Читать книгу Non-Compete Agreements: An Employee Perspective - Ron Hummer - Страница 7

Yes, I’m sure that non-compete lawyers are really getting angry with me. I even have a chapter devoted to them coming up. I have a feeling that they’re going to be even more upset when that chapter is completed.

Yet, here I am, talking about stealing information. Yes, if you’re wondering why employees like me have to deal with non-compete agreements, I would tell you that the biggest reason is because for years, people stole information. And the worst part is that it continues today. You would think that employees would be bright enough not to do this but that isn’t the case. Yes, we have a lot of stupid, selfish employees who only care about themselves, and as a result, non-compete lawyers went ahead and punished people like me for their selfish acts. Yes employees, keep this in mind when you steal information in the future. Your selfish acts give justification to these greedy non-compete lawyers to say that all employees are nothing more than a bunch of crooks and this is the biggest reason that they should be non-compete agreements.

Don't worry, I will prove that this statement is true in the chapter on lawyers who specialize in non-compete agreements.

Irony can be very funny at times. It can pop up when you least expect it and when it does, it can be full of surprises.

In my case, the irony for me was that I wanted to get out of sales before my nightmare with non-compete agreements began. So I had gone to paralegal school for two years while I was working during the day in sales.

The irony comes in because during my last year, I had to do a legal brief. The Professor assigned us a case regarding a lawsuit between two Dentists.

In this case, two Dentists worked together for several years until one of them decided that they wanted to go on their own. Before he left, he went behind his former partner’s back and photocopied lists of the clients. Then, when he opened his own office, he sent out postcards to all the clients, letting them know he had his own office.

When the Dentist found out that his former partner sent out the postcards, he asked him why he would do that. His answer: they were my clients also. That’s when the lawsuit started.

In case you were wondering about my success in working as a paralegal, I would tell you that it was a complete disaster. Yes, I graduated and over a span of two years, I had three interviews.

During the first interview, I waited to see the lawyer for 45 minutes. The hiring manager came out and said that he would not be able to see me today. They would reschedule. Days later, I received a letter from him thanking me for applying for the job but they were not interested in going forward with my application due to my lack of experience.

Another time, I was supposed to be interviewed by someone at this law firm. My wife and I were going on vacation so I stopped in before going. The receptionist apologized because they didn’t look at my resume carefully because the job opening was for a receptionist.

Thanks to a Professor at the school though, I did have a real interview with a very large law firm. It lasted over an hour. I had my legal brief which I got an A on and we talked. I would follow up with this firm for a month to see if I got the job. They would never give me an answer so eventually, I gave up.

I’m not sure if this is where the real non-compete agreements started but cases like this justified the existence of it. It’s sad that people felt that it was okay to steal information but when this happens, it makes the non-compete lawyers happy and they get to say see, this is why we have non-compete agreements.

Many years ago, my mother-in-law hired a maid from a service. After a few weeks, Carol said to my mother-in-law, would you like me to work for you permanently? My mother in law said sure, why not. Carol said okay, go ahead and call the service and tell them that you don’t need me anymore. Then I’ll leave the service and come to work for you.

As a result of this, maids are on non-compete agreements. Doesn’t matter that Carol could have made a stupid decision since my mother in law - who was a nasty woman and yes, my wife would agree with me - could have fired Carol and then what would she do. The services would have been suspicious and suddenly, Carol might have a really hard time getting a job through a service again. Of course, that’s not what’s important when it comes to non-compete agreements.

I knew of a hairdresser who told me that when she owned her own salon, she hired someone. Things seemed to work out well until she found out that this employee went behind her back to her appointment book and gathered all the names of the clients she had along with their phone numbers. Then she left and started calling her clients and telling them that she opened up her own business. Seems idiotic to me since these customers could just tell the woman that they’re not interested in following a hairdresser who has nothing better to do but steal phone numbers from her employer but some people went for this.

Even more recently, I read of a case on the internet where a salesperson worked in a cleaning supply company. He stole client names and computers with information about his company. Again, idiots like this help non-compete lawyers justify their reasons for non-compete agreements. He was on a five year non-compete agreement.

You have to be out of your mind to do this. Maybe people like this idiot think property from an employer belongs to them but it might be refreshing for you to go to the website of a law firm that specializes in non-compete agreements. When you do that, you’ll see that they work with law enforcement officials to get the property back. Yes, there is a great chance that you can be arrested for doing this but of course, maybe if you’re stupid enough to believe that you can get away with this because you’re an employee, my feelings are that you should be locked up just on the basis that you’re an idiot and you’re giving even more justification to non-compete lawyers when they say that this is the reason that we have non-compete agreements.

I caught the end of a report on Good Morning America where they said that a celebrity hairdresser told her clients that she started her own business and went out of her way to steal clients. This led Amy Robach to say that if my colorist left and went to another salon that she would follow her because she does the best job on her hair.

That led to one of the other commentators - I believe it was Sam Champion - saying that this all enters into the subject of non-compete agreements which can be very difficult.

So, as a result of all this, we do have non-compete agreements for just about everyone, whether it is hairdressers, dog and cat groomers and maids. Look it up on the Internet if you want under google or youtube. Just type in non-compete agreements and dog groomers and read about a lawsuit in St. Louis where the defendant is asking for money for his legal fees. The Washington Post carried a story on maids and non-compete agreements.

Yet while this all seems logical and the non-compete lawyers go out of their way to talk about employees having trade secrets and how people can just steal information, it seems to me that as the media would say, there are two sides to a story, although they would not say that since they don’t want to do stories on non-compete agreements and how they hurt employees, unless you live in Massachusetts.