Hacker News Reader

Comment by kube-system | Hacker News Reader

That’s not the case, very few civil legal disputes go to court, particularly if they are BS.

For a total BS claim, it usually doesn’t take more than calling their bluff. Or just ignoring it.

Employers usually just bet on people just following the language and not challenging it because they think it’s valid and they think they’ll have to go to court.

In reality, a business doesn’t want to spend tens of thousands of dollars on something their own lawyer says they’re going to lose.

Nobody is taking $12/hr unskilled employees to court over noncompetes. Lighting cash on fire is a more efficient and fun way to accomplish the same.

View on HN

> very few civil legal disputes go to court

This is much more often going to be true because the dispute was never made in the first place, because of the risk it would entail to a low wage worker. They cannot afford—for reasons of time, money, health, education—to even threaten to take an employer to court.

Your argument sounds logical, but is unfortunately unaware of how real world pressures distort systems for recourse.

I’m aware that they are very useful as an empty threat.

However, the reality here is not likely that a sandwich shop employee would have to “threaten to take an employer to court”.

The most likely scenario is that the hiring manager doesn’t even realize that boilerplate is in their employment agreement. The second most likely is that the employer grumbles about the employee leaving and that’s as far as it goes.

Employers taking a random ex-employee and throwing them against a wall has a nice deterrence effect on the rest of their employees. They don't have to win, they just have to be unpleasant. Happens all the time.

First, you're lucky to get $10/hr, no benefits. Of course, 29.5h a week, but required to have 60h schedule open.

And food service is horrifically abusive.

And yes, the noncompetes ARE enforced, because it's not about you - it's about keeping all the employees/slaves in line, and knowing there is no other place they can turn to working.

This whole thread is so laughable. As a former Subway employee, I worked there cause there was nowhere else. Pay was a laugh. And if you think there's legal services for the poverty masses, then you must be smoking something REALLY good.

EDIT: oh look, the -1 brigade of people who had silver spoons since birth. Just how many of you climbed from homelessness and menial jobs??

Reply on news.ycombinator.com