Centuries before Machiavelli, there was ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Muqaffaʿ. He lived in Basra in southern Iraq in the 700s and was an employee of the city’s local government when the region was under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate. Even though he only lived 36 years, he was a prolific writer, both of original compositions in Arabic and of Arabic translations of Persian books. He is most famous today for his Arabic translation of Kalila and Dimna, a collection of allegorical stories, with animal characters, meant to impart lessons about statecraft. His most underrated work, though, is the Great Book of Conduct, a book of advice on professional etiquette for government employees and others who work in what we would today call white-collar jobs.
Books on practical ethics and how to live a virtuous life were popular in the Middle East in Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ’s time, but this does not accurately describe the Great Book of Conduct. The moral value of the advice it imparts is of secondary importance; its main goal is to instruct readers on how to behave in socially and professionally advantageous ways. Much of its advice is timeless; the workplace would be a much more pleasant place if people avoided long, pointless monologues and negative comments about entire categories of people, as the Great Book of Conduct advises. One piece of advice is especially insightful, though. According to the Great Book of Conduct¸if you see your friend talking to your enemy, do not be angry, because if he is one of your closest friends, you should trust him enough to know that he always has your best interests in mind, even when talking to your enemies, and if he is not one of your closest friends, it is not your business to tell him who to talk to.
By this logic, former friends and coworkers should count as people whose social interactions you do not have the right to choreograph. The Boulder non-solicitation of employees lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP can help you navigate the legal issues surrounding professional relationships with people you met while working at your previous job.
What is Solicitation, and Why Can’t You Do it?
In the context of employment law, solicitation is when you try to establish a business relationship or initiate a business transaction. You have probably heard the word in other contexts, though. When stores and train stations post signs that say “no soliciting,” they mean that they do not want people to go there and try to sell things, whether it is candy, timeshares, or anything else. Likewise, when people get criminal charges for soliciting, it means that they were allegedly trying to buy sexual favors.
Your employment contract might say that, after the employment relationship ends, you are not allowed to solicit employees from your former employer. This means that, if you set up a new business after you stop working at your current job, you are not allowed to ask your former coworkers from your previous job to work with you at your new business. Clauses about non-solicitation of employees usually occur in non-compete agreements or in non-compete provisions of an employment contract.
Making a Clean Break With Your Former Employer is Not Always as Easy as it Sounds
Why do non-compete agreements in general, and non-solicitation of employees clauses in specific, even exist? If you no longer work for your employer, why does your employer have the right to control you? Does not it mean that your employer is a jealous ex, and that the best solution is for both of you to move on?
Even though it seems unfair to employees, and even though the courts sometimes recognize it as unfair, employers have some rights to restrict the professional activities of their employees after the employment relationship ends. Employers can write non-compete provisions into employment contracts. A non-compete clause says that the employee may not engage in business activities that compete directly with the employer. If the employee does this, the employer has the right to sue the employee for damages in the amount of the financial losses that the employer incurred because of the employee.
The courts frown on non-compete clauses with an excessively wide reach, the ones that heavily restrict the work the employee can do after he or she stops working for the employer. The courts are unlikely to enforce a non-compete clause that makes it sound like you can never again work in a job similar to the one you held with your former employer. At a minimum, non-compete clauses should limit the time and geographic area in which your activities are restricted.
The non-compete provisions should also be specific about what you cannot do. Non-solicitation of employees clauses are among the easiest non-compete clauses to enforce. They only say that if you set up a new business or start working for a competitor of your former employer, you cannot try to recruit employees of your former employer to work with you at your new job.
Boulder Non-Solicitation of Employees Lawyer
Clauses about non-solicitation of employees rarely make or break employment contracts. If your employment contract has one, though, it is a signal that you should carefully review the contract with a lawyer before you sign, because there might be other potentially restrictive provisions in the contract that you did not notice.
Likewise, if you plan to go into business with a former coworker, you should also consult a Boulder employment lawyer. With your lawyer’s help, you can review the contracts under which you both worked at your previous job to be sure of what the non-compete provisions in them mean. This way, when you start your new business, you can do it in a way that minimizes the risk that your former employer will sue you for breaching the non-solicitation of employees provisions of your contract.
Contact HKM Employment Attorneys, LLP, About Non-Solicitation Agreements
The Boulder employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys, LLP, can counsel you about non-solicitation agreements. Contact the employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP in Boulder, Colorado, to set up a consultation.
