EarthWeb provided online products and services to business professionals in the information technology (IT) industry. EarthWeb operated through a family of websites offering information, products, and services for IT professionals to use for facilitating tasks and solving technology problems in a business setting. EarthWeb obtained this content primarily through licensing agreements with third parties. Schlack began his employment with EarthWeb in its New York City office. His title at EarthWeb was Vice President, Worldwide Content, and he was responsible for the content of all of EarthWeb’s websites. Schlack’s employment contract stated that he was an employee at will and included a section titled “Limited Agreement Not To Compete.” That section provided:
(c) For a period of twelve (12) months after the termination of Schlack’s employment with EarthWeb, Schlack shall not, directly or indirectly:
(i) an online service for Information Professionals whose primary business is to provide Information Technology Professionals with a directory of third party technology, software, and/or developer resources; and/or an online reference library, and or
(ii) an online store, the primary purpose of which is to sell or distribute third party software or products used for Internet site or software development.
About one year later, Schlack tendered his letter of resignation to EarthWeb. Schlack revealed at this time that he had accepted a position with ITworld.com.

a. What arguments would support EarthWeb’s enforcement of the covenant not to compete?

b. What arguments would support Schlack’s argument that the covenant is not enforceable?

c. Which side should prevail? Explain.

Behavior and Gender at Work Researchers wanted to determine whether individuals considered certain employee work behaviors to be required or optional. For each work behavior cited, participants rated the behavior on a scale from 1 (definitely required) to 7 (completely optional). There were a total of 41 individuals who rated the behavior, with 20 individuals rating a female employee and 21 individuals rating a male employee. The following table shows the work behavior, mean, and standard deviation for female and male employees. For example, of the 20 ratings on the female employee, the mean score for resolving conflict between coworkers was 2.50, while the mean of the 21 ratings on male employees for this behavior was 3.52. Although the sample size is small, assume the distribution of the sample mean is approximately normal for all four work behavior ratings. Conduct the appropriate test for all four work behaviors to determine if there is a difference in ratings for female versus male employees. Write a report that presents your conclusions. Source: Heilman, Madeline and Chen, Julie, “Same Behavior, Different Consequences: Reactions to Men’s and Women’s Altruistic Citizenship Behavior” Journal of Applied Psychology 2005, Vol. 90, No. 3, 431–441