Georgia is a right-to-work state. That means you may go to work for a new employer at any time and without notice to an existing employer. Likewise, an employer may terminate you at any time and with no reason and with no severance pay.
If you are employed and your employer approaches you about signing a non-competition agreement, you generally have very few options. If you refuse to sign the agreement, the employer can terminate you. This is not discriminatory or illegal. The non-competition agreement can be negotiated with your employer often. These agreements typically keep you from competing against your employer by restricting who you can go to work for or which customers of the current employer you can deal with after you leave your current employment. This is accomplished by one of two methods.
First, the non-competition agreement may say you cannot deal with any people with whom you dealt while employed by your current employer if you begin working for a competitor when leaving your current employment. Sometimes, the agreements attempt to restrict you from calling on people within a geographic radius of your current employer even if you never dealt with those people in your current job. Next, the agreement will attempt to place a time period on you such as one or two years after you leave your job. Finally, the agreement attempts to place a limit on the scope of your conduct after you leave your current employer. By this, I mean you are restricted from doing for the next employer what you do for your current employer. For example, consider that you are an outside sales person for ABC Company. ABC Company may restrict you from going to work with a competitor, AJAX Supply Company as an outside sales person. However, you might go to work as an in-house or an inside sales position or as a manager or some other position not outside sales.
Therefore, the things you should be looking for at a non-competition agreement are the length of time that you cannot compete with your former employer, the things you cannot do if you go to work for a competitor of your current employer and the people with whom you cannot have contact if you go to work with a competitor of your current employer. These three items can be negotiated usually. If you are planning to remain at your current employer, these contracts have little influence over your day-to-day activities. As a matter of fact, your employee may see you as a more loyal employee if you sign one of these agreements. Of course, you have given up valuable rights if you sign such an agreement, and you should try to negotiate for additional compensation or benefits.
