Non-Competition Agreements for Technical Writers - ethical issues

[Ned Bedinger]

This is what I do: Before signing, I draw a line through and revise any 
non-competitive clause that restricts me for more than 3 months. If I 
get a concerned response to that , then we have to discuss it until they 
have satisfied me or vice versa. It nearly always comes down to 3 
months. If I were taking work on a very short time basis, I would try to 
do away with the non-compete clause altogether.

The non-compete clause, it seems to me, belongs only where the local 
market can't find enough tech writers. What is the market for technical 
writers like in Israel?

Ned Bedinger
doc at edwordsmith.com



-Svi Ben-Elya wrote:
> There is an interesting discussion in Israel on the Non-Competition
> Agreements or clauses that tech writers are asked to sign by outsourcing
> companies. The discussion began on Techshoret (the Israeli equivalent of
> Techwr-l) by a new immigrant tech writer concerned about signing an
> agreement that would potentially prevent her from continuing to work as a
> tech writer in Israel if and when she left the outsourcer. The issues are
> both legal (is it enforcable) and ethical. 
>  
> The discussion is now continuing on www.elephant.org.il with different pages
> for comments on different ethical questions. If there is some type of
> consensus or local industry standard for these agreements that comes out of
> the discussion, I will be more than happy to summarize. I would like to get
> input from all of you because even though the legal aspects may be relevant
> only to Israel, the ethical ones are similar elsewhere.
>  
> Thank you in advance.
>  
> - Svi Ben-Elya -
> svi at ieee.org
> 054-2356235
> www.elephant.org.il <http://www.elephant.org.il/> 
>  
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