
Ask HN: Non-Compete on remote jobs - rootsudo
I&#x27;ve been working remote for the past three years.<p>I&#x27;ve never hard to sign a non-compete.<p>I got an offer for an okay position, it&#x27;s not the best and my state (Florida) is pretty strong on workers rights on invalidating non-competes if anything happens.<p>But I&#x27;m sickened at this: &quot;I will not directly as owner, partner, stockholder, director, consultant, agent, employee or otherwise engage, participate or invest in any business activity anywhere in the world that performs similar-- blah blah blah.<p>It&#x27;s enforceable right?<p>What do I do? Sign my name knowing it can&#x27;t be used against me? Or bring it up with HR and cross it out?<p>The former option is what I normally do, but I&#x27;m sick of just accepting what HR says.
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JSeymourATL
> I'm sick of just accepting what HR says.

The HR flunky did not create the boilerplate legal language in your agreement.
Their role is purely administrative at this point. In their world, you're just
another contractor/vendor to be processed.

Ultimately, you decide with whom you work and by what terms. Generally
speaking, smaller firms are more accepting of contractor submitted
proposals/contracts. If you have any sales ability, you can always go find a
new client.

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itamarst
It might be enforceable, depending.

How broad is it? Sometimes it's like "not competing with any vendors'
business" and then if your company uses GMail you can't do _anything_ Google
does. Sometimes it's not a big deal.

I have been able to negotiate better non-competes in the past by pushing back,
admittedly with smaller companies. Often response will be "but our lawyer says
it's fine": good guy/bad guy kinda scenario. In which case I hired my own
lawyer.

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akhatri_aus
It depends on where the contract designates the court of arbitration/which
jurisdiction disputes will be settled. So yes it can be enforced.

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rootsudo
It's non-enforceable, right*.

Sigh, can't spell.

