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Tell HN: Beware confidentiality agreements that act as lifetime non competes

416 points throwarayes | 1 comments | 21 Jun 25 16:02 UTC | HN request time: 0.207s | source

Just a note of warning from personal experience.

Companies don’t really need non-competes anymore. Some companies take an extremely broad interpretation of IP confidentiality, where they consider doing any work in the industry during your lifetime an inevitable confidentiality violation. They argue it would be impossible for you to work elsewhere in this industry during your entire career without violating confidentiality with the technical and business instincts you bring to that domain. It doesn’t require conscious violation on your part (they argue).

So beware and read your employment agreement carefully.

More here https://www.promarket.org/2024/02/08/confidentiality-agreeme...

And this is the insane legal doctrine behind this

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inevitable_disclosure

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gwbas1c ◴[21 Jun 25 19:15 UTC] No.44340006[source]▶
I once declined a job offer because the non-compete made no sense. (It was many pages, claimed that I would be paid during the non-compete period, and impossible to read.) I basically concluded that they (the company) had a lawyer that was basically wanking off.
replies(1): >>44340195 #
senkora ◴[21 Jun 25 19:41 UTC] No.44340195[source]▶
In finance, it is common to be paid your base wage during your non-compete. Or at least that is how mine worked.
replies(3): >>44340287 #>>44340658 #>>44341147 #
1. paxys ◴[21 Jun 25 19:52 UTC] No.44340287[source]▶
Yup, garden leave.