Idaho has made it easier for companies to enforce noncompete agreements

So for new tech people getting started in their careers, make sure you save up 4-6 months of income so you don&#x27;t have to put up with this garbage. They say money is power, but before that, it&#x27;s freedom.<p>Don&#x27;t allow yourself to be pushed around. If you aren&#x27;t strong enough mentally yet to do it for yourself, do it for the other people in the field who aren&#x27;t strong enough.<p>If they offer to pay you to train your replacement, tell them to pound sand and walk out. Be prepared financially.<p>If they try to force you to sign a non-compete, be willing to walk away until they make it fair and reasonable.<p>If they try to get you to sign away all your IP, tell them no.<p>Companies don&#x27;t expect you to read that contract you are signing, and most of them just pull a boilerplate contract off the internet. Almost all of them are grossly one sided to the company. This includes taking ownership of anything you&#x27;ve developed in the past on your own.<p>All of this is easy if you have 4-6 months of income saved up. You are in high demand; companies will wither on the vine without good, efficient systems running them. Now, but even more so in the future.

Non competes would be fine as long as the employer needs to provide compensation for the duration of it after you&#x27;ve left. If an employer leaving will really harm your business then you should be completely fine with paying to avoid it.

Sheesh, what a perverse view of operation of companies. Non competes are silly beyond measure. I suppose the charitable view is that the legislators imagine that the employers have some magic beans which no one else could have beyond theft of the original beans.<p>In practice all this does is increase leverage of employers over employees while stifling growth by discouraging cross insemination of ideas between corporations.<p>The only winner is the employer who would fail to keep his employees through offering a good workplace.<p>Serfs were legally bound to the land on which they worked but could not own. Aren&#x27;t non competes nothing but just a step towards serfdom?

Since we live in a supposedly free market where all these companies, both incumbent and startup, found successful business plans why is it now necessary to prop these companies up with new laws? Isn&#x27;t it a part of the free market that if your business is not able to compete then it should die. A little cutthroat, but isn&#x27;t that the dog eat dog world of business.<p>I am against placing the burden of proof on the employee. I am more so against cementing these restrictions in laws. It would be ok with me to allow someone to enter into whatever contract they want, but this feels like a continuation the big bank bailouts and the auto bailouts just in miniature.<p>Don&#x27;t we need less laws and more comprehensible contracts to create a more level playing field. Can&#x27;t we refactor the law instead of implementing these &quot;duct-tape&quot; fixes which only restrict the liberties of hard-working, law-abiding citizens?

I live and run a small business in North Idaho. This law was something I have been a bit concerned about. I am not employed by anyone other than myself but I am often contracted by companies to do odd jobs (repair&#x2F;upgrade machines, solve small issues, work on projects, etc). There have been quite a few NDAs involved in the past which has always concerned me since there is an overlap in what I do and what they do...but now the question is do I as a contractor need to watch for this? Could a non compete slipped into a contract (in cases of tech overlap) cause me issues in my own company? How liable am I as a contractor? Or is this only in cases of employment?<p>I suppose this is one of those laws I really need to look into. NDA is one thing...but being sued for doing what I already did as a company...or contracting to another company (competitor with differing tech for instance) would put me out of business.<p>There is a group of people who are putting a lot of work into driving the startup scene to my area (Coeur d&#x27;Alene&#x2F;Spokane) but I feel this may hinder the companies...although...it might be beneficial for the people who are actually folding the cash at the end of the day.<p>Any insight from those more experienced would be helpful.<p>edit: Not that it should matter. But my bread and butter comes from remote open source&#x2F;openhardware projects. The locals are the only ones who have ever required an NDA.

Compare with indentured labour:<p>&gt; An indentured servant or indentured labor is an employee (indenturee) within a system of unfree labor who is bound by a contract (indenture) to work for a particular employer for a fixed period.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Indentured_servitude" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Indentured_servitude</a>

Non-competes are a great example of why &quot;pro-business&quot; isn&#x27;t the same as &quot;pro-capitalism&quot; or &quot;pro-economy&quot;. Making all your best qualified people unemployable is a great way to ruin your country.

This seems short-sighted.<p>The question, &quot;Do I even want to work in Idaho?&quot; Has got to be raising itself to employees and prospective employees already. Do you want to add another reason to make the easy answer no?<p>Meanwhile, you&#x27;re amassing a stockpile of unhappy employees who don&#x27;t want to be working for you but feel they have no choice. Do you really want to grow the number of employees you have who are trying to do the minimum?

&gt;While its economy is known for agriculture — potatoes are among the state’s biggest exports — Idaho has a long history as a technology hub.<p>Nitpick, but: Idaho&#x27;s largest component of the economy, as well as its largest exports, is technology and not agriculture. It is more of a tech state than an agricultural one.<p>(Sorry to all Idahoans who don&#x27;t want this publicized!)

Noncompetes are named accurately. They make an area much less competitive.<p>Idaho has only one meaningful tech company, and it&#x27;s mentioned multiple times in the article. Analysts say its overpriced and due for a fall. It&#x27;s a company that hasn&#x27;t had much real innovation for a long time. Not surprising given that it is headquartered in a anti-innovation state that no highly qualified engineer in his right mind would move to due to the toxic legal environment for technologists.

Article title is misleading. This article is solely about noncompete clauses in employee contracts, while title makes it seem that Idaho employees are subject to serfdom.<p>I fall on the side of &quot;noncompete clauses are stupid.&quot; Provide a better job or GTFO.

With laws like these, I don&#x27;t understand why anyone would take a job in Idaho. It seems like you&#x27;re just setting yourself up for a bad situation

I&#x27;ve also been seeing more contracts with indemnity clauses that make no sense given the size of the contract. I&#x27;m a single individual working on a contract under $10k, no I will not be financially responsible for anything negative that happens. Every time so far, I&#x27;ve redlined that section and said it does not apply, and it has been removed.

I&#x27;m not a big fans of unions as they currently exist, but this is a good example of why tech people should organize into <i>some</i> sort of collective structure so as to equalize their bargaining power. At the end of the day, you&#x27;re just disposable labor that will be disadvantaged at any opportunity for the sake of profit.

For those of you who say just walk away. Alot of people lack confidence in themselves when they start out. Alot of people are really ignorant, even in the compsci space. A non-compete harms everyone as a restrain of trade. Parents really do not educate their kids on what to watch out for-often alot of parents just do not care about kids. Schools do not, either because of a lack of classroom time or large employers lobby the state against it.<p>Banning predatory provisions, especially non-competes, as California demonstrates, really helps develop the economy.

Also known as: Idaho&#x27;s brain drain as tech workers vote with their wallet and brains to move to a friendlier state.

Blanket non-competes are asnine. You lock in unproductive workers who are unhappy and want to leave.

And hence, greatly deter people from the idea of pulling up tent stakes + moving there to start a new life.

Non competes can&#x27;t normally be enforced unless the company specifially compensates you for the non compete. Punishing someone by not allowing them to be able to make a living is unjust and unfair.

Peripheral, but I found it funny that a salesperson would get <i>&quot;Trust No One&quot;</i> tattooed on themselves in a place where clients could read it while she talks with them.