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Espionage and Job Hopping Employees throughout a company have access to proprietary information, including customer lists, management techniques, and future plans. What happens when those employees want to leave their current employer and go to work for a competitor? Or what happens when employees use or sell proprietary information? Steven L. Davis, a lead process control engineer with Wright Industries, Inc., was part of a team working on the development and fabrication of equipment for Gillette Co.'s secret new shaving system. The new Gillette shaving system, predicted to be revolution- ary, had been kept a very closely held secret. Wright Industries had been hired by Gillette. Mr. Davis was indicted by a federal grand jury on ten counts of wire fraud and theft of trade secrets. The indictment alleged Mr. Davis sent five faxes and electronic mail (e-mail) messages to Gillette's competitors with language intended to solicit interest in the purchase of Gillette's new technology. The messages included Mr. Davis's com- plaint that he had been passed over for a promotion." One of the competitors that received the fax alerted Gillette. Gillette contacted federal authorities, and after an undercover investigation, Mr. Davis was charged. Mr. Davis then sent follow-up messages to the companies he had originally contacted, complaining that someone "had betrayed him." Discussion Questions 1. Is Mr. Davis's situation different because he did not work directly for Gillette? 2. If you had been one of the competitors Mr. Davis allegedly contacted, would you have notified Gillette? 3. Is there any irony in Mr. Davis's comment about betrayal ? 4. What are the pros and cons of covenants in employee contracts that prohibit them for a period of time) from working for a competitor? Some examples of recently enforced covenants are as follows: Daniel O'Neill, the former head of Campbell Soup Co.'s soup division, could go to work for H. J. Heinz Co., but not in its soup divi- sion until August 1998 (after a one-year ban). Kevin R. Donohue, a former executive vice president with Kodak, was prohibited from working for a competitor (Fuji had hired him and Kodak sued for breach of contract) for one year. William Redmond, a soft-drink marketing executive with PepsiCo, was prohibited from going to work for the beverage division of