I see that the FTC banned it and (from what I see) it seems like a good thing. Why?
In: Economics
The short version is that a hiring contract for a company you work for might have a clause like “after you quit/are fired/whatever, you can’t work for a company that is a competitor of ours for X months/years”. That’s a non-compete clause. It’s not just “don’t share our secrets with our competitors”, it’s “don’t even look for a replacement job at our competitors.”
Naturally employees don’t like it. If you’re good in the tech field and loose your job, you’re going to want a new job in the same field, right? In fact, your competitors might *want* your skills… But no, contract limits the places you can go after losing your job or you get sued by your former boss.
So, yeah, there’s been a push recently to have that declared illegal. If that does happen (I’m not sure of the FTC has the power to just make like that with a declaration) it would retroactively make it unenforceable on any existing contract.
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