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This prohibition applies to employment as a statutory employee, or work performed as an independent contractor, or employment with any enterprise that performs services for a competitive enterprise.
I reread that one three times. It seemed to mean I couldn’t work at a bank or accounting firm, or even a janitorial firm that did any business at all with anyone who handled food. This just kept getting worse and worse. I wanted to throttle the lawyer who wrote this piece of garbage. And the bad news kept coming.
Any company engaged in the sale, production, preparation, or distribution of foodstuffs of any kind shall be deemed by default to be a competitive enterprise.
That threw a pretty wide net and meant I couldn’t work at Walmart or Target, or even a gas station mini-mart. Or fast food, now that I thought about it. Goodbye to my one-time ambition to manage a McDonald’s franchise.
The worst sentence, however, was at the bottom of the page.
For employment at any enterprise not covered above, the employee must submit a request in writing to Tuscan Foods. The determination as to whether the proposed employment violates this agreement shall be at the sole discretion of the management of Tuscan Foods.
“This seems to say that I have to get you guys to sign off on any job I want to take.”
She nodded cheerfully. “Pretty much. But Mr. Berg approved them all.”
She omitted the obvious observation that Benson was now in charge.
Just great. Now I’d insulted the man who held the key to the handcuffs on my employment search.
Good going, Rossi.
“Then there’s also the matter of your education loans.”
I felt light-headed at the mention of the education debt I’d racked up at Stanford. It had been taken care of by the company.
Rosa slid over another piece of paper. “A requirement of the loan is that the monthly payment be an automatic bank transfer.”
The outstanding balance was still huge times ten, and since it had been set up by the company with the bank, it had been short term with large monthly payments. At the time, the idea was that since the company was picking up the tab, I’d be out from under the loans quickly. Being out of Rossi’s and having to pay the loan myself had never been on my radar.
There was no way I could handle this for more than a month or two without a job. And after that, it would have to be a well-paying one to stay afloat.
“You know this would all go away if you stayed,” Rosa said, prodding me once more. “I think your uncle did a really good job with this.”
“If he’d done a good job, we wouldn’t be selling the company,” I shot back.
She scowled. “That’s not fair. From what Mrs. Quantell told me, we’d have run out of money this week if he hadn’t persuaded the Bensons to come in. Then we’d all be on the street.” She pointed at me. “And what I meant was that your uncle negotiated an exceptionally generous retention agreement for you, one you should be thanking him for.”
Feeling the glare of her criticism, I replied, “I appreciate the effort. I just don’t feel right staying.”
“I understand, dear.” She offered me a pen. “So we need to give them an account number to pull the loan payments from.”
My hand shook as I held the pen over the boxes to write my bank account number.
Chapter 13
Nicole
Rosa tappeda finger on the retention agreement folder in front of her. “Maybe you need some time to think about your decision.”
I stared at the paper with the six-digit loan balance.
“Have you read the retention agreement?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No need. I’m not staying.” I put the pen to the paper and wrote the first digits of my account number.
“Did you realize that it pays off this loan for you at the end of six months?”
I pulled the pen up and cocked my head. I couldn’t have heard her right. “Did you say…?”
