Great advice – thanks for sharing!

Create one for the company. Google and Chrome is making it difficult but I’ve not hd a problem more so because I personally use a Mac and the Companies I’ve worked for use PCs.

I keep separate accounts for my work and personal. I link them only by sharing what I do across accounts, and keep business and personal requests and responses separate. My personal contacts are my own. As I did then, I kept copy of the cross communication information i.e. all work related information shared there including social media posts. I also my personal laptop and private phone for private conversations.

Handing over the list created for the Agency along with the passwords is not a problem. The private numbers and emails given by those you’ve built a relationship with is not for sharing. Its a breach of confidence and as Richard says, the database is useless to you anyway.

Totally agree with your perspective Richard.

Reconnect with a new account is not such a bad thing – clean out deadwood and reconnect with a new story. Life goes on.  Having all this in writing is a grand idea though.

People forget that just becuase money flows to the employee that does not mean the employee is not providing a service of value to the employer based on his wages.

One could equally argue that since the company has continued to use a substantial essence of what the employee had been paid for that they are in fact still employing the person and must pay them or cease using the employees contacts.

Contacts for future business are very different than business that was actually completed during the employees tenure.

Unless the companies primary business is actually the gathering of names for resale rather than possible future business with those names then the company has no more right to keep working your contacts without paying you than they do demanding you come into the office without paying you.

Furthermore in many cases it doesn't matter what your employee agreement says. An agreement can't violate the spirit of the law which recognizes the employee employer relationship only exists while the employee is being paid. In fact in California recently the courts just flat out ruled employee non compete contracts are illegal and not in the interest of the state to maintain a competitive marketplace.

Also in many states like California you have a right to commissions generated from your work after you leave the company. I would make the argument if I found the company had used my contacts to generate further sales that I was due commission on those sales.

two can paly at that game.

There seems to be an attempt at a powerplay by employers to enforce a form of involuntary timed servitude through employment contract which often on negotiated under duress.

They want to pay people for short times and harvest their work after they stop paying them by harvesting their employee network.

I don't believe any state of the United States recognizes timed unpaid involuntary servitude and hasn't since the 1800's.
Involuntary servitude agreements were in writing back in the 1700 and 1800's too but they are still illegal now.

Just becuase it is in writing doesn't mean it's legal.

Employers won't like it but they need to come to the understanding that if they like what an employee brings to the table and they want to keep using it they must continue to employ the employee. If they don't want the employee to take a job at a competitor then they need to pay him more than the competitor. They can't just negotiate continued servitude or non servitude at a competitor after they are no longer paying for the employee's workflow or exclusivity.

Period.