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From: chapman@fornax.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: Who pays for education - knee jerk reactions
Message-ID: <226@fornax.uucp>
Date: Thu, 5-Mar-87 16:45:15 EST
Article-I.D.: fornax.226
Posted: Thu Mar  5 16:45:15 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 6-Mar-87 21:39:58 EST
References: <224@fornax.uucp> <845@watmum.UUCP>
Distribution: can
Organization: School of Computing Science, SFU, Burnaby, B.C. Canada
Lines: 29

> In article <224@fornax.uucp> chapman@fornax.uucp (John Chapman) writes:
> 
> > c) many corporations insist on employees signing agreements to
> >    the effect that they will not use skills/knowledge obtained
> >    through the company for a certain period after they leave the
> >    company's employ.
> 
> Come on John.  Get the story straight.  What these sorts of agreements
> prevent is the ex-employee using *proprietary information* or company
> *trade secrets* when she leaves.  Non-competition contracts are looked
> upon very severly by the courts.  In general, an employee's 

This is not entirely true.  There have been contracts in the US where
the employee agrees not to work in field X for a certain time period
after leaving the company. Not just "you can't use proprietary info"
but you can't work in that area at all.  I can remember reading of a
couple of cases of this in the trade papers a few years ago.  However
even if you do not believe this I think the point still stands - the
company makes you more valuable by imparting particular knowledge and
you are then constrained to use that knowledge for the company's benefit
(and presumably your own - e.g. better employee -> more pay ) and not
for it's competitors benefit.  They educate you - you agree to use it
only for your mutual benefit .

> general "skills/knowledge" are her's to use as she pleases.
> (At least if I remember my intro-to-law courses correctly, this is the case.
> Anybody who *really* knows what they are talking about want to comment?)
> 
> 	-bob atkinson