Employers and Non Competes

I just read Obie’s post about employers and their fear of someone being successful without them. The non-compete doesn’t completely bother me, it’s the ownership of works really. Work on my time does not belong to you!

I have an issue with him owning the intellectual property for work I do off the clock.  It makes me less motivated to learn and be innovative when I’m tinkering around on my own. I have my pet projects that I don’t want him to have any part in.

– Obie

I can’t stand when employers think it’s their right to own my works even if done on my own time. Now, I completely understand if they have a problem with me directly competing with them. But if I come up with a product/service on my own time (which you wouldn’t have approved time for anyways), it’s mine.

I as an employee should have a couple of choices:

1. Market the product and make some coin.
2. Bring the product to the attention of the employer and hope I get some good karma/bonus/whatever
3. Let it go as a learning excercise.

All of these should be options. If the employer wants the best, allow us to innovate and create products that you didn’t think of. I, like Obie, would feel constricted and not feel so inclined to tinker and possibly come up with new ideas on my time if I might not own my creation.

Aside from creating new products, I can’t count the free training hours my employer received through my tinkering on side projects. How many pieces of code I’ve dragged in that could be repurposed in the employer’s projects.

If you want me to stay, quit trying to make me sign “we your own life” documents that probably won’t hold up anyways and start offering reasons to stay. If I come up with works that are good enough for me to branch off.  Then don’t try to sue your way out of it. Encourage me, share the profits. Clearly the ideas are good enough. Provide related bonuses tied to realistic goals in writing. If my employer offered to finance the idea and provide me with a healthy bonus or commissions, I would gladly bring more ideas forward. Sure the payout would be less than if I ran with the idea myself, but so would the risk.

Employers, listen up! We’re not trying to steal your business. We’re not trying to directly compete with you. We usually just want the ability to sow what we reap. Even if we never do.