Camp Bow Wow

If you want to work as a "counselor" at Camp Bow Wow, dog-sitting service, you're first going to have to sign an "employee confidentiality and non-compete agreement." According to this document, if you ever leave the company, you're forbidden from working at any other pet-sitting service within a 25-mile radius of any Camp Bow Wow for two years. The company explains that it needs to "prevent unauthorized disclosure of our trade secrets." Camp Bow Wow counselors mostly make just above minimum wage. Their chief responsibilities are picking up dog poop and other cleaning duties. [Huff Post]
     Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 04, 2014
     Category: Business | Dogs





Comments
The secret is in the scooping!
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 12/04/14 at 09:43 AM
They can go work at camp Meow just down the road though.
Posted by BrokeDad in Midwest US on 12/04/14 at 01:10 PM
The sad truth is, D.B.W. would probably find some wacky judge who would rule in their favor if the non-compete clause were taken to litigation.
Posted by KDP on 12/04/14 at 03:41 PM
Even in the high-tech world, non-compete clauses are generally not worth the paper they're printed on. It's only if the company you're leaving is willing to take the matter to court, that it has any relevance.

I really can't imagine camp bow wow's owners caring enough; and if they did take you to court, they would probably have to demonstrate that you deliberately and knowingly conveyed "trade secrets", and that doing so caused financial harm to the owners.
Posted by Robert Hanson on 12/04/14 at 03:59 PM
Of course this could be covering up a lot of potential scandals. After all, the clientele already can't talk about what goes on in Camp Bow Wow.
Posted by Phred22 on 12/04/14 at 04:01 PM
A local frachise advertises on the radio station I listen to. I thought it was just here I didn't know it was a large company. I guess what happens at Camp Bow Wow stays Camp Bow Wow Vegas for doggies.
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 12/04/14 at 05:26 PM
Non-compete agreement are justified by saying they're about trade secrets.

It's actually to prevent other services from poaching their staff. There's a certain amount of weeding out (some people, even if they like dogs, can't stand the smell of dog poop and sick when it's all day long), and yes, there actually is a learning curve (you get faster and better at any routine task when you do it every day).

Many times, you could give someone a dollar an hour more if you hadn't paid them full wages for months before they began to pull their weight.

Courts do enforce such agreements. I ran into it in a city where the janitorial services all used them. There was a long history of lawsuits not only against ex-employees but also against the new employers because they were complicit in the violation of a civil agreement. Our company lawyer against my hiring one guy as a janitor because he'd worked for one of those services, and it'd be opening a can of worms.
Posted by Phideaux on 12/04/14 at 06:34 PM
I work for a janitorial service that pulls that crap on their supervisors, but not their employees. One of my former supervisors still managed to get a similar position with another company though, because our home office is over 50 miles from her new job.
Posted by Dave Plechaty on 12/05/14 at 04:08 AM
It's also to prevent an employee from leaving and starting their own pet sitting service and poaching clients from Camp Bow Wow
Posted by DebM on 12/09/14 at 02:16 PM
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