A non compete agreement or (no compete clause) is often used by employers to protect themselves against their staff leaving their company to join another company (ie. a competitor).

The fear is that when leaving the company, an employee could take assets with them to their new employer that would hurt their current employer.

Imagine for example you sell plumbing equipment and have built up a significant customer base while working there and decide to leave your employer to join a rival plumbing supplier in a similar sales role. If you took all of your business from your current employer to your new company, it would certainly hurt your current employer very badly.

As a consequence, companies typically try to protect themselves from such things happening and a non compete agreement is one way of doing so.

Here are some examples of non compete agreements that I