You Belong to Me: Employer Attempts to Keep Employees from Quitting to Work for Competitors Via Non-Compete Agreements in Employment Contracts‪.‬

ABSTRACT At one point in time, employees remained with one employer for most of their careers. Today, employees are more mobile and are likely to have several employers over the course of their careers. Because of this increased mobility, employers are concerned that former employees will use the knowledge and skills they learned while in the employer's service to compete with their former employer. Thus, employers are faced with the dilemma of how to protect themselves from the competition of former employees. In order to protect their interests, employers often include a covenant not to compete, also referred to as a noncompete clause, in their employment contracts. It is the authors' contention that noncompete agreements are anticompetitive and contrary to the free enterprise system. Because some state courts are hostile to noncompete agreements, some companies have found more effective ways to collect for the expense of training an employee while permitting the employee to leave and immediately compete.