You’ve worked hard to bring excellent talent to your business over the years. You’ve recruited skilled workers, bringing in both those with experience and younger workers who have a more recent set of skills. The success your business has had is largely due to the skill of your workforce.
But then one of your top employees quits and immediately takes a job with your direct competition. You find out that the competitor offered them twice as much money to do the same job if they switched companies. Is it legal for another business to poach your employees in this manner?
It can and does happen
Yes, this is legal. Employees have no obligation to stay with any company, especially if they are at-will employees. They are free to quit at any time that they want, and they can take a job anywhere else.
In the past, business owners could make employees sign noncompete agreements. These would prevent them from switching to a direct competitor for a set amount of time after leaving their job. But, the Federal Trade Commission recently banned noncompete agreements, so even this will no longer work.
There are some rare exceptions to this new rule. Some executives at the top of the business hierarchy may still have to abide by their noncompete agreements if they’ve already been signed. But the vast majority of workers can simply switch jobs whenever they want.
Changing business laws
As this example shows, long-standing business laws can change very quickly, and employers need to be aware of the changes and how they can adapt. Be sure you know exactly what legal steps to take.