign the non-compete agreement didn’t sign his.
Chapter 2