Ex-MS GM Can't Work 'Anywhere In the World' For Salesforce 282
theodp writes "Be careful before you sign a Microsoft non-compete agreement, kids. GeekWire reports that King County Superior Court Judge Kimberley Prochnau has enjoined former Microsoft General Manager Matthew Miszewski from 'working in a marketing role in salesforce.com's public or commercial sector anywhere in the world.' So what did onetime Wisconsin State CIO Miszewski do to warrant the global ban? 'He was a major evangelist for Microsoft,' explained Judge Prochnau, who added that the 'thrust of the order is to preclude him from being the evangelist for Salesforce.com that he was for Microsoft.' Microsoft, which has warned Congress that restricting the flow of talent is ruinous to America, said in a statement that the company is pleased with the ruling."
It's only 8 more months (Score:4, Informative)
Let me start by saying that I think that non-competes are generally bullshit. I personally gave up some benefits to avoid signing one where I work, just on principle.
That said, for high-level people with insider information, it may be a special case that I could be persuaded to accept. In any event, this guy only has 8 months left on his contract. The summary leaves out that vital little detail.
Standard practice (Score:1, Informative)
This is common at all major tech companies--and the summary leaves out some details, namely that Microsoft and Salesforce are in direct competition with each other in the cloud computing business, which also happens to be what Mr. Miszewski was selling for Microsoft and was hired to sell at Salesforce... the only gotcha is that the target customer base was slightly different (international government vs pure commerical), but that does not get Mr. Miszewski out of his non-compete. Also, Microsoft's position that the governments restriction of talent entering America is bad has very little to do with Microsoft's position on non-compete clauses.
Slashdot should be renamed to microsoftsucks.com.
Microsoft's not the only company who does this (Score:4, Informative)
I was dissuaded from accepting employment with Amazon after an attorney warned me that he'd handled several cases where Amazon came after an ex-employee who was now working for a web startup. There are few online business niches Amazon doesn't consider itself related to, and Amazon, like MS, does business all over the world, so the usual restrictions on geographic area don't apply.
All of those employees, when threatened, apparently backed down and started their careers over in packaged software design, in-house corporate business apps, or brick-and-mortar marketing. They couldn't afford to go up against Amazon, or to "sit out" of the online business for the 18 month non-compete term required by Amazon.
Re:Nothing to see... (Score:5, Informative)
Judges don't always go along with the agreements. Former employees of Arthur Anderson were allowed out of their agreements when they fled the firm due to the massive fraud scandal following Enron. Edwards v. Arthur Andersen LLP The Death of Non-Competition Agreements? [theiplawblog.com]
Re:Human Rights? (Score:3, Informative)
This is why I don't work for Microsoft (Score:5, Informative)
I had an offer to work at Microsoft just out of college. I was seriously considering the offer until I saw the draconian anti-employee non-compete they wanted me to sign. I told the recruiter that I didn't feel comfortable signing such an agreement since Microsoft works in so many different areas that there was no way to avoid some sort of conflict. I was assured by the recruiter that they don't usually enforce the agreement. Maybe that is generally true, but this ruling definitely proves that they will enforce it on occasion. Instead I ended up with a different company in CA where such draconian non-competes are illegal and most companies don't even attempt to get you to sign one.
I should also add that not all non-competes have to be as evil as Microsoft's. One company I had an offer for had a similar non-compete but it had a clause that if they decide to enforce it as long as it's in force and you're looking for other gainful employment they would continue to pay you your salary until the non-compete expired. I felt that this policy was more than fair since it allowed the company to decide how important enforcing the non-compete was and didn't have such negative consequences for you as an employee should they choose to enforce it. I personally feel all non-competes should include such a clause otherwise I would NEVER consider signing one.