Did you know that your cleaning person might be subject to a covenant not to compete?

Newspapers recently carried the story of Sonia Mercado, a janitor whose former employer sued her for leaving to work for another company that took over the contract to clean the building where she worked. In response to public outrage, Mercado’s former employer dropped its suit. But in Connecticut—without media attention—Classic Homemakers, which provides home-cleaning and personal services for infirm people, terminated Pat Coolidge, an at-will employee, then sued her for taking a job with a similar company.