At my previous employer, +5 years ago, I had a similar clause and it was a real pain after I left, as I didn’t want the legal hassles. Luckily they went bankrupt soon after I left, so it never became an issue. However, I’ve learned to avoid these clauses.

BTW, my last comment was a bit tongue-in-cheek

Most organisations have some form of restraint of trade agreement, but there are usually ways around them. I will say though, that, when my current boss thought my ex-boss (who has gone to a competitor) was trying to headhunt me, he got distinctly ruffled about it, so I suspect there might be a clause against him poaching staff – but not against my going to work there, if that makes any sense.

You don’t own me
Don’t try to change me in anyway
You don’t own me
Don’t tie me down, cos I’ll never stay

I don’t tell you what to say
I don’t tell you what to do
So just let me be myself
That’s all I ask of you

Even if someone pays my salary, they don’t own me, any more than I own the cab driver who takes me from the station to the meeting, or the plumber who unblocks my drain. It’s payment due for services rendered. The employment contract is a bit like an indefinite SLA, in a way. In the UK, employment law is somewhat more in favour of the employee than seems to be the case elsewhere – especially the US, from what I can gather.

That said, just this very day I was thinking that, in all sincerity, my raison d’etre is to serve people. I never feel more content, more fulfilled than when I am allowed to make someone’s life (or even just immediate circumstances) better. I can’t remember who it was (a great American poet, I seem to recall) who said “We are put here to help others. I’m not sure what the others are here for.”

So, let the eye-rollers roll their cynical eyes. You don’t own me, but I choose to serve.

How d’you like them apples?

I did have occasion to speak to a lawyer following one unfortunate instance where I accepted employment and was told that non-competes are notoriously difficult to enforce and the greater the geographic radius and the longer the time limit, the harder they are to make stick. Unfortunately I think companies count on the fear factor that takes hold when most people sign a non-compete. I’m not sure that they intend to actually chase after a person as much as bully employees into assuming that the clause is enforceable and therefore something by which they must abide.

This is the best way to cut your links from the network and become an isolated node of it. Hence, to be thrown out of the network at all.