FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has banned all existing Non Compete agreements in the United States. Apparently there are some exceptions for Senior Executives but that’s estimated to be less than 1% of the work force. Going to get interesting.

https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/rules/noncompete-rule

I never would sign one.

I actually like this, it makes things much easier on an individual in situations where they are forced to sign a non-compete or get another job. Specifically, when the company you work for is purchased and your forced to sign or your let go.

Helps me out with my side jobs. I did not have the option of not signing one. Very happy with this.

That is something that bothered me way back in the day and I have seen people get screwed by the no-compete stuff. A guy spends 15 years at a job then gets let go and the obvious move is to go to another company doing the same job...but he can't. So he has to learn an entire new trade, skill set, and other crap, instead of just getting back to work.

My question with this is does it ban the portion of non competes that prevent people taking trade secrets to other companies?

Sometimes saying no isn’t a choice. Common in insurance industry.

I was presented one 20 years ago…three days after quitting a job and starting a new one. A friend of mine was sued over this. He was told that in the end he would win but the company would cause him so much headache and expense, that it would be better to abide by it for a year.

Edit: more details below

My late sis dealt with this but met it head on. The company she went to covered the lawsuits. Of course she brought an 140 million dollar project with her. She was let go because the owners son had issues with her consistently out performing him. She was above the son until dad had major health issues. Lots of animosity between the two and it ended up really hurting the previous company because many in the industry knew how and why it went down. Sis was a fighter and she had to pay 100k in the end. She said that’s was the most fun she ever had with that much money and laughed.

The non competes are BS unless you’re at the top end but also is why they’re paid what they’re paid.

I've been paid a pile of money to sign them over the years. Never signed one that I wasn't compensated for. I've seen guys sued over them and I've seen guys go to work for competitors and nothing be said. I'm sure it has a lot to do with how much value you bring. You can beat a non compete but a non solicitation clause is tough sometimes.

A friend of mine got bitten by a no compete clause many years ago. Went to work out of college for a large manufacturer and this was in the paperwork he signed at start up. Several years later a competitor offered him a position as Plant Manager and rolled out the red carpet for him. He and his wife were looking at houses when his company got wind of the deal. Next day they sat him down with the company lawyers and said he was in for a fight.

He is still with that company 20 years later.

Know a guy that moved to Brisbane Australia to get out of a noncompete. He wanted to work for X company and that was the only place in the world he could go and be out of the non compete with his old company.

I didn't think they were enforceable in Alabama anyways. Not that it wouldn't cost you an arm and a leg to defend yourself in court, but I guess that doesn't matter now.

They aren’t…really. A friend of mine got sued over one. The company he worked for was based in a different state so they sued him there. Every time court came up he and/or his attorney had to travel to the other state only to get there and find the case had been pushed off by the company attorneys. Basically just playing with him. Attorney ended up telling him that what would happen would be that the company would cost him a ton of money and drop the case right before his non-compete was up, which was a year. Made it where it wasn’t legally enforceable but financially impossible to fight for the average person.

I believe that would be cover somewhere else.

After reading the ruling it doesn’t stop a company from having you sign a NDA. That should protect against trade secrets. It is also a really grey area that both sides will have to defend. Non competes do hold up in Alabama they just have to be written correctly. It is also true that many times it will come down to who wants to spend the most. A company can and will tie you up in a legal battle long enough to make whatever you currently know or plan to do irrelevant by the time they drop it.

Big tech will hate this.

They were enforceable but had to be reasonable in time, scope and geography. Fertile ground for lawyers.

I signed one at my old job. Walked off and quit one day and was doing the same thing for another company the next morning phuck em.

I had to sign a 10 yr one back in 2008. But, that company was bought out twice since then. I doubt they would come after me.