Does Connecting on LinkedIn Violate Noncompete Agreements?
There's an interesting lawsuit out of the federal district court in Minnesota that could have major ramifications on how employees under restrictive covenants use social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. The plaintiff, TEKsystems, Inc., is a company that recruits IT personnel and places them in various companies throughout the country. Brelyn Hammernick, a defendant, worked as a recruiter for TEKsystems before leaving to go work with Horizontal Integration, Inc.
Hammernick signed a noncompete agreement with TEKsystems which stated that for 18 months after leaving Hammernick could not directly or indirectly "approach, contact, solicit, or induce any individual or corporation" that is a client, regular employee, or contract employee. While at Horizontal Integration, Hammernick allegedly "connected" with at least 16 TEKsystem employees through the business and professional networking site LinkedIn. Furthermore, according to the complaint, Hammernick wrote the following LinkedIn message to a TEKsystems employee:
Tom:
Hey! Let me know if you are still looking for opportunities! I would love to have come visit my new office and hear about some of the stuff we are working on!
Let me know your thoughts!
Brelyn
All of this raises the novel question of whether merely "connecting" with someone on LinkedIn or "friending" someone on Facebook could constitute contact or solicitation. With the increasing popularity of social networking sites, companies should modify their employee agreements to more specifically deal with these issues. The need for specificity in the agreements is especially important since noncompetes are notoriously hard to enforce. In fact, they are generally illegal in California outside of a couple of exceptions.
