[citation][nom]alidan[/nom]its called a non compete clause. some places, for example a major motorcycle company i know of all emploies sighn a contract that states if you leave or are fired, you cant work in a competters business for 1 year, the contract i know of.i presume that the higher you go the longer that gets, because the more you know the more you can help competition. lets say you work on a prototype engine, it wont be out for 3 years, they may make a non compete for 5 years because you know everything about it.[/citation]
Those contracts however are sometimes unpredictable to which companies it applies to and who is considered a competitor. Since we are looking at Paypal I do not see Google as a competitor to them that is of course until now and concerning one thing. A project that likely existed before Bedier went to Google and a project that was not likely shared with him in existence until he got the job. It's not like all trade secrets are laid out in-front of possible employees so Bedier could not be at fault in this case.
Imagine the scenario of you working at Microsoft, you are decently high up the ladder
so you know things including things to come. Microsoft is much more than just a software company today it covers quite a lot. You decide however that you feel you would be best suited to work elsewhere so you go and work for Intel. Would you consider Intel to be a direct competitor to Microsoft? Likely not right? You get the job at Intel and are told that Intel is making a new line of gaming consoles but uh-oh Microsoft has their own line of consoles now Intel is a direct competitor and you are in breach of your contract. You had no idea you would be, no reason to suspect that you would be. Even worse you have knowledge of the upcoming Microsoft console that is still secrets within the company. You are screwed.
With how large corporations are growing when concerning the products or services they give
it is impossible to tell who you can even work for after you leave one. This problem desperately needs to be reworked so that employment after leaving one does not become impossible because that is where this is heading.