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Businesses Education The Almighty Buck Technology

Interns' Job Prospects Constrained By Noncompete Agreements (wsj.com) 179

Internships have long been an opportunity for inexperienced workers to try out different industries and build valuable contacts. For companies, it is a way to attract future talent. But increasingly interns are being asked to sign noncompete, nondisclosure and forced arbitration agreements, restrictions once reserved for higher-ranking employees [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled]. From a report: Advocates say legal covenants for interns help safeguard trade secrets such as customer lists in an era when it is easy to download information and share it, for instance on social media or with a competitor. But critics argue the agreements hamper young people's job opportunities and mobility even before they get a foot on the career ladder. [...] Ms. Dunne's [anecdote in the story] noncompete agreement stated that she couldn't work for a competitor in software or banking within 15 miles of Wilmington for a year after leaving TekMountain. Ms. Dunne said she was given the agreement on her first day. "I had no idea what I signed, they didn't explain it to me."

After leaving TekMountain, she did a separate three-month internship with nCino, a financial technology company in Wilmington. In a May 7 letter, TekMountain's parent, CastleBranch, laid out her obligations under the noncompete agreement, described the confidentiality of its proprietary information as "very serious," and asked for details about her relationship with nCino. Ms. Dunne said she didn't respond. The noncompete "eliminated a good portion of the companies in town in the industry I wanted to be in," said Ms. Dunne, who is relocating to the Washington, D.C., area for a new job. "I have to leave all of my friends behind and start over."

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Interns' Job Prospects Constrained By Noncompete Agreements

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  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday July 01, 2019 @09:45AM (#58854830)
    lower pay, lack of education, no collective bargaining, mandatory arbitration, "gig" work (aka temp) for production labor with no benefits, not even unemployment insurance... the list goes on. I've got buds (mostly over 40) who can't say employed for more than 18 months because that's the maximum length you can keep a contractor doing production work before the IRS starts asking questions...

    When are we going to say enough's enough?
    • Is there a specific solution in there or just general gripes and emotional pleas? The problem with these types of overly broad movements is that they often continue to exist long after their original goals are accomplished and often morph into twisted versions of their former selves. Look at MADD as a good example of this. Others become power structures that attract exactly the worst kind of people who want to take them over for their own purposes and the purpose of the movement essentially becomes the cont
    • The Thinkpol must be stopped. Party like it's nineteen eighty four.
  • by magarity ( 164372 ) on Monday July 01, 2019 @09:51AM (#58854878)

    WFT is anyone doing giving interns access to sensitive company secrets?

    • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

      Of course. The biggest secret in most of these companies is how fly-by-night they actually are and how fast and loose they are playing with their obligations. No organization wants it getting out.

      Everyone requires non-competes but the counterbalance has always been that they are very rarely enforced. If you work for company A on a special whatchamacallit and go over to a direct competitor who suddenly gains advances that look just like company A or if you steal company A's business model wholesale maybe but

    • C'mon, nobody gives an intern access to critical information. But that way you have the intern under your thumb (more than you already do).

    • by gtall ( 79522 )

      Nobody. This is just a full employment program for company lawyers.

    • they hyper competitive job market means you can get 1-3 years of free labor from an "intern" before actually paying them.
    • by Kjella ( 173770 )

      WFT is anyone doing giving interns access to sensitive company secrets?

      Shit happens. Many years ago me and a friend was writing the thesis for our master's degree and we were working with this company analyzing the impact of macro-economic conditions for this particular line of business. This is obviously not something you can change on a whim and you really don't want to give your competitors a detailed cost breakdown so we already had some sort of confidentiality agreement in place but they still weren't planning to give two random students that much detail. So we got this E

  • Thanks to the paywall I can't read the article. However, the example case in the article is awful to lead with on making a point. "I had no idea what I signed, they didn't explain it to me." And I hoped she learned a valuable life lesson.
  • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday July 01, 2019 @10:00AM (#58854934)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by burningcpu ( 1234256 ) on Monday July 01, 2019 @10:03AM (#58854952)
    After leaving my last company, I found that the very permissive non-compete that I had signed was being interpreted by other companies as a hands-off notice.

    The terms were that at the non-compete would be selectively enforced, at the discretion of my previous employer, and if so elected I would be paid 110% of the offered salary, for the remainder of the term. I would need to tell my former employer about all job offers, including the salary. This sounded fair to me at the time, so I signed.

    Turned out, all prospective employers that I interviewed with specifically asked about pending non-compete agreements and did not care a damn about the details. The mere presence of a non-compete amounted to a blacklist.
    • by EvilSS ( 557649 )
      Don't mind me asking, what field are you in? In mine (IT consulting/sales) no one would ever get hired if companies acted that way. We are all dealing with non-competes. Most companies know candidates are going to be under one.
      • Thanks for your perspective. It does make sense that these situations would be industry specific.

        I'm a research chemist in the semiconductor field.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Don't sign it, or cross out the objectionable parts and initialize them and when you hand in the paperwork, let them know what you did. If they say something like everyone has to sign it or nobody has ever crossed that out before, they are most likely lying, or they are only hiring poor quality lazy employees, in which case reverse turn and exit out the door and don't look back.

    • by Pascoea ( 968200 )

      or cross out the objectionable parts and initialize them and when you hand in the paperwork, let them know what you did.

      It doesn't work that way. All line outs have to be reviewed and initialed by all parties to the contract. Just getting them to sign on the end after "telling them what you did" isn't going to hold up. Process needs to work like this: 1) Line out/update what you object to, date and initial all edits. 2) Other parties do the same. 3) Everybody signs the agreement. 4) All parties get a copy of the completed document.

      • by jythie ( 914043 )
        Heh, I've actually seen people try this on court documents, including charges against them. Some people have a really fantastic view of contracts.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • They are when literally every employer requires non-compete clauses in their contracts.

      "Sign this (or something nearly identical to it) or never work in your field again" is not exactly a "you aren't forced to sign this!!" situation.

  • by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Monday July 01, 2019 @10:17AM (#58855020)

    noncompete are very limited in California

  • by x0 ( 32926 ) on Monday July 01, 2019 @10:37AM (#58855152) Homepage

    I had no idea what I signed, they didn't explain it to me.

    Really? FTLOG, do people now just sign legal documents without at least reading them?

    m

    • what are you going to do? If you're not in the top 10% of employees odds are they can just replace you with an H1-B.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Really? FTLOG, do people now just sign legal documents without at least reading them?

      It's impossible to understand most legal documents in the USA - and you are kidding yourself if you think otherwise.

      US federal, state, and local law is full of contradictions, thanks to the inability of the US legal profession to be ethical.

      For example, the highest law in the land says Congress shall pass 'no law' infringing freedom of speech or the press - and yet there are many such laws. None of those laws are necessarily - every situation that requires limiting speech could be handled through appropria

  • This is why you don't update social media with your work life. You also need to go through your friend or contacts list regularly in places like LinkedIn and prune out deadwood.
    I've had former supervisors and company owners reach out to me and mention, "Hey, we noticed you haven't updated your current employer. Where are you working now?". They don't do that out of the goodness of their hearts.

  • Quite a lot of people just ignore this as in many places it's not particularly legally enforceable or meaningful. Though it depends on a combination of circumstances and law. My first contract basically said I couldn't program for any other company for half a year after which I just ignored as copy pasta / lazy contract writing. No court in its right mind would enforce that. Some really daft companies think that they own the common experience and skills you gain on the job. A reasonable NDA and just standar
  • What this story reminded me of was a recent experience of being expected to sign an NDA before the first job interview. Amazon apparently feels it is a reasonable part of the hiring process. Just one more step to make sure that you'll be a good little wage slave, a docile and dehumanized cog in the soulless machine. Signing an NCA is just an obvious next step (but also nice "insurance" for Amazon's monopoly).

    Not sure how to best describe the dehumanizing advantage from the perspective of the corporate cance

  • 1) They get paid with XP rather than $. The whole idea is to teach them things. Asking them not to use what you teach is literally stealing their pay.

    2) Interns are broke. You can't get any money if they violate the agreement and you sue

    3) If you teach an intern or even allow them access to real corporate secrets, you will be bankrupt within a year. Because it means you are an incompetent moron who can't run a business.

    This is simply vile anti-capitalist behaviour. Capitalism is not "businesses ha

  • Unless you start giving out company secrets, there's absolutely no reason that your former employer has any right to know where else you find work after you leave them.

    Do respect non disclosures, but noncompetes are nothing more than security blankets for people who think that the only value their employees can possibly offer to another company must come directly from his knowledge and experience with their own company's inner workings.

  • Non-compete contracts are notoriously difficult to enforce. When you have a specific discipline it is obvious that you may need to work for competing companies. Before you take a job, ask an attorney about it. Be careful to be loyal to your broker or your client. Your integrity and reputation is your bread and butter. Also, keep in mind, that everything is negotiable. You guys can learn this stuff... none of it is secret.
  • I signed on for 1099 work with a company which asked for a NCA. After signing they refused to give me work. The agreement stated that I would not compete against them in their specific field, which is also mine. They signed me up to work for them under the guise that they would just not send me any work and put me out of business. I sued them for the loss of work that I would have potentially profited from for the entire year. I won. The judge stated that nobody can stop me from working, and that pred

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