President Joe Biden signed an executive order asking the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on spurious “non-compete clauses” in employment contracts. 20% of American workers, including burger flippers, are covered by contracts that prohibit them from working for a competitor.
Compete with This
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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Ted, I’ve been in the employment field for 35 years. I’ve seen some abusive and illegal non-compete clauses, but United’s takes the cake. You can NEVER work as a writer or artist again? It’s not only ridiculous, it’s unenforceable. If you ever run into such a clause again, simply cross it out with a pen, write “removed” beside it, and Initial the change. Then get HR to initial it. Stand your ground. 90% of the time they’ll have to go along with it. Contracts are, after all, MUTUAL. If you run into this again, take the agreement to your local employment standards office (If you have one). This advice not valid in some parts of Crazyland (right-to-work states).
I’m surprised. Economically it makes more sense to let people work at other companies in the same industry because it helps to suppress wages by keeping the potential employment pool as large as possible. “Good luck, Ted. We can hire a dozen replacements for you (snaps talon) just like that.” vs. “Shit. We, and our competitors, have blacklisted everyone who was any damned good at all. We’re all going broke.”
Those bastards!