This story is surrounding a costume shop I work for asking all employees to sign a non compete agreement stating we cannot work or do personal business in any form that may be in direct competition to this company for 18 months and a 250 mi radius. I tried to explain to the business owner that the scope was too broad and wouldn’t hold up on court and she said their lawyer said it had to be that broad.
Ok so about the work. I have been sewing since I was 8 years old and I grew up as a competitive figure skater so I have strong skills in stretch fabric, crystalling and all things glitzy and glamourous like show girls. I have made some skating costumes for Olympic participants. I’m not the best out there, but I certainly have a hefty set of skills that I have learned over almost 30 years.
I have a full time job but I do costume work as a freelancer/side hustle to make extra $$. Most of my side work is for theaters costuming plays/musicals but I will occasionally do one of custom piece commissions. I also have a monetized yt channel where I demo sewing and crafting techniques. I started working for this company last year as a w-2 employee when they had just opened a costume shop. I was the first w-2 employee. Their focus is entertainment at very high end events. It’s really fun work and I enjoy the owner and my coworkers. I also go to events and serve as an event manager which means I load in equipment, take care of the performers and then bring everything home. That work is paid on a freelance basis and I get a 1099 at the end of the year.
Now I stopped working in the actual shop 4 months ago, and any costume work I do is taken home and done on a freelance basis. So I haven’t been a w-2 employee since then. It’s also important to point out that the work isn’t steady, they have really busy times and then slow times where no work needs to be done. I was the first person they hired and then 5 people were hired after me (the owner knew I had limited time to work with them before going back to my full time job)
So to the current issue, the boss sent all employees a non compete contract with the parameters I stated above. To me, since I work freelance, it makes no sense for me to sign it. I’m not specifically looking for work with a direct competitor (I personally have plenty of work at the moment) but there are a lot of gray areas. So I called the owner to have a talk about it.
They were not willing to budge on the terms. I brought up that my yt channel could be seen as direct competition if I did a video on a technique I did for her and then a competitor used that video which she agreed so she said I would have to not do videos on techniques I use for her which is just a no. To make a long story short, the owner isn’t willing to budge saying that this is industry standard and they need to protect their business and I’m not willing to sign it the way it is. But the bigger thing is the people who work in the shop full time all don’t want to sign it either. They were having a meeting today and last I spoke to my coworker they were considering a walk out. The owner is literally going to blow up her business by doing this.
I know emotions have no place in business, but I’m pretty genuinely sad about this. I like the work and I like the owner. But I feel like this contract says “I have no respect for the massive amount of skills you have learned over 30 years”. I know the answer is I’m not going to sign and need to walk away from the business but I really just wish it hadn’t played out this way.