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Comment by redorb | Hacker News Reader

Had to quit the company I worked at for 4-5 years after the owner died his wife took over - and tried to force non competes that were forever and transferable if the business was sold etc..

The contract was so broad there was no way it was valid. The kicker was she was withholding my standard'ish larg'ish bonus. I just walked and finally she came around - took years for us to mend our relationship.

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I actually don't mind signing unenforceable contracts.

You don't have to say anything, life can be like a game of poker. If your perception of reality is correct, you gain outsize influence, if it is incorrect (or more specifically "can't gain consensus") then you are poor or are imprisoned or killed. Do you gain a benefit by informing someone else about their perception of reality?

I primarily try to be rich enough to exercise my perception of reality in appeals court, because thats the only place it really matters.

I quit my job, and moved to another state only to be presented with an egregious unenforceable noncompete on my first day of the new job.

Signing it knowing I was in the clear was the best of a couple bad options.

In a lot of situations where a contract like that comes to court, the company will try to convince the judge to simply reduce the scope of the contract to whatever seems reasonable to them - and this can succeed. (Of course if you're in a state where non-competes are blanket illegal, that's different.)

I do the same thing. It's not even necessary to be especially rich in most cases, so long as you took the time to read the relevant statutes and case law in advance. An hour on a search engine is often enough.

Shit! Did you get the bonus in the end?

Oh yeah on day 3, she said come in and we'll talk... Talked for 2 hours and she was still stuck on the contract.

Finally I told her 'I feel like that check your holding is already mine' - aka your on the verge of theft..

I immediately spent the next month negotiating the bonus into the base pay. Took a few years to regain trust and now I'm at a glass ceiling (which I won't complain about but feel fortunate about)

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