ControlEngineer - 7:02 pm on Jul 21, 2005 (gmt 0)

the thing is that most people--by far-- desperately need the job to pay this month's rent or mortgage. That was my point. People worry how the tie will reflect during the interview, imagine asking for a change to, what they are told is a standard, ND or NC agreement.

I don't think Lee's problem is covering the rent. Most people who desperately need a job do have much more to worry about than NC contract terms. They are taken advantage of in worse ways--like knowing that if they report their employer for violation of wage-hour or safety laws they will lose their job and future employement. Most of the times I have to sign a contract it is for short term work and to lose it won't be that bad. In the recent economic slump I had to enter agreements that I would have walked away from when times were better.

According to the lawsuit, for a time Lee had been the person "responsible for overall development of the MSN Internet search application." I could understand the legal uproar if he was leaving Google for Microsoft, but the other way around?

Microsoft certainly would not want Google to know about MSN Internet search applications. It could be to Google's advantage to know about a future competitor. Likewise, if I were developing a new word processor to compete against MS Word (fat chance!) I would not want Microsoft to have any advance info or inside info and would do what I legally could to protect the information. Chance are great that I would be crushed even if MS didn't have inside information. If they had the inside information, my chances would be far worse.