Читать книгу Non-Compete Agreements: An Employee Perspective - Ron Hummer - Страница 6

So, now that you’ve heard about my non-compete agreement, I thought I would explain the different types of non-compete agreements that are out there.

Let’s start with the basics. A non-compete agreement is created between two parties, the employer and the employee. A lawyer who specializes in writing non-compete agreements is the one who writes the contract for the company. An employment lawyer is the one who can review the contract for the employee. The key to all this is this: non-compete agreements are unregulated by the federal government.

Yes, these wonderful agreements that are written by a non-compete lawyer who will say that these agreements are fair and reasonable are the ones that decide how the non-compete agreement will be written. The lawyer can basically write anything he or she wants and it’s unregulated by the government. Of course, I can hear a non-compete lawyer screaming that they don’t do anything like that and that a judge would throw that out of court. Tell that to the woman who worked at Subway when she was fired from her job in Michigan and was told that she could not work within 100 miles of another sandwich shop for a year. You can look this up on the internet by typing in Non-compete agreement and Subway and 100.

One time, I called into a radio show and talked to a lawyer and Curtis Sliwa and I said that non-compete agreements should be regulated by the federal government. The lawyer said no, you don’t want the government regulating non-compete agreements.

Yes, why would I want the government regulating non-compete agreements? Leave things the way they are since I have no rights when it comes to this. Just go to court and spend $10,000 or more for legal fees to fight it.

Okay, pop quiz. Which party is the one who say that we should have a small government who should never interfere in the role of business. Yes, the Republican Party.

Next question. Which news network is the one who says that big government should stay out of the way of big business? Yes, Fox News, the fair and balanced pro-business Republican network.

Final question. What TV sitcom’s lead character is the one who constantly makes jokes about the government keeping out of the way of big business? Who is this comedian who always makes at least one joke about Barack Obama. That would be Last Man Standing and the comedian is Tim Allen.

Getting back to the point about the gentlemen from Occupy Wall Street who said that every state is a right to work state and that somehow overrides a non-compete agreement, I think it’s more than obvious that since this is a contract between an employer and an employee, it would override any ridiculous notion that an imaginary right to work state law would override this.

It’s hard to say when this type of non-compete agreement started. The oldest one I was able to find was in 1997. Rene Garcia and Arnold Arredondo were not allowed to compete with their company, Reliable Fire, for one year after being fired.

In 2004, while he was still employed at Reliable Fire, Arredondo started to form his own company called High Rise Security in Chicago. Garcia was a technician before being promoted to a sales position. The founder and CEO of Reliable found out about this and confronted them. Both denied starting their own company. Later, Arredondo resigned his position and Garcia was fired. After that, they formed their own company and by 2010, after winning the first decision in court in 2009, they lost on appeal. This is based on non-compete agreements that were signed 13 years ago. As you can see, non-compete agreements don’t expire anywhere from 2-5 years until you resign or are terminated. I met a person at a networking function who was shocked to hear this. He was in charge of hiring people at his company. He said that he found it hard to believe that non-compete agreements didn’t expire for 2-5 years until you resign or are terminated. He told me that I should check with a lawyer to see if that was true. Guess he was busy watching a news program about having germ free offices.

I said “Hello, anybody home. Think about it. Why would I be under a non-compete agreement if it was going to expire in say a year? If I’m unhappy, then I would leave and work for a competitor after my contract is up. If you want, I’ll bet you $350 that I’m right. How does that sound?”

No, I didn’t say that. As you can see, that wouldn’t make sense.

Of course, you can go through all the legal mumbo jumbo on this case and non-compete lawyers will say that this was a brilliant decision that was made by the judge.

Yes, in one corner, we have one of the largest companies in the country - Reliable Fire - a company that inspects fire extinguishers. Here is a description of the company on their website.

Reliable Fire Equipment Company is the locally and nationally recognized leader in the fire protection industry with over 50 years dedicated to serving the needs of our customers, fire departments and the community.

In the other corner, two former employees - Rene Garcia and Arnold Arredondo - who want to be entrepreneurs who want to start their own business in Chicago.

Once upon a time, America was the land of opportunity.

So, what types of non-compete agreements are out there. There are quite a few. Here are some examples.

First, there are the ones that are for CEO’s, other corporate officers, and employees who have knowledge of inside information in a company. For example, if you’re an employee who works at Nike, your job is for high level access of the latest shoe. Usually, these employees are able to work out a deal with management. They can get a payoff - as much as 2 years of their salary even if they are fired - in order to continue to work there. Like most non-compete agreements, these don’t expire so they are there for the time that the employee is there. If the employee quits or is fired, then the non-compete kicks in and there could be a lawsuit if the employee chooses to work for a competitor.

For other employees in the company, there is another non-compete agreement. It could be for sales people like me in smaller companies or larger companies for that matter. This would also include lower level employees all the way down to the receptionist. We don’t have any inside information that is important since we’re not in board meetings.

The reward for people like me in this contract is that we are able to have the opportunity to work in this company. So, this is where the term, at will employee comes in. You can be fired at any time for any reason and the company doesn’t have to give you anything. Not even a severance package. Your reward is your job.

As we continue through these fair and reasonable non-compete agreements, we move on to local businesses in the area. Non-compete agreements seem to flourish here and why shouldn’t they since they are not regulated by the government, right Tim Allen.

Here are some examples. Pharmacy technicians, salespeople at used car dealers, gym instructors, karate school instructors, hairdressers, dog and cat groomers, maids, people who work at Jimmy John’s and Subway, and let’s not forget a 16 year old teenage girl that worked at a summer camp. Yes a 16 year old girl at a summer camp who isn’t allowed to drink alcohol, who can’t smoke, who can’t vote, but it’s okay for her to sign a legal document. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that these employees can be fired at any time for any reason and they can’t work within a 10-100 mile range from their previous employer. I’m sure at some point, that will go up to 200 miles as well. I mean why not just make it 1,000 miles. I mean, if we can have a contract where a woman from Subway gets fired for being sick and then she is told that she is not allowed to work within 100 miles of a sandwich shop in Michigan - a state that has a new book written about it called Detroit about this state going bankrupt - then why not go for 1,000 miles.

Yes Tim Allen, isn’t it wonderful that these non-compete agreements aren’t regulated by the government. The last thing we need is to have big government regulating this.

Moving on, we can go to the lightweight non-compete agreements. I’m not even sure if these would even qualify as non-compete agreements. Yes, these are the ones that are given to people in the media such as celebrity journalists who work at NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, Fox News, and CNBC, just to name a few. Now these contracts do expire and from what I understand, they don’t last more than six months to a year, maybe longer in some cases. And the best part is that they expire. Yes, celebrity journalists like Erin Andrews and Katie Couric can leave their stations after their contract is up and move on to another station if they want to. It’s not like those stations are harmed when that happens.

Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot about Shea Allen. She was fired from a local station for misbehaving and wasn’t allowed to work at a local station in her network because she could bring higher ratings to the station. Yes, she was on a non-compete agreement.

Where is the logic here? How does Shea Allen hurt a small local news station when she is fired and isn’t allowed to work at another local station in the area. She can take viewers from a smaller network? Yet when Erin Andrews left ESPN to go to Fox Sports, that didn’t seem to harm ESPN. And when Katie Couric left the Today Show to to go CBS, that seemed to hurt CBS, not NBC.

It would have been nice to see Matt Lauer get to the bottom of this on the Today show. Yes, he took a poll to ask the people if the station was right in firing Shea Allen from her job. He didn’t take a poll though to see if it was fair that Shea Allen was not allowed to work at another station in her local area due to her non-compete agreement. So much for investigative journalism. I’m just an employee on a non-compete agreement. Who am I to tell Matt Lauer what questions to ask.

Here is another important point regarding these non-compete contracts for celebrity journalists. Now if you remember, Ann Curry lost her position on the Today Show to Savannah Guthrie because the ratings were down and she was blamed for this. In January of last year, Ann had asked to be released from her contract at NBC so she could work at CNN. NBC is refusing to do this. Yes, this was news and some publications picked this up. More exciting to read about this than thousands of employees like me who can be fired at any time for any reason and can’t work in the industry for 2-5 years.

Now if you catch the Young Turks video on this subject, you would see that they criticize NBC for doing this. They said that the decent thing for NBC to do is to let her go from her contract. It’s not like she can quit because if she does, then she could not work at another network until her contract is up. So she needs to finish out her contract before she works at another station like CNN.

Of course, the Young Turks continue to say that they understand the reason why it is necessary for NBC to have this contract. The reason is that if Ms. Curry wasn’t under contract, then she could screw NBC whenever she wants and would work for GMA . Not sure I understand the logic behind that since she was blamed for NBC’s loss in ratings but who am I to make sense of non-compete agreements and the things celebrity journalists talk about.

Obviously, I disagree with everything the Young Turks said. Here’s why.

Let’s say that Ann Curry wasn’t under a non-compete agreement. So, she leaves the station on her own and goes to work for CNN. Now, what guarantee do you have that their ratings will go up as a result of her joining this station. None. We really don’t know what will happen if she joins CNN or GMA. For all we know, it could be a bust like when Katie Couric left NBC to go to CBS. Again, where is the logic as to how the ratings will improve at CNN and GMA when she was blamed for losing ratings at NBC.

Of course, a non-compete lawyer will argue that Ann Curry is getting a reward for her non-compete agreement which is a salary of $12 million dollars a year. NBC is entitled to have stipulations in her contract as a result of this in order to protect themselves. I’m sure one of them could have been a firing clause in the contact that would prevent Ms. Curry from working at a network for two years yet this doesn’t seem to be mentioned or that this contract is up sometime in 2014. It will take a few clicks on the Internet but it’s there. So much for decency in business today.

Yet the basis of a non-compete agreement is based on what could happen. We really don’t know if this will happen. Yet the important thing to remember is that Ann Curry is locked down at NBC until her contract runs out.

Putting this into perspective, with all due respect to Ann Curry and The Young Turks, let’s keep in mind that for employees like me and thousands of others across this country, we are at will employees and we can be fired at any time for any reason and we can’t work for a company in our industry for two years. Those employees also include reporters at Halifax Holdings, which has local newspapers in different parts of the country such as Georgia and Florida. Warren Stephens, owner of Halifax Holdings, bought 16 editions of the New York Times in December of 2012 and told all the reporters that they would have to sign a non-compete agreement that stated that they could be fired at any time for any reason and they can’t work at a newspaper, magazine, radio station, or TV Station, where Halifax has an office. If that isn’t enough, the stories that reporters work on would belong to Halifax Holdings.

Like it or not, Ann Curry doesn’t face that in her contract. Yet new reporters at Halifax Holdings have to face that. Maybe I should ask why the Young Turks don’t say anything about that contract. Maybe I should ask the Young Turks why a TV station didn’t cover this story when it came out in December of 2012. One reason could be that Warren Stephens supports the Republican party and he wanted Mitt Romney to be President. Yet your motive for talking about Ann Curry at NBC seems to be to embarrass NBC since you’re competing with them. In any case, I’m glad that these celebrity journalists have their priorities in order.

Let’s take that contract a step further. Those reporters not only lose their jobs when they’re fired from Halifax but in addition, they lose their stories. Those stories become property of Halifax Holdings. How about telling Ann Curry that she has to lose her stories and she can’t talk about them on CNN or any other station for that matter for two years. Maybe she can do a story on why teenage girls shouldn’t wear high heels if she is working at GMA. Yes, the Young Turks have nothing to say about that either. Yet these are the standards that new reporters have to live up to in order to work at Halifax Holdings.

Maybe if celebrity journalists like Ann Curry or the Young Turks had to live up to this contract like employees across America do, then we all might be singing a much different tune about decency in business.

Oh, since I don’t want to be biased, lets go back to another point in the Halifax Holdings contract. Yes, if you’re a reporter at Halifax and you’re fired, then those stories are the property of Halifax Holdings. Yes, the days of investigative journalism have changed, haven’t they. Where is Woodward and Bernstein when you need them? Is Bob Woodward getting ready to write another book on the White House? Or are Woodward and Bernstein going to spend another year waiting for the anniversary of Watergate so they can talk about Nixon while their colleagues are under lock and key from doing stories that belong to their publisher.

Let’s finish this chapter by mentioning a non-compete agreement that has even more bite that the last one. In fact, this could be the future of non-compete agreements.

In Utah, a group of cardiologists signed a non-compete agreement that stated if they went within a 50 mile limit from the hospital that fired them, then they would be fined $750,000. Yes, they would be fined $750,000 if they kept their practice within the 50 mile area. Look this up under $750,000 and non-compete agreements.

Do you think it’s possible that all employees could see this type of non-compete agreement coming down the pike? Why not, since this unregulated Tim Allen. How much do we fine a dog and cat groomer or a maid? Or that teenage girl who is a camp counselor? $50,000? $100,000?

How about attaching fines to celebrity journalists like Ann Curry? Two million dollars if she decides to violate her contract.

Yes, isn’t it great that the big government shouldn’t get involved in the business community Tim Allen. Don’t worry, I do have a chapter on this coming up also.