In 2014, 19-year-old Colette Buser found herself without a summer job—not because she hadn’t looked (a local camp wanted to hire her), but because the previous summer her employment contract had stipulated that she could not work as a counselor for another local camp for at least a year. Non-compete agreements, such as those signed by Colette, have been used for years to prevent key salespeople, engineers, and executives from leaving to join or found a rival company.
