Please read and please advise! I just got a job offer as a PHP Developer making decent money. I thought it was weird all of the invasive paperwork I had to fill out when I was interviewing for the job a week ago, non-disclosure, non-solicitation, release of all of my personal information. I had my very good lawyer look over it and he was skeptical and said that it was “incredibly invasive” and told me to go ahead and sign it because “it would never hold up in a court of law”, but if they asked me to sign more paperwork, to let him know.
Anyway, they called me Wednesday and offered me the job, I accepted, BUT…I asked “is there ANY other paperwork that I will have to sign?”. She replied, “nope, you already signed it all…well let me check your file…no, you already signed it all”. “Great”, I said, “I will take the job!” I put notice in at my current employer and later in the day I got the formal offer via email [I admit this may have been a bad move]. Wait…there is another contract listed in the letter, a non-compete contract. I called the woman and said “I thought you said I had already signed all of the contracts”, playing dumb - she said “well what else did they ask you to sign?”. I replied, “a non-compete”, “this is an issue for me because I have existing clients that need me to continue supporting their applications”. She said, “well that shouldn’t be a problem since you had these clients before you started work with us”. I haven’t signed the offer accepting it, please advise and share your experience in the industry and with non-compete contracts.
Thanks!
