I have some Confero shops in my area, but I would have to sign their service agreement which includes the following:

"5. Restrictive Covenant. Shopper may provide his/her independent shopper services to other companies which compete with Confero. However, for two years after acceptance of any assignment for Confero, Shopper will not engage in, own an interest in, manage, control, become employed by, represent, participate in or be connected to the management or control of any business which provides mystery shopping services to end clients or competes with Confero; or attempt to influence Confero Clients to place their business with any other individual or business. To avoid conflicts of interest and to preserve confidential Confero client information in a competitive business environment, Shopper may not be engaged by or employed as a mystery shop scheduler, editor or manager for any other company that competes with Confero at the time he/she is an active mystery shopper with Confero, unless Confero has provided specific approval of that relationship in advance. To avoid conflicts of interest, Shopper may not seek or accept mystery shop or audit assignments from Confero for any end client with whom Shopper is currently employed, formerly employed or have close friends of family members who are currently employed or formerly employed by Confero's end client."

I am baffled by this. Does it make sense to ANYONE that you would sign onto this restrictive of a non-compete clause for a handful of $10.00 shops? So if the company that I have worked for for over 10 years calls me up and says "Hey, how would you like to get a full time job as a scheduler for us?" or any of Confero's clients offered me a position I would have to say "No, I took this $10.00 gig for Confero and now I can't accept your life changing job offer for two years." (and no, I would not disclose any information that would tie Confero with a specific client or job).

I may understand if I was signing up as a partner on Confero's leadership and knew all the ins and outs of Confero's business model. But we are talking about writing 1500 characters about how cold my cheeseburger was and how the waitress didn't say "Have a burgerlicious day"- (disclosure- I have never shopped for Confero and have no idea what their shops entail or who their client's are) and for that they want me to sign a non-compete?

Can someone help me out with this?

I am happy to work with any company that treats me fairly, but this kind of clause for the work performed is just beyond me.

Many of the ICAs that we sign have this type of clause or something similar. It is not an issue for me past, present or future since there are no mystery shops in my area of expertise and I doubt there will ever be.

ETA: I have never performed a $10.00 shop for them. I guess they pay more in my area.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2015 07:25PM by Sybil2.

Thanks Sybil2. Maybe there is some regional thing going on. But I am signed up with numerous companies and always read through the agreement looking specifically for just such a clause and have never seen this with any other company- at least on the shopper/auditor level. Of course, I may not care about a non-compete clause if I were in a more stable fiscal situation.

What I am reading is in two parts. The first part is that you will not be an owner or manager of an MSP for two years. This would not apply to lower non-managerial jobs. If an editor or scheduler is considered to be management or if there is employee ownership is according to the company in question. I am not an attorney. I am saying my comprehension of the clause.

The second part is that you won't accept and start a position as editor or scheduler for another MSP while still an IC for this contracting company. It means that without specific consent you have to sever the relationship with the company in order to take the competitor's editor or scheduler position.

It is possible many would classify this one under the title, "What does it matter?"

Not to sound flippant. However, I think Confero is just looking to prevent someone from stealing their ideas or clients. Would they really care if a shopper became a scheduler or editor for another company? They might look twice if a former shopper formed their own mystery shopping company. Then it would come down to what if anything did they steal from them and it goes back to the first thought, "What does it matter?" If there is no harm, then no problem.

Non compete clauses are rarely enforceable except if you are selling a business and the new owner requires that you not open a business in the same industry within X miles of the business you sold for X number of years (usually two).

Reason being, they can't restrain a contractor or even an employee from pursuing their own career in the field they are trained for.

People often ask workers to sign non-compete clauses and they're not worth the paper they are written on. But sometimes they intimidate people into following them because of being afraid of being sued.

I really appreciate all of the comments and perspectives.

This is the sentence that I am looking at and believe is a big umbrella:

"However, for two years after acceptance of any assignment for Confero, Shopper will not engage in, own an interest in, manage, control, become employed by, represent, participate in or be connected to the management or control of any business which provides mystery shopping services to end clients or competes with Confero."

I understand the need to protect your company's and client's proprietary information. And that is why we have non-disclosure agreements. But this does seem excessive and like bullying and it just gets under my skin. The shop I am looking at pays $10.00. And while it may or may not be enforceable I won't sign it until I get some clarification in writing from Confero.

I hope others are reading these terms before they blindly sign on (I am not addressing anyone who commented because it is clear to me that you read it) and I hope companies are considering the language before they add them to their terms.

Clauses such as these do have a place in business, but it is WAY above a Mystery Shopper pay grade IMHO.

I've done shops for them for a while now and have not had any issues around this clause. I look at it this way...
"management or control of any business" - I'm not planing to give up my IC "company" where I'm the boss to work for/under someone else. When and if the time comes I change that idea, then I will send out emails " I Quit " to the conserned companies.

Ignoring is a learned skill.

Man of Mystery,

Dspeakes said it better when she said that non-competition clauses are rarely enforceable outside rare circumstances.

In other words, this clause you are citing will rarely be upheld by a judge in court if it ever gets that far. If you need further illumination than can be had in this forum, I suggest you speak to an attorney.

Good luck.

@Man of Mystery wrote:

I really appreciate all of the comments and perspectives.

This is the sentence that I am looking at and believe is a big umbrella:

"However, for two years after acceptance of any assignment for Confero, Shopper will not engage in, own an interest in, manage, control, become employed by, represent, participate in or be connected to the management or control of any business which provides mystery shopping services to end clients or competes with Confero."

I understand the need to protect your company's and client's proprietary information. And that is why we have non-disclosure agreements. But this does seem excessive and like bullying and it just gets under my skin. The shop I am looking at pays $10.00. And while it may or may not be enforceable I won't sign it until I get some clarification in writing from Confero.

I hope others are reading these terms before they blindly sign on (I am not addressing anyone who commented because it is clear to me that you read it) and I hope companies are considering the language before they add them to their terms.

Clauses such as these do have a place in business, but it is WAY above a Mystery Shopper pay grade IMHO.

I wasn't aware that Mystery Shoppers had a pay grade especially since we get paid different rates for different jobs and we also have different educational levels. I have no intention of opening a mystery shopping company or competing with them anyway so the clause doesn't bother me.

I'm not contracted with Confero (in fact I never heard of them before today) but I wouldn't worry about a clause prohibiting future employment with a competitor as it would be completely unenforceable where I live.

I only shop for a few companies and most of them have clauses I don't like, but what can you do?...

I did plenty of shops for Confero and I remember seeing that in the agreement.

I take it mostly to mean: That the 2 years is really all about someone leaving them, going to another company, sucking them dry for proprietary secrets and moving on with that information.