Jimmy John's non-compete agreement

I read HuffingtonPost’s article on Jimmy John’s non-compete policy signed by all levels of staff. The agreement entails that an employee is forbidden to work at a competing restaurant for 2 years after termination, by which their definition of ‘competing restaurant’ is “any business that derives 10 percent or more of its revenue from the sale of sandwiches, and that resides within 3 miles of a Jimmy John's location.”

I personally find non-compete agreements such as this to be detrimental to both parties. Harmful to the employer by causing uproar like with this article and making potential employees do a double take. Experience gained from a job at Jimmy John’s would in turn be useless after termination under such an agreement.

Whether or not Jimmy John’s will be able to actually enforce this contract is still in question. The contract is extremely broad especially stemming from the broadness in the definition of “sandwich” which could be anything from burgers to quesadillas.

“Jimmy John's Noncompete Agreement, All Mapped Out” Article written by Dave Jamieson