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Hawaii Bans Non-Compete and Non-Solicit Clauses in High-Tech Employment

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Re: Hawaii Bans Non-Compete and Non-Solicit Clauses in High-Tech Employment

#31

Post by sosborn »

CognitiveLens wrote: post #11

In unrelated news, Hawaii's High-Tech industry collapses. I think this policy is awesome and should be universal, but it seems a little crazy to enact it unilaterally - if a company can choose which state to operate in, Hawaii is going to lose out to all the others that allow unfair (IMO) employer protections.

> Hawaii's High-Tech industry collapses.

That would require that we actually have a functioning high-tech industry to begin with.

>if a company can choose which state to operate in, Hawaii is going to lose out to all the others that allow unfair (IMO) employer protections.

If a company is based in Hawai‘i, the only reason is that they don't have any other choice to begin with. We have terribly high costs of living and a crazy low talent pool. Vast majority of development work here is DoD related and for on-site contracts.

Re: Hawaii Bans Non-Compete and Non-Solicit Clauses in High-Tech Employment

#33

Post by ljw1001 »

CognitiveLens wrote: post #11

In unrelated news, Hawaii's High-Tech industry collapses. I think this policy is awesome and should be universal, but it seems a little crazy to enact it unilaterally - if a company can choose which state to operate in, Hawaii is going to lose out to all the others that allow unfair (IMO) employer protections.

CA has relatively weak laws in this regard and it hasn't hurt their high tech industry one bit. On the other hand, it makes it much easier to start new companies. Strict non-compete laws are a legal barrier that large, lawyer-rich corporations built to limit competition.

Re: Hawaii Bans Non-Compete and Non-Solicit Clauses in High-Tech Employment

#34

Post by jegutman »

hueving wrote: post #23
renownedmedia wrote: post #16

Let's pack up all the Silicon Valley engineers and move to Hawaii ;)

Sadly it's a much cheaper place to live.

Housing maybe, although not the stuff I have imagined in my head. Everything else is really expensive in hawaii though because of shipping costs and lack of scale.

Re: Hawaii Bans Non-Compete and Non-Solicit Clauses in High-Tech Employment

#35

Post by crimsonalucard »

benjohnson wrote: post #19

As an employer, I'm quite fine with this - as the law still allows for an agreement to be made about soliciting clients. If relationship with an employee and my company sours, all I really care about is that poor relationship not transferring to the relationship between my company and my clients. Artificially locking ourselves into to a bad employer/employee relationship does nobody any good.

Your problem is when someone you have a good relationship with is seduced by something hotter and sexier.

Re: Hawaii Bans Non-Compete and Non-Solicit Clauses in High-Tech Employment

#36

Post by tomp »

wheaties wrote: post #3

Wish NY did the same. In NY they get to own all your ideas both at work and "off the clock."

I always wondered how clauses like this work for married people. After all, the law considers everything created within marriage to be property of both spouses. So, technically, should employers be asking both the employee and their spouse for an intellectual property assignment agreement?

Re: Hawaii Bans Non-Compete and Non-Solicit Clauses in High-Tech Employment

#37

Post by sandGorgon »

CognitiveLens wrote: post #11

In unrelated news, Hawaii's High-Tech industry collapses. I think this policy is awesome and should be universal, but it seems a little crazy to enact it unilaterally - if a company can choose which state to operate in, Hawaii is going to lose out to all the others that allow unfair (IMO) employer protections.

actually this is pretty astute from a startup viewpoint.

startups are the one who usually fear ex-employer non solicit, IP and non compete clauses. So fundamentally, Hawaii is building a startup friendly ecosystem.

Re: Hawaii Bans Non-Compete and Non-Solicit Clauses in High-Tech Employment

#38

Post by benjohnson »

crimsonalucard wrote: post #35
benjohnson wrote: post #19

As an employer, I'm quite fine with this - as the law still allows for an agreement to be made about soliciting clients. If relationship with an employee and my company sours, all I really care about is that poor relationship not transferring to the relationship between my company and my clients. Artificially locking ourselves into to a bad employer/employee relationship does nobody any good.

Your problem is when someone you have a good relationship with is seduced by something hotter and sexier.

I can see why's that would be frustrating, but my employees are not "mine" - so they are free to go at any time and hence, I need to treat them well.

If an employee is seduced by an offer that doesn't work out - they can (and have) come back and can bring back what they learned.

One of the thing that I learned from such exits an re-entryies is that money is not always the best motivator - I used to run really lean to have a high payroll. Now I run lean to provide a good work environment - I can now fire bad companies that don't respect my employees.

Re: Hawaii Bans Non-Compete and Non-Solicit Clauses in High-Tech Employment

#39

Post by hueving »

jegutman wrote: post #34
hueving wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly it's a much cheaper place to live.

Housing maybe, although not the stuff I have imagined in my head. Everything else is really expensive in hawaii though because of shipping costs and lack of scale.

Cost of stuff is only important if you spend all of your money on stuff. With a tech salary, the cost of food going up 15% should be nothing compared to the rent you will save.
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