I work for a staffing firm in Michigan and have been offered a job through one of my competitors for roughly $20k more in base salary as well as a better commission structure. I am in sales and have developed relationships with clients I would be dealing with at the new company.
My non-compete is pretty standard I think,
It goes on to say I can't solicit any other company employees, or say bad things to clients about the company. It cites that the agreement is entered into the State of Maryland (corp office) and shall be governed by the State of Maryland.Employee agrees that upon the termination of Employee's employment, whether by ****** or employee and whether with or without cause, for a period of 18 months thereafter employee shall no directly or indirectly engage in or prepare to engage in, or be employed by, any business that is engaging in any aspect of *****'s business in which employee performed work during the 2 year period preceding his/her termination of employment within a radius of 50 miles of the office or any office employee worked during his/her employment
I have three questions:
1. How enforceable is this? I would be working in the same field, calling on some of the same clients. Technically, I would be calling only one segment of job openings, whereas I currently call for business on a wide variety of openings.
2. There is the possibility that with the new company, I could only call on clients that I have never called with my current employer for an 18 month period. Is this a solution?
3. I may be able to start calling on clients for job openings that I have never called before (jobs in a highly technical field, as opposed to non-technical currently).
I have found out that my company has a history of trying to enforce these clauses and I do not want to get into a legal battle. I don't feel it is fair that I am unable to earn a better living, although I know why they have this in place for my job. I did sign willingly, but the clause was not explained to me at the time.
Thank you for any advice.

