Dave Ramsey’s Latest Attempt to Control and Silence Employees: Company-Wide NDAs and Forced Arbitration

Photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash

Dave Ramsey has gone nuclear on his employees in an attempt to avoid any more negative press or lawsuits like the ones currently against him and his financial media company (read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of The Case(s) Against Dave Ramsey). One might think he should simply do less of the things that result in the negative press and lawsuits, but instead, his latest effort is designed to instill more fear into his employees, silence them legally, and control any legal options they may have.

Several weeks ago, leaks started seeping out of Dave Ramsey’s company, Ramsey Solutions (“RS”), about a new set of policies they were expecting employees to sign. Sources indicate (this is my understanding, unconfirmed, but through multiple sources) these provisions relate to:

• Intellectual property: works for hire language, the least problematic provision
• Non-disparagement: during and after employment (read: forever), they won’t say anything negative about Dave or his family members, the company, its owners, or products, services, or content of the company
• Core values: employees won’t engage in acts RS considers inconsistent with the core values or that might damage the company’s reputation
• Non-solicitation of customers: employees won’t divert customers or provide competitive services to RS customers or help anyone do so during employment and one year after
• Non-solicitation / non-hire of employees or former employees: employees can’t solicit, hire, or help someone else solicit or hire employees during their employment and one year after or someone who was an employee during their employment. It is unclear whether all or part of the provision is time limited and/or relates to companies competitive with RS, but is RS a financial company? media company? speaker and book company? radio company?
• Forced arbitration: employees are required to bring any issues to the attention of their leader or HR (if the problem is with their leader). Beyond that, to mediation (RS suggests the mediators), and beyond that, to binding arbitration, waiving rights to a trial and any class action. Even if someone goes to a court…