Legal Question in Employment Law in Washington

Re: If I do not sign a Non Compete Agreement

Signing a non compete agreement is like signing a contract. When you sign a contract, you expect to get something in return. What are you getting in return by signing the agreement Monday? It sounds like nothing, other than not being fired.

There are employment attorneys in Seattle who are very experienced dealing with these agreements.

I can't help you further, but perhaps someone else on Law Guru can.

Re: If I do not sign a Non Compete Agreement

I am assuming that you are strictly an employee, and do not have any ownership interest in the company.

First, unless you have an employment contract, your employer can legally let you go for any reason except an illegal one, and being fired for refusing to stop pursuing a sideline that is in your employer's field in not a protected group.

Second, whether your employer can sue you or not if you do not sign the non-compete depends on the facts of the case. The Uniform Trade Secrets Act provides that employers' trade secrets are protected. If your employer can show that you used the employer's trade secrets in the pursuit of your side business, the employer might have grounds to sue. A trade secret must have value, must be something not generally ascertainable by others in the business, and must be something your employer made reasonable efforts to protect. Because of your status as an employee, you may have access to your employer's customer list and possibly also to its bidding strategies (enabling you to under-bid them.) There may be other trade secrets unique to your situation that you also have. To prevail in a lawsuit, you would need to be able to show that your employer's competitors who did not have your insider advantages would also be able to get this information, or that you did not have access to and/or did not use any trade secrets.

Short answer; everything depends on the nature of the particular business you are in and the facts of your particular case. But caution is strongly advised here.

Good luck.