restrictive covenant

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Rewire

Senior Member
We are in the process of developing our non compete clause for our employees this is our first step in protecting our proprietary information so far this is what we have
"Upon the termination of my employment, employee shall not, for a period of twelve months from the date of such termination, engage in the business of Electrical contracting as an individual, employee, partner, stockholder, director, officer, principal, agent, or in any other relation or capacity whatsoever within a 25-mile radius of any of employer's facilities and/or office locations."

next we are going to have a non disclosure agreement to protect out intellectual property such ascustomer lists , pricing guides,training material and marketing strategies.

Our state does inforce very narrow and reasonable non competes so this will benefit us.
 

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
Not legal in Michigan.

"Upon the termination of my employment, employee shall not, for a period of twelve months from the date of such termination, engage in the business of Electrical contracting as an individual, employee, partner, stockholder, director, officer, principal, agent, or in any other relation or capacity whatsoever within a 25-mile radius of any of employer's facilities and/or office locations."

Good luck trying to stop someone from working after they are not in your employ. I agree with Bob.

:lol::lol::lol:
 

JES2727

Senior Member
Location
NJ
We are in the process of developing our non compete clause for our employees this is our first step in protecting our proprietary information so far this is what we have
"Upon the termination of my employment, employee shall not, for a period of twelve months from the date of such termination, engage in the business of Electrical contracting as an individual, employee, partner, stockholder, director, officer, principal, agent, or in any other relation or capacity whatsoever within a 25-mile radius of any of employer's facilities and/or office locations."

next we are going to have a non disclosure agreement to protect out intellectual property such ascustomer lists , pricing guides,training material and marketing strategies.

Our state does inforce very narrow and reasonable non competes so this will benefit us.

This clause, combined with the non-disclosure agreement, simply prohibits a former employee from setting up shop in your neighborhood and stealing all your customers. Seems reasonable to me.
 

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
This clause, combined with the non-disclosure agreement, simply prohibits a former employee from setting up shop in your neighborhood and stealing all your customers. Seems reasonable to me.

I see nothing reasonable about it if the employee is not given something in return.

I also dispute that any customer belongs to any business.
 

zog

Senior Member
Location
Charlotte, NC
I see nothing reasonable about it if the employee is not given something in return.
Agreed, often, for us, that means training and learning our specialty niche of the business. Someone comes with that knowledge and experience already I would not ask them to sign one.

I also dispute that any customer belongs to any business.

Agreed, but information does.
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
at least try to participate Bob

that was participation.....

jesus, dude, you are hiring a sparky, not someone to tweak
googles search algorithm.

when all this state of the art business building BS is over
and all the hyper motivated weekend seminars are dust,
here is most of what you'll need to know:

money follows personal relationships

and if you have a muppet that a repeat customer really likes,
and that muppet leaves you, either for someone else's service
truck, or his own service truck, that customer will follow him.

the working relationship that exists is between him and the
customer, not you. and your noncompete document isn't
gonna change that a damn bit.

you'd do better to see if you could maintain good personal
relationships with the people who earn your living for you,
your employees, than to figure out how to write a piece of
paper that will allow you to screw them if your relationship
with them goes south.

and you are telling me that i can't work within 25 miles of
you after we part company if i sign your piece of paper?

sure wilbur.... gimme fifteen minutes to make sure all
of my personal tools are out of the work van....
here's the gas credit card and the company cellphone...

the phones all ready for the next proud "technician"
just give me a minute to erase the stored phone numbers....

there ya are... good to go..... you can mail the last check....
 

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
Agreed, but information does.

In my opinion only information that could only be obtained from the employer, not information that could be obtained anywhere.

So in my opinion if you taught me standard industry practices of how to rebuild a a breaker that is now my info to take with me.
 

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
you'd do better to see if you could maintain good personal relationships with the people who earn your living for you, your employees, than to figure out how to write a piece of paper that will allow you to screw them if your relationship
with them goes south.

So very well said. :thumbsup:
 

hillbilly1

Senior Member
Location
North Georgia mountains
Occupation
Owner/electrical contractor
"no compete clauses" are hard to enforce, we have them for our office personnel, but not the field guys. The owner started doing the clauses when he had the feeling that one of our vice presidents was about to quit and take one of our major clients with him. The VP at first refused to sign, but finally did, then quit a month later starting his own business, but in his wife's name, so the "no compete" clause was worthless.
 

Rewire

Senior Member
I agree with Bob.

Who would agree to such a thing to simply work as an electrician?

what we do is more than just working as an electrician. All of our systems and proceedures are something I dont want walking out the door and down the street to a competitor. We are spending alot of time energy and yes money to develope our business .We are not a cookie cutter construction business that can be easily duplicated .
 

Rewire

Senior Member
"no compete clauses" are hard to enforce, we have them for our office personnel, but not the field guys. The owner started doing the clauses when he had the feeling that one of our vice presidents was about to quit and take one of our major clients with him. The VP at first refused to sign, but finally did, then quit a month later starting his own business, but in his wife's name, so the "no compete" clause was worthless.

it would depend on how the non compete was written ours would be inforced against the individual so he could not "work" for his spouse.
 

Rewire

Senior Member
OK, what are you offering the employee to sign such an agreement?

The only time I was asked to, and did sign such an agreement (one that was much less restrictive) I was given a pay increase to do so.

A job plain and simple . If you want to work here you sign if you dont sign you dont work here .
 

Rewire

Senior Member
Not legal in Michigan.

"Upon the termination of my employment, employee shall not, for a period of twelve months from the date of such termination, engage in the business of Electrical contracting as an individual, employee, partner, stockholder, director, officer, principal, agent, or in any other relation or capacity whatsoever within a 25-mile radius of any of employer's facilities and/or office locations."

Good luck trying to stop someone from working after they are not in your employ. I agree with Bob.

:lol::lol::lol:

Our state does inforce these but they need to be narrow in scope.
 

Rewire

Senior Member
This clause, combined with the non-disclosure agreement, simply prohibits a former employee from setting up shop in your neighborhood and stealing all your customers. Seems reasonable to me.

exactly what it is for. And the key is it needs to be reasonable as viewed by the court and 12 months and 25 miles would probably be considered reasonable
 
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