Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

Wow! This could get interesting. They just announced they will start canning soon


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Interesting that whoever gets the job will have to sign an NDA and non-compete

fargo41 wrote:Interesting that whoever gets the job will have to sign an NDA and non-compete

I don't think that is normal for a brewer to have to sign. Non disclosure yes, but a noncompete would be tough to swallow for a lot of brewers.

Yep, very strange, I'm used to that in engineering but not heard of it in the brewing world.

Trade secrets I suppose

Trade secret I get, but non-compete means you can't leave and open your own brewery for a predetermined period of time. Deal breaker for many.

Had to sign one before can't even work in the same field

Maybe they got burned by the guy leaving, so it left them with this bad taste in their mouths about non-competition. Does anyone know where he's going?

I think there are some ego issues going on. In any case, they just may be limiting how many good brewers apply. Also, are non-competes even legally viable anymore? I thought they've been thrown out in courts.

It depends. They are legal but some can be unreasonable and thus not enforceable. Legally this one probably OK but a trade area and time line would be typically set.

Matt F wrote:Trade secret I get, but non-compete means you can't leave and open your own brewery for a predetermined period of time. Deal breaker for many.

And Non-competes are actually illegal in some states. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-compet ... ted_States

I figure, if you are compensating your people what they are worth, and fostering a good work environment, you won't have to worry about them leaving. NC is a way to falsely distort the labor market.

Legal in Iowa. I imagine this is common practice at Rockwell for many projects. Some companies maintain businesses in states where this is legal simply because it is legal. Kind of like people from out of state do not understand why Des Moines is full of life insurance companies and financial service companies. Simple, favorable laws for them to comply with.

I agree it is pretty lame. You keep your brewer happy they will stay. You cross them, they can leave and take their knowledge with them.

Actually, Uncle Rocky doesn't make us sign non-competes. In a few ways, they're lenient. (For example, if I invent something on my own time, that's outside of the scope of my work, the invention is mine. Most tech companies contractually claim ownership of any idea you have while working for them.) But I wouldn't be surprised if upper-management has non competes.

And they're legal in most states. Even California allows them for equity stakeholders (which would be any high-ranking member of management). That's why IBM was able to sue Apple (who eventually settled out of court) when Papermaster went to Apple. In the case of a brewery, if the brewery gave the brewer equity in the company as part of their employment package, they could enforce a non-compete clause.

Mind you, I generally don't like them, especially with their history of misuse. The only place I think they make sense, is when someone sells a business to someone else, and agrees not to open a competing business for some amount of time.

-Jim