Earlier this week, the WSJ included my story in an article about noncompetes:
Daniel Bachhuber had worked as a software consultant for years when he decided to take an in-house job in the fall of 2018. His new employer required that he sign a one-year noncompete agreement, which he said was so broad it would have prevented him from practicing his core skills if he were to leave the company or be fired.
Mr. Bachhuber balked. Earlier in his career, he had been laid off a few weeks into a new job, just after his first child was born. If that happened at the new job, he recalled thinking, he would be unable to earn a living for a year. “I’m always thinking, worst case scenario, what kind of downstream protection do I have?” the 35-year-old said. “Even if I was employed just one day, I couldn’t go back to the same clients I had.”
It’s pretty cool to help shape public policy! The reporter and I connected after she came across public comment I left for the FTC back in January 2020.
I’m pretty sure I heard about the original request for comment from Marginal Revolution, so seeing MR link to the article really made my day:
2 Comments
Cool to see! Is that the shed office in the lead image?
Yep, that’s the shedquarters!