<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>ilikehurdles</author><text>If the average person has nothing to worry about then why do all average people have to sign non-competes if they want the job? The fact is that companies see a benefit in threatening all new hires with non-competes, and like I said elsewhere, the only people with enough pull to negotiate out of a non-compete are those highly specialized non-average people who are the least likely to sign the boilerplate contract, who the company will still want to hire when they push back with specific demands.&lt;p&gt;So who are the non-competes really for then?</text><parent_chain><item><author>tranchms</author><text>If you’re the “average person”, you have nothing to worry about. Trust me.&lt;p&gt;Non-competes really only matter for people with exceptional knowledge of something.&lt;p&gt;From a business standpoint, the legal resources to build a case against a single “average person” who signs a generic non-compete are not a good investment.&lt;p&gt;But like I said, it’s a judgement call. Anyone in the possession of that exceptional knowledge should be able to determine the risk.</text></item><item><author>sbjustin</author><text>The problem is the average person doesn&amp;#x27;t have the money to pay a lawyer to fight off a company - especially the ones with teams of lawyers who need something to do.</text></item><item><author>tranchms</author><text>I’ve found these non-competes often have no teeth. Unless you possess exceptional knowledge or secrets, companies will not waste the resources going after you.&lt;p&gt;And often when they do, they lose. But it’s a judgement call. I’d say the fear of non-competes has more power than the non-competes themselves.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Too Many Workers Are Trapped by Non-Competes</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-11-12/non-compete-clauses-trap-too-many-american-workers</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>maxxxxx</author><text>I have heard of hiring companies dropping new hires because they had a non-compete. They didn&amp;#x27;t want to take the risk so the company that has the non-compete doesn&amp;#x27;t even have to do anything for it to have an effect.</text><parent_chain><item><author>tranchms</author><text>If you’re the “average person”, you have nothing to worry about. Trust me.&lt;p&gt;Non-competes really only matter for people with exceptional knowledge of something.&lt;p&gt;From a business standpoint, the legal resources to build a case against a single “average person” who signs a generic non-compete are not a good investment.&lt;p&gt;But like I said, it’s a judgement call. Anyone in the possession of that exceptional knowledge should be able to determine the risk.</text></item><item><author>sbjustin</author><text>The problem is the average person doesn&amp;#x27;t have the money to pay a lawyer to fight off a company - especially the ones with teams of lawyers who need something to do.</text></item><item><author>tranchms</author><text>I’ve found these non-competes often have no teeth. Unless you possess exceptional knowledge or secrets, companies will not waste the resources going after you.&lt;p&gt;And often when they do, they lose. But it’s a judgement call. I’d say the fear of non-competes has more power than the non-competes themselves.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Too Many Workers Are Trapped by Non-Competes</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-11-12/non-compete-clauses-trap-too-many-american-workers</url></story>