Generally, many employees will wait to move to another employer until after they have received any year end bonuses or commissions they are due. We are all familiar with stories where a top producer bolts after they get their end of year check.
For these reasons, it is important the employers be prepared to review company policies for employment transitions. This would include post-employment covenants such as non-competes.
Critical to the employment transition practice is ensuring that the employer has protected any proprietary or trade secret information that departing employees can access. Departing employees should immediately lose access to any type of proprietary or trade secret information. This should include locking the employee out of their email account or limiting access. That employee is now a competitor.
Employers who are vigilant about having these types of policies in place will ultimately protect their business and their product from an inevitable employee departure.
