Non-Compete Agreements: An Employee Perspective. Ron Hummer
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the answer to the question is already clear. There is a problem and I’m not making my quota and I’m afraid that I’m going to get fired.
In any case, the VP did give me a chance to answer important questions such as how I dealt with other law firms and how I closed business for my company. These law firms were listed on my cover letter and resume. I was prepared and gave him the stories behind this.
As far as the rest of the interview was concerned, the questions were about my company. What kind of product it was? What types of clients did I work with? If anything, I felt that I was giving more of a sales presentation or a Q&A on my company and their products but I found out at the end of the interview that there was a reason for all this.
As the interview ended, I asked the big question. Do you have any thoughts, concerns, or reservations?
Here, he smiled, then clapped his hands together. “Well, nothing crazy Ron. I had looked over your resume and thought that your qualifications didn’t really match what we’re looking for. My feeling is that our product is multi dimensional and your product isn’t. I’ll think about things though.”
I tried to answer this objection by saying that I have worked with law firms in the past again but that didn’t seem to do any good based on this answer that he gave me. In any case, the interview was over. He left without even shaking my hand, telling me I know the way out.
Chapter 6
Hairdressers and Non-Compete Agreements
As you can see, this book really isn’t about me. Of course, I don’t know too much about hairdressers so in this case, I can talk to you about my hairdresser named Janet. This also gives me a chance to let you know what she thinks about that discussion that Amy Robach had with Sam Champion on GMA.
First, let me give you a little background on Janet. She used to own her own hair salon. I had already explained to you how someone that worked for her stole names out of her appointment book in order to steal clients from her. That woman was fired.
After a few years, Janet decided that she didn’t want to own her own business anymore. She wasn’t making any money - big surprise in the hairdressing industry - and she wanted to spend more time with her husband and children. To her, it was much easier for her to work at a hair salon since they have two incomes coming in between her and her husband. If she was lucky, she could pull in $40,000 a year.
In any case, she managed to find a buyer for the salon. He made an offer and she accepted. Somehow, the offer was changed at the last minute because he wanted to lowball her. I mean, it wasn’t like she had 100 people at the door waiting to buy her salon. So after a lot of haggling and a tremendous amount of aggravation which kept her and her husband up at night wishing that they could sell the business, they finally had an agreement and Janet would go to work for this man.
Of course, this man had other plans once this started. His first order of business was to steal Janet’s clients so he could fire her. Now, in case you think that she might be making this up, I can assure you that that isn’t the case. You know why? Because I was one of those clients that this man approached. Bet you didn’t see that coming. As Jim Nabors said in the TV show Gomer Pyle surprise surprise surprise. This went on for a few months and he kept pressuring me to have him cut my hair instead of Janet. By then, Janet had had enough of this and decided that the best thing to do was to leave.
Yes, I followed her and I’m very proud of making that decision. Why on earth would I want to stay at that salon and let that greedy rotten bastard cut my hair? You think I would want to associate with someone like that. No way. Yes, it wasn’t enough that this man lowballed Janet to try to get her place for a discount but on top of it, he would steal her clients from her so he could fire her. Why, because they showed up at his salon? Yes, this is the type of owner that I should feel sorry for when he cries that he doesn’t like ObamaCare. Maybe Fox News can put him on their network and the Republicans can have another one of their cult meetings and listen to this creep and give him a box of tissues when the broadcast is over.
It wasn’t like things were much better for Janet. She managed to find a job at another salon. After a few months, the owner said that he would not allow her to have her commissions anymore. In case you’re wondering what that is, it’s money that she would earn being a colorist. For example, since she was working in a low end salon that had a lot of elderly people, she would color their hair as part of their haircut and the salon would charge $120. I think in other places, something like that would cost $150, if not more, and the hairdresser would get a bigger cut than $30. Janet would get an additional $30 from the owner in this case after she completed her haircut. Now she is losing that $30 because the owner of the salon can’t afford to pay her what she’s worth. Again, let’s get another box of tissues out for the owner of places like this because people should just be grateful that they have a job. The bigger problem is ObamaCare since they can’t afford that either. Let’s have another cult meeting at Fox News.
Oh, and let’s not forget that Janet is on a non-compete agreement now that states that she can be fired at any time for any reason and she can’t work within a 50 mile radius of this new and wonderful place. I know, if you’re a non-compete lawyer, you say go to court and of course that costs you $10,000. Now I know that people who are reading this will say hey, that doesn’t sound right. I mean, Janet is lucky if she is making $40,000 a year. How can she be expected to pay over $10,000 in legal fees? No way. That isn’t right Ron.
My answer would be yes, that is correct. If you don’t believe me, you can look at some of the stories that Scott Kirsner did for the Boston Globe. You would find that some of these hairdressers would have to represent themselves in court because they can’t afford the the legal fees. And don’t expect judges to feel sorry for them because they usually lose those cases. Plenty of stories on this by doing a google news search. Wonder if the producers of GMA did any searches after having that story on a celebrity hairdresser.
Nice to know that people like me and Janet have non-compete agreements that don’t expire like they do for celebrity journalists like Amy Robach and Sam Champion. Doesn’t matter if you work for a place for over 10 years like Rene Garcia did. That non-compete agreement is always over your head year after year. No reason to regulate this though.
Of course, if you’re a Republican or a newscaster on Fox News, you would hear them say if they don’t like it, then let them find another job, even if it’s 50 miles away or maybe she shouldn’t have signed the agreement in the first place even though most hair salons have non-compete agreements now. Plenty of signs up at hair salons that say help wanted. Sure, just go 50 miles away and start all over again with no customers and lose even more money. How far is 50 miles? An hour from your home. You have a job so you pay for more gas for your car or take public transportation such as a bus. Won’t take that much longer to get to work or home at the end of the day. In the meantime, Janet has to see if her new employer will pay her commissions as well.
Once again, let’s get another box of tissues out for the small business person who complains that they don’t like ObamaCare and they can’t afford health insurance. Let’s have another cult meeting at Fox News with Republicans and see if we can get an owner from a hair salon to come on and complain about this.
Okay, now that you know Janet’s background, I can tell you about her reaction to that wonderful conversation that Sam Champion had with Amy Robach. Once again, you’ll see that this book is going to be unbiased.
First, she shook her head. Then she said, “yes, I really want to steal clients, especially when I get a $5 tip from them. And as far as my other customers are concerned, many of them disappear after a few haircuts. Sometimes they want to try someone else, especially if they can have their hair cut for a lower price. People in other salons say that they can do a better job than I do if they have a chance to see a customer that I had. I’ve had situations where people in my own salon go behind my back and tell my customers that they can do a better job than I can.
If anything, many of the customers that I have are people who are walking in the door. As long as you have a good location, then more people will come to that location and that’s where