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Rights against former employees

You have certain rights concerning the conduct of your former employee. For example, after an employee leaves employment, the employee can't "steal" your trade secrets, your customers, or your other employees.

• "Trade secrets"
• Solicitation of employer's customers
• Solicitation of employer's workers

"Trade secrets"

You have the right to stop an employee from using the company's confidential information - called "trade secrets." Trade secrets are things the employee knows about only because he or she worked for you. For example, if you own a restaurant that has a "secret recipe," your former employee can't use that recipe in his or her new restaurant if he or she knows it's a secret. For information to be a "trade secret," you must make sure that the information doesn't become generally available to the public.

Solicitation of employer's customers

An employee can't try to take away your company's customers while still on the job. For example, the employee shouldn't write to your customers before leaving and say something like "Hey, I'm starting my own business and I'm going to be better than my old employer."

And even after an employee leaves the job with you, you can usually stop the employee from opening his or her own company and luring away your customers by using your confidential customer lists. However, it's usually OK if the employee leaves your company and customers go to the employee voluntarily.

Solicitation of employer's workers

An employee is not supposed to lure away co-workers to a future company while still working for you. For example, he or she shouldn't approach those co-employees on the job by saying something like " I'm starting my own business. Come and work with me there because it will be better than here."

And, even after the employee leaves the job with you, you still might be able to stop the employee from opening his or her own company and luring away your former co-workers. Whether such "poaching" is legal depends on the state you are in and on whether the employee's employment agreement with you restricts the employee from hiring your employees (his or her former co-workers). However, it's usually OK if the employee leaves the job with you and your other employees go to him or her voluntarily.