Employees stealing clients

[Jerome2007]

Hello all.

We have been running a small business for a couple of years now and we have usually employed about 5 people at a time to help out.

The problem we have now is that two of our employees that we treated well (apparently too well) have recently tried to damage our business so that they could set their own up in direct competition just around the corner. They even took phone lists of all our clients and other employees and continually call them to encourage them to leave us. These are two separate employees who are opening up separate businesses in direct competition with us. This means this has happened twice in a very short period.

Is this a reasonable thing to expect from employees, especially those who were getting everything they asked for (pay, accommodation, etc)? We set up our business in a place with no competition and we brought them here, all expenses paid and went out of our way to keep them happy. The end result is we just showed them a great business opportunity and left ourselves open to being hurt by them. They would not even look for a different area to open their business. They knew they could get at all of our clients and basically give us a hard time.

What can we do to prevent this happening in the future? I ask this as now I find it very difficult to trust any employees. I feel as if we treated them too well and they took advantage of that.

Any and all help will be appreciated.

[Joyous]

Was there nothing in their employment contracts to prevent this? I'd have thought that a non-competition clause would be a must for a situation such as yours.

Regards

Joy

[jiminy465]

You could always fight fire with fire if your company is bigger, give thier customers a ''special offer'' this may help depending upon the situaltion.

[Jerome2007]

Yes, the non-competition clause would have been the way to go. I had never thought of that. I am kicking myself now as their are 2 new businesses opened up and advertising around the corner. Both run by our previous employees.

Thanks for the help.

[lakedaemon]

http://commercial.burn-company.co.uk...ompetition.htm

A quick google search found this page which is relevant to this topic. Your employees sound as if they were in breach of contract to me, but I would definitely seek legal counsel.

[bwglaw]

It is often difficult to bring an action on implied terms alone in the absence of a non-competition or restraint of trade clause in any contracts