zlacker

Sorry if this is a stupid question, how does a noncompete gets enforced anyway? Unless you’re a person legally required to make public your job, I don’t see how any private entities can trace your work history.

>>vachin+(OP)
Business owners and managers talk. I've heard of unofficial (and very illegal) blacklisting being a thing in NYC in the past, for multiple industries.

Collusion between employers to ensure that non-competes are enforced sounds very plausible, given that it is legal.

I think that the existence of a non-compete may also be a liability for the new employer, and it's not solely a practice meant to remind labor of what their place is.

>>vachin+(OP)
Companies and government agencies routinely hire PIs to follow people receiving disability benefits to gather evidence that might indicate they're not as disabled as they attest. You can bet that if they're willing to track people over disability checks, they're going to use those same tools to enforce non-competes.

>>vachin+(OP)
Lawsuit is common.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/03/10/noncompet...

>>vachin+(OP)
At a senior enough level it's public knowledge.

A lot of sub-industries are also "where everyone knows your name" places. I used to be an IT industry analyst (a couple of the large firms in which were known--at least at the time--for being pretty hard-core on non-competes) and pretty much everyone knew what firms other people in their space worked for. You could never have gone to a different firm and had your prior employer not know.