Hard for companies to prevent former star employees from competing

Firms are usually fearful when their star employees jump ship and use their knowledge to help rivals, but it’s a tricky threat to deal with, as one company in Singapore knows all too well.

This was what the company here found out when it failed to make its former general manager accountable for losses after he left to form his own firm to compete with his former employer.What made the case particularly sore for the employer was that the manager had been secretly making plans to start his own outfit for almost a year, action that was blatantly in breach of his employment contract.

In particular, the manager acted behind his employer’s back and breached his employment contract when he involved himself in setting up his own business while he was still an employee. There are three important lessons that employers and employees should know relating to their rights and responsibilities in relation to a career switch.askST Jobs: I've secured a job with a rival firm. What can I do so I don't burn bridges?If you are planning to quit to join a competitor, the last thing you should do is to log in to your business database and start copying files that would help you in your new job.

But the former employer could not show that its company system had been accessed illegally and files downloaded by the manager. For instance, it is a common practice for some home owners to engage several real estate agents to market the same property. So no one agent can claim that the information on the property is secret because other agents also have access to it.

The partners of the new company added that it was pointless to solicit business from customers of the former employer because making cold calls to ask if they wanted new domestic workers would only earn “rebukes” when they didn’t need to hire or change their existing ones.

Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)

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