You will be able to read restrictive clauses and judge how they could limit your next move.
On page seven of Kai Wen's contract, under a heading called "Post-employment obligations", was a paragraph he nearly skipped. It said that for twelve months after leaving, he would not work for any business in competition with the company, anywhere in Southeast Asia. Below it was a second paragraph about not approaching the company's clients or staff. Fintech in Singapore is a small world. If he read the first clause literally, his next job would have to be in a different industry or a different region.
Clauses like these are called restrictive covenants, and they're common in Singapore contracts, especially in sales, finance and technology. This lesson shows you how to read them and judge how much they could limit your next move.
A non-compete clause limits who you can work for, or what business you can start, after you leave. It usually names a type of business, a period of time and a geographic area.
A non-solicit clause is narrower. It limits approaching the company's clients, customers or suppliers to take their business, or approaching its staff to hire them away. It doesn't stop you working for a competitor. It stops you taking the relationships with you.
Contracts often have both, plus related clauses such as non-dealing, which goes further than non-solicit by covering clients who approach you, not only ones you approach. Read each one separately. They restrict different things.
Singapore courts don't enforce restrictive covenants automatically. In general, a covenant is enforced only if it protects a legitimate interest of the employer, such as its client relationships or confidential information, and if it is reasonable in scope. Reasonableness looks at what activity is restricted, for how long, and over what area. A restraint that goes further than needed to protect that interest is less likely to be enforced.
So a non-solicit limited to clients you personally dealt with, for a few months, is more likely to be seen as reasonable than a non-compete that bars you from a whole industry across a whole region for a long time. Whether any particular clause would be enforced depends on the facts, and only a court can decide it. This lesson isn't legal advice. If a clause matters to a decision you're making, a lawyer who handles employment matters can tell you how it's likely to be treated.
It's tempting to read a broad clause, decide a court probably wouldn't enforce it, and stop worrying. That's a risky way to think.
Even a clause that might not hold up can cost you. Your former employer could send a letter to you or your new employer. A new employer could get nervous and withdraw an offer. A dispute, even one you'd likely win, takes time, legal fees and stress, at exactly the moment you're starting a new job. Some people simply avoid a job they wanted rather than find out.
So treat the clause as a real constraint on your next move, and the best time to deal with it is before you sign, when you can still ask for it to be narrowed.
Confidentiality clauses work differently. They usually say that you must keep the company's confidential information private during your employment and after it ends, often with no time limit. That's normal, and a company's interest in its own secrets is easy to justify.
What matters is knowing what counts as confidential. The contract usually defines it: client lists, pricing, source code, business plans, unpublished financial results, and so on. Know that list before you leave a job, not after. Don't take documents, files or contact lists with you, and don't forward work emails to a personal account on the way out. Those are the actions most likely to turn a smooth exit into a dispute.
Kai Wen wrote out each restrictive clause in three parts: the activity restricted, the time limit and the geography.
The non-compete covered any competing business, for twelve months, across Southeast Asia. The non-solicit covered clients and staff he'd worked with, for twelve months, with no geography, because it applied wherever he was. The confidentiality clause covered a defined list of information, with no time limit.
Set out like that, the non-compete stood out. It was the broadest by far, and in his field it would rule out a large share of the jobs he might want next. He asked whether it could be narrowed to direct competitors in Singapore, for six months. The company agreed to six months and kept the wider region. That was a better clause than the one he started with, and he got it by asking before signing.
Your own contract may have none of these clauses, or several. Go through it with the same three parts in mind for each one you find.
Find every restrictive clause in your contract and write the activity, time limit and geography each one covers.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).