[tristor]

My most upvoted comment on HN is from some time ago specifically about non-competes. In summary: fuck non-competes. I will not sign them. I will not work for any company that puts non-competes in their employment contracts. I will advocate that all of the people in my professional network (all of whom are top of their fields) do the same.

I have never seen a single convincing argument for why companies need non-compete agreements for employees. Every single argument I have been provided, including the arguments in this article, are not even covered by non-compete agreements and are actually covered by non-solicitation or non-disclosure agreements instead.

Non-competes are amoral, create a social and moral hazard that depresses wages and further imbalances the power relationship between employees and employers, and are on their face rather stupid. There is not, and never has been, any legitimate reason for any company to put a non-compete into their employment contract. The only reason companies do this is because they're allowed to and any competent corporate attorney will try to get as much over on the other party as possible in a contract negotiation.

This research is completely unsurprising to me. Anyone with more than 5 brain cells to rub together can easily figure out that non-competes are a total farce and have no reason for existence.