Can employers force you to delete your contacts from LinkedIn when leaving the company?

[Bentley111]

Posting here for traffic.

DH has given notice to the company he works for after 14.5 years and has been transparent in that he is leaving to set up his own business.

He has dutifully worked his 12 week notice period (ending this week), has signed confidentiality agreements and has a 12 week restriction period that he must adhere to before starting up on his own.

All fine.

Today, however, he has been asked to delete all of his contacts on LinkedIn. Am I right in thinking that they cannot force him to do that? As far as he is aware, no one else leaving the business has had to do that and they cannot offer any valid reason as to why he must.

But he can copy and paste, right?

just set up a dummy account and delete that one in front of them.

Does he have a company account on LinkedIn? If so, then yes. If it's personal, then no.

I’d refuse.

What could they do if he refuses? It’s not like he’ll need a reference from them if he’s working for himself...,

Does he have a company account on LinkedIn? If so, then yes. If it's personal, then no.

Definitely a personal account

No they cannot unless the account is in some way linked to his former job. As another person said just copy them all onto memory stick. He could give out his new business cards too, to his former colleagues if he wanted to.

What could they do if he refuses? It’s not like he’ll need a reference from them if he’s working for himself...

I'm not sure what they could do. They have withheld bonuses etc when he first handed in his notice. Good point re reference though

Tell DH to send all info to your phone then delete at work in front of colleagues.

DH has given notice to the company he works for after 14.5 years and has been transparent in that he is leaving to set up his own business.

What does his initial contract say and what does his confidentiality contacts say?

DH's stated that he was not allowed to set up his own company in the same field for 2 years. There were also some restrictions on working for a different company in the same field and taking on clients which he met through the firm he was leaving.

It depends on his contract, but I doubt they can ask him to delete his LinkedIn contacts.

I had a similar situation a few years ago but was only restricted to no contact with former/current company clients for 6 months. Nothing about Linkedin.

Alternatively, download the whole contact list to excel, and reinstate back to LinkedIn after 2 years. Then he still has the list!

Get legal advice too.

How could they possibly legally be able to do this? All LinkedIn accounts are personal. Your company may pay for you to have premium but that doesn't delete your account if you downgrade.

Shows how intimidated they are that your DH might take business!

I would have thought it's more likely he has anti-poaching in his contract, eg he can't reach out to clients.

@BlackTrousers only mention of LI in his initial contract is to update SM to show he no longer works for the company.

He is allowed to set up by himself after the 12 week restriction period.

@Jaxhog that’s what he’s been advised to do.

Shows how intimidated they are that your DH might take business!
Exactly. It’s very transparent.

Legally though, what could happen if he refuses?

Legally? No idea

Could any ideas be copywrited?

Maybe he should let his LinkedIn contacts that they need to contact him first, once he sets up alone?

I don't know.

I do know that when DH as part of a redundacy was sent to an independent employment solicitor - who said that a lot of the conditions and restrictions in the contract and additional stuff they wanted signed were utterly uninforacble under UK law.

There weren't suprised by this either.

It may well be worth seeing a legal bod and seeing where he stands on this and more generally.

@managedmis no, no ideas could be copyrighted.
That’s a really good idea. I will suggest that.

@heymissy that’s really interesting, thank you. I do think he should seek advice. The LI user agreement states that a personal account belongs to you unless the employer has paid for premium etc, which in DHs case, they haven’t.

Make sure he has his personal email address attached to his LinkedIn and not his company one.

If I were him I’d fight that tooth and nail - it can’t possibly be enforceable. He can block all his managers so they can’t see his contacts on LinkedIn I think. They don’t actually have a right to know who he’s connected to on LinkedIn!

I suppose they could require current company employees to delete him as a connection...