211–220 of 407 posts
Quant firms at least are one of the few places where noncompetes can make sense. It's an extremely IP sensitive industry with stupendously high pay where the employee is going to someone probably competing very directly with you, for the same/similar opportunities. Actual code + NDAs banning literal reimplementations of stuff aren't that valuable, the knowledge and ideas will stay in the head of the employees. The tw…
Quant = quantitative analyst
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From my perspective it sounds civilized, but a friend of mine who sat out most of quarantine on gardening leave said he found it hard to support his family. You get your base salary, but not your bonuses, which are the majority of your pay in that industry. And since you can't get another job for the duration (or he couldn't, at any rate) it got a bit tougher than I would have assumed.
The signing bonus from your next job should make up for the loss of pay during garden leave. Many finance companies are willing to hire 12-18 months in advance if you are filling a real need.
Sometimes I feel like corporations do things just because their lawyers are cargo culting and adding clauses because everyone else does rather than some logical reason. My sister worked at Subway and had to sign a noncompete that she wouldn’t work at another sandwich shop for three years. Are they really afraid she’s going to steal their secrets of placing meat on bread? The more cynical will certainly assume malice,…
Not sure so much on the cargo culting aspect, but in essence, I am convinced that this phenomenon is effectively true.
If corporations were run entirely by lawyers, the likelihood that any corporation would take risks that would lead to innovation would be approaching zero. Of course, corporations without laws would run amok, but that's beside the point. I've worked at companies that were absolutely afraid to do anything that the legal department found troublesome, holding them back from risks that might have been worthwhile and wouldn't have been apocalyptic had anything gone wrong. It's a shame to see that happen, and I suppose that's why the current paradigm needs to keep generating startups in order to drive innovation. Though we really haven't been seeing much innovation as of late.
There may be some cargo culting of noncompetes, but it seems more likely that noncompetes are inherently in the best interest of the business from the point of view of the lawyers, and businesses see noncompetes as a sort of moat against competition. Both are fairly reasonable perspectives, though neither is necessarily true in reality, which is why businesses don't necessarily have to listen to their legal team on every decision.
Quant firms at least are one of the few places where noncompetes can make sense. It's an extremely IP sensitive industry with stupendously high pay where the employee is going to someone probably competing very directly with you, for the same/similar opportunities. Actual code + NDAs banning literal reimplementations of stuff aren't that valuable, the knowledge and ideas will stay in the head of the employees. The tw…
> Quant firms at least are one of the few places where noncompetes can make sense. It's an extremely IP sensitive industry with stupendously high pay where the employee is going to someone probably competing very directly with you, for the same/similar opportunities. Cry me a river. If knowledge of some particular employees worth so much to the quant firms, then they should pay them not to leave accordingly.
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> you're imagining that non-competes are there to protect proprietary know-how. Legally speaking, that is often the case. Many states require a noncompete to have a “legitimate business reason”, and proprietary knowledge is the most common legitimate reason used. I suspect judges in most states would invalidate a noncompete for a sandwich shop worker. The legal purpose of these clauses is to keep high paid workers fr…
> I suspect judges in most states would invalidate a noncompete for a sandwich shop worker. Unless you have the monetary means to bring the issue to court (and see it through to the end), any clause like this will effectively be a law.
For a total BS claim, it usually doesn’t take more than calling their bluff. Or just ignoring it.
Employers usually just bet on people just following the language and not challenging it because they think it’s valid and they think they’ll have to go to court.
In reality, a business doesn’t want to spend tens of thousands of dollars on something their own lawyer says they’re going to lose.
Nobody is taking $12/hr unskilled employees to court over noncompetes. Lighting cash on fire is a more efficient and fun way to accomplish the same.
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In Germany non-competes have a max duration of two years and compensation has to be at least 50%.
Living two years on half the salary sucks though.
But, yes, that's the thing with gardening leave. There are certainly some people who would be fine with taking a year off at significantly reduced pay--but not the majority.
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Why is that the employee's problem? Pay the employee well and they will stick around.
The compensation model in investment companies is such that they will not be able to pay employees well compared to how much value they bring in, unless you're a partner. Furthermore the industry attracts the sort of people who are never satisfied with what they got, and are always looking for more. Not that I'm advocating for non-competes, just saying that you can't address the concerns non-competes are attempting t…
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Where do you see this issue in tech? Certainly not CA.
NY, WA, other tech hubs in the US that aren’t California. That said garden leave is not all sunshine and roses like OP describes. It’s common on Wall Street but a huge part of your normal compensation is performance bonuses - and typically garden leaves only cover base salary. A typical garden leave doesn’t come close to full income replacement for the period. But it’s better than nothing - which is the status quo in…
Noncompetes without a proper wage commensurate of the position is just slavery.
And after the US civil war, a whole lot of slaveowners were also really upset in losting their slaves... But even they got reparations for losing "property".