>specifically because they want to get the competitor's knowledge.
This is covered by NDAs and if you can prove these were violated you can get something done about it. I've seen this happen.
>The competitor can try non-complete clauses, but those may not hold up legally.
I should certainly hope they wouldn't be held up legally. It's bullshit. The worker has a chance to make twice as much money. They shouldn't get blocked because some company thinks we're still in slavery times.
If it really matters so much to the company, they could just pay those workers double themselves (since, by definition, that's the market rate of those workers now). Moving is always a bit of a pain so if they're not already very unhappy they might even take less than double just to not have to move.
>They can threaten to sue former employees who betray secrets
If they can prove the NDA was violated they will sue and they will win.
>but it's pretty hard not to use or at least be inspired by what you've learned in a past job.
What you learn on the job is yours. This is known and completely accepted. If this were not the case then a Senior programmer would make the same money as a fresh-out-of-college Junior programmer.
You may find this extreme but some of us believe a programmer should get some kind of residuals for anything they write for a company the way authors/musicians/movie stars/sports players do for their work.
This is covered by NDAs and if you can prove these were violated you can get something done about it. I've seen this happen.
>The competitor can try non-complete clauses, but those may not hold up legally.
I should certainly hope they wouldn't be held up legally. It's bullshit. The worker has a chance to make twice as much money. They shouldn't get blocked because some company thinks we're still in slavery times.
If it really matters so much to the company, they could just pay those workers double themselves (since, by definition, that's the market rate of those workers now). Moving is always a bit of a pain so if they're not already very unhappy they might even take less than double just to not have to move.
>They can threaten to sue former employees who betray secrets
If they can prove the NDA was violated they will sue and they will win.
>but it's pretty hard not to use or at least be inspired by what you've learned in a past job.
What you learn on the job is yours. This is known and completely accepted. If this were not the case then a Senior programmer would make the same money as a fresh-out-of-college Junior programmer.
You may find this extreme but some of us believe a programmer should get some kind of residuals for anything they write for a company the way authors/musicians/movie stars/sports players do for their work.