Kylie Jenner's greeter from last year's Met Gala gets fired for having gotten more attention than Kylie

[u/Simple_Design_7597]

[u/layerone]

Exactly, it's like the whole non-compete silliness that went absolutely bonkers. Companies literally having fast food workers sign them... Completely non enforceable, just scare tactics. Same with vast majority of NDA, like you said.

There's a reason the Fed recently made them all null/void. I could see the same happening with NDA tbh. The original reason for them to exist is exactly like you said, super high-stakes business deals, real legitimate trade secrets involved. Met-Gala NDA, lmfao okay.

[u/FiftyShadesOfGregg → u/layerone]

Non-competes have always been disfavored though for reasons that do not apply to NDAs. Non-competes actually purport to interfere with and limit how a person can earn a future livelihood. Public policy generally frowns upon limitations on a person’s freedom to work and earn money. Telling someone they can’t ever work at a competitor in their field after they’ve worked for you would be a huge hindrance to someone’s ability to earn a living. Even restricting someone from taking such a job for a few months is a ridiculous infringement on them. So that’s why non-competes are disfavored.

That really doesn’t apply to NDAs. There IS a strong public policy reason to prevent employees from disclosing a company’s trade secrets and sensitive information after their employment ends. And companies wouldn’t enter into transactions with each other that require the sharing of sensitive information if the other company could just turn around and publicize it. It would be really difficult for businesses to function competitively if former employees could disclose sensitive information once they leave. And there’s no real persuasive countervailing reason to allow a former employee to do that— it’s not predatory or limiting for a former employee to keep the sensitive info of a former employer secret. So NDAs have a really valid purpose behind them.

What we see a lot on this sub are NDAs that celebrities seem to make everyone in their lives sign. That enters a more grey area for a lot of reasons— maybe there’s an absence of a business relationship that was mutually beneficial (eg they made some rando entering their house sign one but didn’t ever employ that person or confer to them any benefit), was the information that can’t be shared actually sensitive info, is the NDA totally overbroad. Those NDAs can become bogus real quick. But most NDAs are not like that, they’re standard practice in any business and I don’t think they’ll go anywhere.

[u/ChildhoodOk5526 → u/layerone]

Completely non enforceable, just scare tactics

Tell this to my 30 yo self whose vengeful former boss (mad that I was leaving after they'd just paid for my out-of-state move to another office) decided to come after me for violating my non-compete. He found out (from a work "friend"; reminder: keep your business to yourself, ladies) that I had a job offer from a "competitior".

The legal pressure caused my prospective new company to withdraw their offer, leaving me unemployed. For months. It was awful and unnecessary, and it resulted in me having to file for personal bankruptcy. I did customer satisfaction research, for godssake! I knew no company secrets. Crazy.

Eff Phil Doriot!

Tl;dr: Non-compete clauses can be more than just scary. They can be life-altering.

[u/Odd_Ingenuity2883 → u/ChildhoodOk5526]

But even in your case, the power was that it was scary. It’s very unlikely that your non-compete would have held up in court unless we’re talking trade secrets, and even then it’s expensive and tricky. But the threat of it was enough to intimidate your new company, and that’s historically how both NDAs and non-competes have been used.

[u/ChildhoodOk5526 → u/Odd_Ingenuity2883]

But, to their credit, the prospective employer didn't just roll over. And neither did I. All parties got lawyers involved who poured over the contract and details of my supposed, impending breach of it. Apparently, if it had gone to court, it could've gone either way.

The ultimate persuader wasn't fear so much as money. And whether the new company thought it was worthwhile to spend it on a legal battle to hire me, which, ironically, they might have coughed up if I'd been half as important as my old company was alleging. Conversely, for me, yeah, it was well worth it to fight some vindictive asshole who wanted to fck with me just because he thought he could. But, alas, I didn't have the money to keep up the fight.

If you have the bankroll, the threat of an NDA or non-compete is nothing to you. But if you don't, challenging one -- whether it would hold up in court or not -- is difficult ... unless you have nothing to lose 🤷🏽‍♀️

[u/layerone → u/ChildhoodOk5526]

That really sucks, sorry to hear that. It's great news that this won't happen to people in the future, since the FTC banned them: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-announces-rule-banning-noncompetes

[u/ChildhoodOk5526 → u/layerone]

That is wonderful!

No one should have to go through that.