DoubleClickers Don’t Worry!
April 11, 2008
First, I am not a lawyer and I don’t play one on TV. Valleywag recently reported that Doubleclickers got screwed by Google when they asked them to sign non-competes and then terminated them a week later. Do no evil, eh? Anyway, Valleywag reported that these Doubleclickers are being ‘forced to find jobs outside their industry’. This isn’t true.
First, the agreement is overly broad and wouldn’t be enforceable in most states (including Texas). Second, Google is so big and broad itself that it would be VERY hard to find a company that wasn’t “a client or customer within the last twelve months of my employment with the Company.” Under this clause I suspect that Doubleclickers wouldn’t be able to work for Valleywag, much less an internet related company. So if I was ‘forced’ to sign such a contract a week before I was fired I would feel VERY comfortable ignoring it.
