Compensating Your Potential Competition

It's funny, but almost every place I've ever worked seems to feel the need to get their employees to sign hard-core anti-competition agreements. You can't start your own company in the same domain or go to work for a company in the same domain for X amount of years. Of course, these agreements are usually unenforceable, but that's not my point.

If you are so convinced that specific people in your organization could become a serious threat to your livelihood were they to go out and create a competing product, perhaps you're doing something wrong. Specifically, maybe you should listen to some of those people. Evidently you're scared that they know how to do something better than you do.

And, if their input is worth listening to, maybe you should compensate them fairly. Programmers in general get a good salary for their work but very little in the way of compensation for the IP they contribute. It's very hard to expect loyalty from your key people if they have no long term stake in the company (no stock options, no per unit royalties, etc).

File it under random useless thoughts I had this weekend.