Non-compete or non-disclosure agreements, what are they?

Non-compete:

This is a legal document not that much different from what you will find in the B&M world. Non-compete means that if you are working for a company that provides a particular type of service you may not work for a similar company at the same time. Each particular contract has different verbiage, but that’s it in a nutshell. It is fairly common in the WAH industry. Why would you care about this? Quite simply many WAHers work multiple part time jobs. This can limit the types of jobs you work. The choice of accepting a job with a non-compete is a personal one. All I can say is if it’s a good opportunity, and you don’t currently have a non-compete, don’t let that stop you.  If you already have one job with a non-compete and are looking for second backup, don’t sacrifice your steady income. It is possible to work multiple WAH jobs; they just have to be in different sectors. I do it all the time.

Non-disclosure:

Once again, pretty straightforward, and common even in the B&M world. If you work in a doctor’s office or a bank, you know you cannot discuss patient or client information with anyone, even your spouse. Same thing applies here. A company providing credit card services, not only does not want client's confidential information disclosed (that’s a felony), they don’t want you to talk about their business practices. Let’s look at it another way, you’re providing research for a company about to launch a new product line. Not only can you not discuss the new product, you cannot discuss the research methods you use. We work in a fierce, competitive, global market. Competition can be lurking in your neighborhood chat room. I know too many people who have lost their jobs due to a casual reference. Is it fair, probably not, but put yourself in the client’s shoes. If you’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop a new innovative widget, and your competitor launches their version first. That’s a lot of money lost, future contracts gone and no more work. So whether you’re in virtual chat room or at a party, talk about something else.
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