Legal Question in Business Law in Georgia
Employee Agreements
I have been working with my employer for over 2 years, I initially signed a confidentiality agreement. Recently, my title changed and my boss is asking to sign a non-compete, non-solicitation, and an intellectual property protection agreement. I do not want to sign these documents because I believe it could affect my career when I separate from the company. I was not told that my title change would be contingent upon my signing these documents and they were provided to me almost three weeks after the title change was revealed to me. How should I proceed if I do not want to sign the documents and what consequences will I face as a result? Thank you.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Employee Agreements
The non-compete and non-solicitation agreements can be enforced if "reasonable". Georgia has the reputation of being more favorable for employers seeking to enforce non-competes than many other states, however often the agreements are poorly drafted and seek to restrict the former employee for too long, over too great a geographic area, or with respect to the non-solicitation agreement, regarding too many of the former employer's customers. If you sense it is a standard form, a canned document not prepared with specific knowledge of your position - it may be one of these hard to enforce agreements and you may risk little by signing it. Of course you should contact a Georgia lawyer and have them review the specific document and the complete circumstances.
The intellectual property protection agreement has more support in the courts, generally. The specifics of the restrictive agreement and the nature of any IP you might wish to develop free of their restrictions will be important details. You'll need to discuss these fact-specific aspects with a Georgia lawyer as well.
Re: Employee Agreements
Unless you have an existing contract, one consequence of not signing could be termination, demotion, or any other action an employer may take when an employee is not cooperative (from their perspective).
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