IANAL, and from what I've seen, NCAs are a very grey area legally........ take my comments as you will....but I've been exactly where you are now! Be VERY careful - if you are working for a consultancy like PriceWaterCoopers, Booz-Allen, etc, they are quite diversified in what they provide as professional services. Consider this scenario. Company X - a diversified profesisonal services firm where you are being hired as an INFOSEC person. Company Y - a company you're working a job for as a Company X INFOSEC consultant. Company Z - a totally-different company that uses Company X's tax auditors to manage its books Let's say you quit Company X to become a CPA or technical writer....a major career change. Company Z picks you up as a staff accountant and your job has nothing to do with INFOSEC. As your NCA currently reads, Company X could try and enforce their NCA on the grounds that they provide accounting services as part of their business offerings, regardless of whether or not they actually provide such services to Company Z, your current employer. Consider also that if you change jobs, you should not be forced to ask in your interview whether or not your previous employer is in any way, shape, form, or function doing any sort of work for any business unit anywhere in the company anywhere in the world......that's a ludicrous situation to place you in, and an unfair burden on the employee. I strongly suggest you have them work the NCA to say you won't compete with/for clients or business opportunities in the same professional field (eg, INFOSEC) that you're being hired for. The non-solicit-of-our-employees is fairly common, and I don't see a problem with that. You should also see what type of control or ownership this company is trying to exert over your work - eg, if you are an INFOSEC consultant, but own a small web hosting firm in your basement, or develop a new Chia Pet, write a novel, etc, is the company trying to claim ownership over what you may work on during non-work hours even when there's no relationship, reference, or corollation to your employer? My belief is that an employer should only be concerned about what you do outside of working hours that is in DIRECT RELATIONSHIP to what you're being hired for. I've turned down many offers from PS firms after going through their fine print in NDA and NCAs.....many times it's like joining the Borg or FBI....once they get you, they REALLY own you! Just my two cents on a blah Sunday.... rf
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Aug 07 2001 - 15:16:34 PDT