A single reader's working-out of how post-employment restrictions get read, argued and abandoned, written down because the answers sit in scattered statutes and one paid consultation.
The sentence people quote back from a lawyer's first call is usually about the non-compete: too broad, too long, unenforceable here. That answer is real, and it is also narrower than it sounds. The non-compete is one clause inside a block of four or five, and the others are drafted to survive exactly the outcome the reader is celebrating. A careful reader does not stop at the heading that says Non-Competition. Read to the end of the paragraph, then read the definitions section that feeds it, because the definitions do more work than the promises do.
The customer non-solicit, and what counts as soliciting
Customer non-solicits are treated more kindly by courts than non-competes because they restrict a specific act rather than an entire livelihood. The question is always which customers and which act. Check whether the clause reaches every customer of the company or only those you personally serviced, whether it captures prospects you pitched but never closed, and whether the lookback is twelve months, twenty-four, or undefined. Then check the verb. Some clauses bar soliciting; others bar accepting business even when the customer called you first, which is a materially different promise and the one that tends to bite.
The employee non-solicit, and the difference between recruiting and answering
Employee non-solicits, sometimes called anti-raiding clauses, stop you from pulling colleagues to your new employer. They are commonly enforced, partly because the burden on you is modest and the harm to the old employer is easy to describe. What a careful reader checks is scope again: all employees, or only those you managed or worked with, and whether the clause covers contractors and recent leavers. Watch for a no-hire variant, which bars your new employer from hiring anyone from the old one regardless of who initiated contact. That version is broader than most people assume when they sign.
Garden leave, and why it is a payment as much as a restriction
Garden leave works differently from the rest. Instead of restricting you after employment ends, it keeps you employed through a long notice period while stripping your duties, your systems access and your contact with customers. You are paid. You are also, in most readings, still bound by the duty of loyalty that employment carries, which is why garden leave sometimes achieves what a void non-compete could not. Check the notice length, whether the employer can shorten it at will, whether benefits and commissions continue, and whether the garden leave period is credited against any later restricted period.
Training repayment, and the number that keeps shrinking
Training repayment agreements, often signed separately from the main contract, require you to repay tuition, certification costs, relocation or a signing bonus if you leave inside a stated window. They function as a financial brake rather than a legal bar, and they are drafted with a vocabulary of their own. Check whether the amount amortizes month by month or falls due in full, whether the trigger is any departure or only a voluntary one, and whether the employer claims a right to deduct from a final paycheck. State wage laws often limit that last move, which is a point worth raising early with an attorney.
Trade secrets, which need no clause at all
Confidentiality obligations sit at the end of the paragraph and outlast everything above them, usually with no time limit and sometimes with no signature required. Trade secret protection exists in statute, federal and state, independent of any contract you signed, and the Federal Trade Commission is among the federal bodies whose remit covers competitive conduct between employers. What a careful reader checks is the definition of confidential information: whether it sweeps in general skill and industry knowledge, whether it excludes anything that becomes public, and whether the contract contains the whistleblower immunity notice that federal law expects to see. Then check the return-of-property clause, because that is where personal devices and home email accounts get named.
Reading the block as one instrument
Two clauses in the same paragraph interact. A severability provision lets a court strike the non-compete and leave the rest standing, and a reformation or blue-pencil provision invites the court to narrow a clause rather than kill it. Look also for choice of law and forum, a tolling clause that extends the restricted period by however long you were in breach, and any attorney fee shifting. Bring the whole document to a consultation, including the offer letter, the equity grant and the separate training agreement, because the answer changes depending on which of them the drafter put the real teeth in.