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If you've signed a non-compete and jump ship, you can simply NOT tell your old employer that you got a new job.
What are they going to do? Sue you for working at a company they don't know about? There is nothing they can do if you are subtle.
Here is the thing about non-competes. If you are smart about it, they can be basically impossible to enforce. If you've signed a non-compete and jump ship, you can simply NOT tell your old employer that you got a new job. What are they going to do? Sue you for working at a company they don't know about? There is nothing they can do if you are subtle.
You also have to avoid:
1) Telling your old co-workers
2) Mentioning or updating anything on social media. Even if you're not "friends" with old co-workers on e.g. Facebook, that information could still be leaked.
3) Giving any sort of talk where your employment might be leaked
4) Being at an industry event where your employment might be leaked
5) Being named on the company site, and thus your name showing up on a simple google search.
If your old employer is vindictive (which could be one reason you left), there are lots and lots of ways for them to find out where their former employee went to.
Being subtle will probably only keep your employment status hidden with the sorts of employers who aren't really making broad non-compete clauses to begin with (i.e. employers who don't care).
Here is the thing about non-competes. If you are smart about it, they can be basically impossible to enforce. If you've signed a non-compete and jump ship, you can simply NOT tell your old employer that you got a new job. What are they going to do? Sue you for working at a company they don't know about? There is nothing they can do if you are subtle.
Here is the thing about non-competes. If you are smart about it, they can be basically impossible to enforce. If you've signed a non-compete and jump ship, you can simply NOT tell your old employer that you got a new job. What are they going to do? Sue you for working at a company they don't know about? There is nothing they can do if you are subtle.
Your discretion and/or fearlessness of lawsuits won't matter. The new employer isn't willing to risk it.
Here is the thing about non-competes. If you are smart about it, they can be basically impossible to enforce. If you've signed a non-compete and jump ship, you can simply NOT tell your old employer that you got a new job. What are they going to do? Sue you for working at a company they don't know about? There is nothing they can do if you are subtle.
> you can simply NOT tell your old employer that you got a new job. You also have to avoid: 1) Telling your old co-workers 2) Mentioning or updating anything on social media. Even if you're not "friends" with old co-workers on e.g. Facebook, that information could still be leaked. 3) Giving any sort of talk where your employment might be leaked 4) Being at an industry event where your employment might be leaked 5) Be…
It doesn't matter about any of those, if just as a policy, whenever anyone at all asks where you work, you don't tell them.
Or you just talk in broad strokes/industry without specifically mentioning the name, and if your old employer "finds out" that you have another job, they still can't do anything because they don't know the specific employer.
Alas, as nice as it is to cloth an issue we care about in the language of moral superiority, banning noncompete agreements does in fact impact the freedom of contract. (In the same way, but to a lesser extent, than the ban on being able to sell yourself into slavery.)
Pragmatically this is the right thing to do. But there's no Freedom argument for it.
Other states don't restrict job-hopping, they just stand by and don't interfere as the free market ends up having the effect of restricting job-hopping. Employees end up signing restrictive employment contracts, and states don't prohibit them from doing so. California has made a conscious decision that the economy overall works better if some kinds of private-sector contracts are prohibited, so it's restricted what can go into an employment contract to a greater degree than other states have (every state has some restrictions, e.g. in the modern era you can't sell yourself into indentured servitude, but some states are more restrictive than others).
I've worked in SV my entire career and had never even envisioned other states allowed no-compete contracts in this day and age. Everybody I know and have worked with has had multiple jobs and wouldn't have it any other way. Yet one more way CA is far in front of every other state in basic worker rights.
The lawyer we consulted said it was the most draconian thing he'd ever seen and that we should all quit on the spot.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> you can simply NOT tell your old employer that you got a new job. You also have to avoid: 1) Telling your old co-workers 2) Mentioning or updating anything on social media. Even if you're not "friends" with old co-workers on e.g. Facebook, that information could still be leaked. 3) Giving any sort of talk where your employment might be leaked 4) Being at an industry event where your employment might be leaked 5) Be…
Whenever anyone at all asks you where you work, you just be evasive. It doesn't matter about any of those, if just as a policy, whenever anyone at all asks where you work, you don't tell them. Or you just talk in broad strokes/industry without specifically mentioning the name, and if your old employer "finds out" that you have another job, they still can't do anything because they don't know the specific employer.
That's a pretty mentally taxing adjustment for most people to make.
It's also incredibly awkward when engaging in small talk with new people. Being evasive about answering where you work will lead to many presumptions (e.g. that you work for a 3 letter agency), few of which are very conducive to continuing a conversation.
Similarly I could just lie about where I work, but I think you can probably see how that's similarly taxing to do continuously.