
Ask HN: What to do with a contract restriction to not work with a competitor? - cosmorocket
Being a citizen of Russia I am currently working for a company on Cyprus as a developer. I never wanted to stay and work here for a long period of time, the plan was to work a year or year and a half then take a pause and plan my further activity as I am more into creating my own consulting business or running one of my ideas as a startup. To add to the unwilling to stay long here, now I find working for this company quite demotivating, depleting my vision and objectives.<p>Now, as about 8 months of my staying here have passed, I am thinking of changing a company and stay here until autumn of 2017 or, who knows, a little longer. What can make this change complicated is the last contract clause, cited:<p>22. Upon termination of the Contract, the Employee shall not enter into any activity in any business, Company and&#x2F;or partnership which competes, directly or indirectly, with the business of the Company or is&#x2F;was a client of the Company. Such obligation shall last 2 years from termination of the Contract. It is contracted without any compensation from the Company whatsoever. It is not restricted to the territory of Cyprus.<p>As far as I understand, they don&#x27;t want me to work for any company that can compete with them after I stop working with the company I work for now. Otherwise, how will it turn? I don&#x27;t think (though just my personal assumption) they won&#x27;t bother dragging me through courts to get any compensation.<p>Is this clause legit at all and common? Can I avoid problems with it if I want to work for a company that can be a potential competitor to them (who really can tell who is a competitor to whom clearly)?<p>What should I do if I get an offer from another company and decide to move on?<p>Please share your experience dealing with such things!
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GFK_of_xmaspast
Let me answer with a question: why are you asking HN instead of a lawyer?

