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My contract says: From the date of his/her employment and for a period of one (1) months after the termination of his/her employment with the Company, the Employee shall not, without the Company's prior written consent, take up employment with any company which is in competition with the business of the Company or any associated company. Termination is defined as the date of agreed resignation.

i.e. If I handed in my notice 1 month ago, can I start the new job (at a competitor) right away, or does it mean I have to wait 1 month after my last day of work to begin working at the new job?

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  • 1
    which is not in competition.. or which is in competition? – Sourav Ghosh May 19 at 16:26
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    The way this is written, it seems you can only work for competitors. – gnasher729 May 19 at 16:42
  • How can it be legal to indicate whom you can work for? It’s illegal to take company secrets (regardless of how long ago you left it) so preventing you from working for a competitor, has nothing to do with that clause. – Donald May 19 at 23:53
  • I think it's there is so that if you do have any company secrets, intellectual property etc the validity of that info would have "expired" after a month and become irrelevant. it's probably mainly a scare tactic esp for high ranking employees but I still don't want to mess with the law – user104854 May 20 at 0:36
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In this context, date of agreed resignation is the last working day.

When you hand out notice, you are informing about the upcoming resignation, and your last working day is when you actually resign and end official relation with your employeer.

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  • +1. Resignation VS Resignation Notice – Sandra K May 20 at 16:14
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You should really, really tell us where you are located.

The contract means that you will be unemployed for at least one month. In many locations, such a contract will be void. On the other hand, even if void, you may have to fight about it in court.

The next time you sign a contract, read it before signing, and strike out any terms like these. (I think in Germany lots of these things are legal - as long as you are paid reasonable compensation, like a cash amount equal to one month salary).

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  • Well, the way I read it, it says one cannot take up job in a completing organization - different from need to stay absolutely unemployed. However, I agree that the quoted text is confusing - as it stands, it only allows to work for competitors. – Sourav Ghosh May 19 at 16:53
  • Thanks. I am based in Hong Kong. I was reading this about restrictive covenants but am still confused. This is in the advertising industry where you're most likely to go work for another agency whenever you change jobs (therefore a competitor). mayerbrown.com/files/uploads/Documents/… – user104854 May 19 at 16:54
  • @SouravGhosh Read what he actually posted: "shall not take up employment with any company which is not in competition". – gnasher729 May 19 at 16:59
  • @gnasher729 Yeah..so that means one is not allowed to take up a job for a company which is not in competition - that means it's ok to take up a job with a company which is competition. - right? Sounds pretty weird to me , something like an anti-non-compete clause. – Sourav Ghosh May 19 at 17:01
  • Sorry sorry. that's a typo. it does say "which is in competition" – user104854 May 19 at 17:01

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