K
kate brown
Guest
Texas
A coworker eavesdropped on a conversation I had with a friend in which we discussed the current situations at our companies in light of the state of the economy, such things as layoffs, cutting back hours, people having to take ESOP payments over five years instead of getting it when they left, the company losing a lot of money from the purchase of another business, things being really bad (tension, worry) at work, people wondering who would be next to go, worrying about our 401k in light of the Enron scandal.
It didn't occur to me that this type of discussion might be a violation of a nondisclosure agreement, but someone suggested that it could be. Now that this has been suggested to me, I am rather worried about it. Before signing the agreement two years ago, I asked for further explanation on what it was for and was told by the vice president I asked that it was mainly to protect the different pricing structures the company had in different contractual relationships with customers.
If the eavesdropper went to the management of the company, first, could they use this information to claim I had violated a nondisclosure agreement, and, second, what could they do? In the agreement, it states they can "seek and obtain injuctive relief against me and my actions in violation of the provisions hereof in addition to recovery of other damages." What does that mean? Is that a civil matter or can criminal charges be made?
I have searched the Texas State Statutes from the website and was unable to even find a mention of "Confidentiality and Nondisclosure Agreements." Have I inadvertently gotten myself in a terrible mess?
A coworker eavesdropped on a conversation I had with a friend in which we discussed the current situations at our companies in light of the state of the economy, such things as layoffs, cutting back hours, people having to take ESOP payments over five years instead of getting it when they left, the company losing a lot of money from the purchase of another business, things being really bad (tension, worry) at work, people wondering who would be next to go, worrying about our 401k in light of the Enron scandal.
It didn't occur to me that this type of discussion might be a violation of a nondisclosure agreement, but someone suggested that it could be. Now that this has been suggested to me, I am rather worried about it. Before signing the agreement two years ago, I asked for further explanation on what it was for and was told by the vice president I asked that it was mainly to protect the different pricing structures the company had in different contractual relationships with customers.
If the eavesdropper went to the management of the company, first, could they use this information to claim I had violated a nondisclosure agreement, and, second, what could they do? In the agreement, it states they can "seek and obtain injuctive relief against me and my actions in violation of the provisions hereof in addition to recovery of other damages." What does that mean? Is that a civil matter or can criminal charges be made?
I have searched the Texas State Statutes from the website and was unable to even find a mention of "Confidentiality and Nondisclosure Agreements." Have I inadvertently gotten myself in a terrible mess?