Hi,
I just received an employment contract. I am wondering is it common to a company to have this on their contract. What should I do ? Thank you for your help.
"Without the express written consent of Employer, during the term of this Contract, and for a period of 3 (three) months following any termination of this Contract, the Employee shall not contact or enter into an agreement with any company or organization in the same business as the Employer."
This clause is a common "non competing clause":
1) While you are employed as a consultant at a company, you can't earn money elsewhere by working as a consultant. This is very logical, e.g. if you work at McK, someone might think about going around and accepting some freelancing job by leveraging on the McK brand. Such thing cannot be done. Most of consulting companies have this clause.
2) In the case you want to leave an move to a competitor, you have to wait 3 months. This is not as common as the clause above as different companies might have some variations such as that they don't forbid you to work for another compay for a specific time but they forbid you to work for the same clients. Anyway, if you switch company, I would suggest you to negotiate with the new employer even longer than 3 months break and do a long relaxing holiday. You will need it :-)
A few thoughts:
1. Depending on where you are, this may or may not be valid (also depending on the specific circumstances - if they fire you it makes no sense to prevent you from working), particularly if there is not a monetary compensation attached to this clause.
2. This can make sense for a high rank worker (manager and above) but is nonsense for analysts.
3. The point that bothers me the most is that it states that you cannot even CONTACT a competitor during three months. You have to wait three months until you sign a contract with a competitor.
My suggestion is to reach out to a lawyer, as this can have unforeseen impact in the future.
This is common practice and nothing to worry about. You definitely wont (and shouldnt) be engaging or offering any services with any competitor during your current employment. Should you want to leave to join a competitor, its not a biggie. They generally restrict you from working for the same clients for a certain period of time.
Hi there,
This is very very standard (a non-compete clause). I've actually seen a fair few clauses than are for 1-2 years not just 3 months!
I don't know what you mean about "what should I do" though? In terms of going to work for this employer, they are not going to change this clause! I have never seen this clause prevent someone from quitting the firm and moving on!
Hey there,
Yes, that is common. However, depending on the country and legislation such clauses are often hard to enforce by the company since their claim has to be balanced with your right and need to earn money. In practice, most contracts have these clauses with little relevance for employees.
I would not worry about it too much.
Cheers,
Florian
Hi! Actually it’s a common point in such contracts, because company doesn’t want to you to work anywhere else but with them. It just means you can’t offer your services to other companies while you’re working here and 3 months after you quit. You will definitely need even more than 3 months to get ready for working in another company, so you can just consider it an after-quit vacation.
If you need further help, feel free to PM me
Best,
Gaurav
