You are arguing with straw man since no one in this thread argued to bad NDAs. To me personally NDA seems to be a reasonable concept while NCA is just a wage depression tool.
The parent comment of the one I replied to was specifically referencing IP as a use case for NCA. You allude to “knowledge” of IP warranting higher pay. Besides, elsewhere it’s discussed how NDAs can act as de facto NCAs due to the inevitable disclose doctrine.
> Besides, elsewhere it’s discussed how NDAs can act as de facto NCAs due to the inevitable disclose doctrine.
And that is much better case than NCA since it would only apply in specific narrow cases and wouldn't prevent a McDonalds employee from working in fast food industry for a year, for example.
I don’t disagree, but considering HN is mostly tech-focused for the purposes of this discussion it’s can be a distinction without a difference. Note how the original thrust of this sub-thread is about tech-heavy IP being grounds for preventing employment with a competitor. Also elsewhere I’ve mentioned how some jurisdictions provide caveats, like refusing to enforce NCAs when an employee earns less than a certain threshold (eg $75k). That covers most of your McDonalds employees while still holding true to the intent of NCAs as it comes to IP heavy industries. Well-crafted laws don’t throw out the baby with the bath water
> I don’t disagree, but considering HN is mostly tech-focused for the purposes of this discussion it’s can be a distinction without a difference.
I disagree. Big tech companies often force employees to sign very broad non-competes ("You can't go to a company that competes with us in any market") which in case of such companies covers almost everything (which tech company doesn't compete with Amazon in some way?). Granted, as far as I know big tech rarely enforces non-competes in case of regular ICs, but I would still prefer NCAs to be unenforceable and let the quant firms argue in courts regarding inevitable disclosure for some specific narrow cases where it is applicable.
> Also elsewhere I’ve mentioned how some jurisdictions provide caveats, like refusing to enforce NCAs when an employee earns less than a certain threshold (eg $75k).
I don't see why salary makes a difference here. Some random FAANG IC also shouldn't be forced to sign a NCA.
> Well-crafted laws don’t throw out the baby with the bath water
What baby? SV "baby" seems to be doing just fine in Cali with unenforceable non-competes.
What you’ve highlighted is that you’re having a different discussion than the OP. That post specifically said there are use cases where NCAs protect IP. You highlighting when they are used elsewhere doesn’t negate that point. And there are significant cases on the news where an employee steals trade secrets and takes them to a competitor (see Levandowski among others). It comes across like you have an axe to grind rather than making a thoughtful point.
> That post specifically said there are use cases where NCAs protect IP. You highlighting when they are used elsewhere doesn’t negate that point.
I consider my position (employers can and should use other mechanisms to go after employees that _really_ stealing their IP instead of forcing NCAs on every random McDonalds employee or even junior tech IC) valid reply to position stated by OP. I stand by my words.
> And there are significant cases on the news where an employee steals trade secrets and takes them to a competitor (see Levandowski among others).
Levandowski example proves my point though since he did it in a state that doesn't enforce NCAs and Google found the way to go after him.
> It comes across like you have an axe to grind rather than making a thoughtful point.