Hey, it's Mark and welcome back to the Employee Survival Guide. Today we're talking about the corporate equivalent of an ankle monitor, the so-called non-compete agreement. Look, I know why you're here. You got a killer job offer on the table. It's more money, better culture, and zero mandatory fun. But when you remember that piece of paper you signed three years ago during HR orientation while you were halfway through a bagel, well you feel trapped now. You feel like your employer owns your brain. I'm here to tell you they don't. 2026, the legal walls are crumbling. Even though that nationwide FTC, the Federal Trade Commission ban we all wanted to get, got stuck in the courts. The old way of locking people down is dying of slow, painful death. Employers know that. I'm trying to communicate that to you. Today I'm giving you the survival kit to break those chains and change jobs fast. First, let's deprogram your brain. Most non-competes are paper tigers. They look scary, they s they growl at you, they they have no teeth. In 2026, judges are all over it. We're seeing a massive trend where courts, especially in places like Delaware and Colorado, are refusing to uh blue pencil or fix bad contracts. If your employer made the agreements too broad, like saying you can't work in the entire solar system for five years, a lot of judges are now saying the whole thing's a bunch of shit and they're they're gonna they void the agreement. So, survival tip check your salary. As of this year, a dozen more states have passed income thresholds for non-competees. If you're aren't making an executive level big bucks, your non-compete might already be legally dead in the water, so check your state laws. Number two, unclean hands defense. You gotta be aware of this. Here's a secret weapon. I love this one too. It's called the unclean hands defense, and you're gonna use it the defendant, but you're gonna you might be a defendant being sued by your employer. Before your boss tries to sue you for unfair competition, ask yourself, have they been fair to you? Did they short your commission last quarter? Did they ignore a harassment claim? Did they unilaterally change your bonus structure? Did you witness the CEO or have knowledge of CEO or executives or having an affair with somebody else in the office? If your company breached their end of the deal first, they usually can't turn around and use the court to enforce your end. In 2026, the FTC is still hunting for companies that use predatory agreements on lower level staff. If your company is messy, use the mess as your shield. And I can tell you, every single time we have a non-compete case, we always hunt for through the client. We ask the client anything like the above questions I asked, did they happen? Because we use them to create a really murky picture. We put it all together by affidavit. You know that I use one for every single case, and we basically collect the evidence and put it forth in front of the employer along with the accusation that the agreement for non-compete is void for a variety of reasons. So here's the negotiation ninja tip for you. How to leave fast. You don't always need a courtroom, you need a conversation, but you need to be a ninja about it. So don't go in and say, I'm going to go to your biggest rival. Instead, focus on the non-solicitation and the NDA. And here's an example script you can follow. You say, look, I'm looking moving on to a new chapter of my career. I have zero interest in taking your clients or your trade secrets. I'll sign a separate NDA to prove it, in addition to the one you already signed. In exchange, I need a formal waiver of the non-compete so I can keep my career moving in the different sector. So most companies just want to protect their secret sauce and their client list. If you give them a peace treaty, which is what that script was, on those specific things, they'll often let you let the broad non-compete go just to avoid a five or fifty thousand dollar legal fee bill. It's probably higher than that, but but they're going to want something. They're going to want a general release and waiver from you that you won't sue them. Okay, so remember that too. But just a reminder, the NDA does protect against the company's argument that you're going to steal the trade secrets. Okay, you already signed one. There's no need for the non-compete whatsoever. It's it's it's basically a useless piece of uh document. If you want to go to the nuclear option, you want to call a lawyer like myself, if because they won't budge, that they won't let you out of your non-compete. Try this emphasized. You know, spend the money, hire an employment lawyer like myself, get a real declaratory judgment letter complaint, you usually call it, and a letter of demand and et cetera, we usually write. And you have to show a show of force to the employer that you got the goods on them, then the agreement's non-enforceable, and you got a lot of other messy things to include in there as well. A well-placed letter from an attorney putting pointing out that the agreement is unreasonable in scope and duration is usually enough to make HR blink. They know that if they lose in court, it sets a precedent that frees every everyone in the office who has one because they all have the same agreement. They'd rather let you go than risk losing their grip on the uh 200 other employees. So the bottom line you are not a piece of equipment. You are our free agent. I tell people all the time go look for a job first and figure this out second. The law is trending in your direction, but you have to be brave enough to call their bluff, and I will encourage you and counsel you to do that. Go get the new job because your income depends on it, and leave the ankle monitor behind. Thank you for letting me be a service, and I'll talk to you soon.