The Real Horrors of Non-Competes

Yesterday I was contacted on Twitter by Rick Holman, a self-published author who works in the media industry in New York. He’s been under a non-compete agreement for the last twelve years of his professional life.

In my current protest of Halifax Media and their practices I’ve been lucky enough to hear the stories of people who live under these blanket non-compete agreements. All of my speculation in the previous article was brought into sharp focus reading Rick’s blog, which can be found here.

        If one thing is true, management makes sure to let me and others know in their own way that they are doing me a favor by giving me a job.  I’ve lived with constant threats for many years and have had interviews with many companies that don’t want to hire me because I don’t have industry related skills.  As far as the companies in my industry are concerned, some have met with me and have said in the end that they can’t consider hiring me since they can be sued and even receive a cease and desist letter from my company for hiring me.

         In fact, one of the last interviews I had last year was with a company that liked my skills and wanted to consider me until they saw my non-compete.  They felt that one of their products competed with the company that I work for.    The frustrating part was that my company didn’t hear of this company and this company even admitted that we are not on your radar.

This statement along is enough to reveal crippling realities of these non-competes. They’re an instrument of fear. Fear of displeasing your employer. Fear from any company brave enough to consider hiring you. Fear of starvation if you’re fired. We often toss around the term “wage slave” but these far-reaching non-compete agreements, which offer no severance or safety net, are engineered to destroy the lives of anyone who does not agree with their employer.

This isn’t just about mavericks and renegade journalists, this is about every office problem that anyone has ever left their company over. Something as simple as the way a co-worker talks, smells, or walks. Forgetting to lock a door. Borrowing stationary. Any run of the mill gray-area that exists in every office becomes the battleground where these non-competes show their force. How can you look your wife or husband in the eye and say “I got fired because I didn’t meet my quota this month… and honey, I can’t work again for two years.” Show me a universe where that represents the American dream?

If you would like to support Rick in his struggle you can do so by buying a copy of his book on Amazon.com. It’s a murder mystery based around a radio station which is gripped in non-compete fear. It’s called 96 Rocks. The more people who buy projects like this the more people you’re helping break the non-compete cycle of fear.

Don’t forget to write letters and talk about this through social media.