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non-compete. You can ask a new employee to sign a
non-compete as a condition of being hired, but if you
want an existing employee to sign one, you should be
prepared to connect that to something of value beyond
simply keeping their job: a raise, a promotion, or even a
one-time bonus or stock offering should be sufficient.
Third, what is “reasonable”? It is important to
remember that “reasonableness” depends upon the
circumstances, and there is no bright line rule about how
long a non-compete can last, or how far it can reach
geographically, because both of those questions depend
on whether the time or scope of the non-compete is
reasonable in light of the interest the employer is seeking
to protect. So, for example, a nationwide non-compete
might be found reasonable if the affected employee had a
nationwide sales territory, while a 25 mile non-compete
61| Rules of the Road
