You have a favorite cleaner. She knows where the good coffee is, she never misses the conference room, and half your staff say hi to her by name. So you start to wonder: why keep paying the company when you could just put her on payroll?
Then you remember the contract said something about this. Somewhere in the fine print was a line about hiring the crew.
Here’s what that line usually does. In most cases you can still hire the person, but the non solicitation clause in your contract can attach a fee and a waiting period to doing it. What it almost never does is make the hire flat out illegal. And whether anything binds you at all comes down to one question most office managers never ask: which document has your signature on it?
The answer lives in a single paragraph of your own contract, and in whether the number sitting next to that paragraph is reasonable. Let’s find both.
First, figure out which document is doing the stopping
There are two completely different agreements floating around your cleaning arrangement, and they restrict two different people.
The first is the service contract you signed with the cleaning company. If it has a non solicitation clause, that clause binds you, the client. It’s the reason you can’t simply poach the crew without a conversation.
The second is the employment agreement the cleaner signed with her employer. That one binds her. It’s between the worker and the company, and you were never a party to it.
This distinction is the whole game, and nobody explains it. You are only bound by what you personally signed. If your service contract has no non solicitation clause, there’s nothing stopping you from making an offer. And if the cleaner decides on her own to quit and come work for you, her employer’s agreement is her problem to sort out, not yours, unless you actively went out and recruited her in a way your own contract forbids.
So before anything else, pull your contract and read it. Look for a heading like “Non Solicitation,” “Hiring of Personnel,” or “Employee Solicitation.” What that paragraph says is the only thing that governs what you can do.
If you’re reading your contract closely for the first time, the main office cleaning guide explains the other clauses you’ll run into and what each one’s for.
What a non solicitation clause actually restricts
When your contract does have one, it typically does three things.
- It stops you from directly hiring the company’s staff for a set window, usually while the contract is active and for a period after it ends.
- It defines that window, most often 12 months, sometimes longer.
- It sets a price for doing it anyway, a buyout or placement fee that lets you hire the person by compensating the company.
That last part is the piece people miss. A non solicitation clause is rarely an iron gate. It’s more often a tollbooth. The company spent time recruiting, screening, training, and insuring that cleaner, and the fee is how it recovers that investment when you take the person off its books.
Typical buyout fees in the janitorial industry run somewhere between about $1,500 and $3,500, or they’re written as a multiple of what you were paying per month. Your contract will spell out the exact figure or formula. If it doesn’t name one at all, that’s worth noticing, because a restriction with no defined remedy is a much weaker thing than one with a clear number attached.
“Solicitation” usually means you actively going after the person: making the offer, recruiting them, arranging the move. A cleaner who approaches you entirely on her own is a grayer situation, and it’s exactly the kind of detail the clause’s wording decides.
Non solicitation is not a non compete
People use these terms as if they’re the same. They aren’t, and the difference matters for how worried you should be.
A non compete tries to stop someone from working in a whole field or market for a while. Those are heavily restricted, face real skepticism in court, and as a client buying cleaning you will almost never be asked to sign one.
A non solicitation clause is narrower. It doesn’t say you can’t hire cleaners. It says you can’t hire this company’s specific people, and only for a defined time. Courts treat the narrow version far more favorably than the broad one, precisely because it protects a real interest without locking anybody out of earning a living.
So when you see “non solicitation” in your contract, read it as the modest restriction it almost always is, the one about hiring this crew, not as a wall around the entire trade.
Can the clause actually be enforced?
A clause being written down and a clause being enforceable are two different things. In Pennsylvania, a few plain tests decide it.
The restriction has to be reasonable in time and scope. A 12 month window tied to the crew that actually cleaned your building reads as reasonable. A five year ban on hiring anyone who ever worked for the company would not.
Any dollar figure has to approximate real harm, not punish you. Pennsylvania enforces liquidated damages, the pre-set amount you owe for breaking the clause, only when that amount is a fair estimate of what the company actually loses. A fee that lines up with recruiting and training costs holds up.
A number set high to scare you, well beyond any real loss, is a penalty, and Pennsylvania law doesn’t let a contract punish. Courts have thrown out figures that had no relationship to the account’s actual value.
One thing you can take off your worry list is the federal non compete rule. The rule the FTC proposed in 2024 was set aside by a court and never took effect. Even if it had, it targeted employer and worker non competes, not a commercial term between two businesses, so it doesn’t touch the clause in your cleaning contract either way.
None of this is legal advice, and the wording of your specific clause is what a court would actually read. If real money is on the line, have an attorney look at the exact paragraph before you act. But the shape of it is usually simple: reasonable window, honest fee, enforceable; unreasonable window or a punishing fee, shaky.
How to hire the cleaner the clean way
If you’ve decided you want the person, the smart move is the direct one. Going behind the company’s back is how you end up in the dispute the clause was written to create.
- Read the clause first so you know exactly what you’re dealing with and what it costs.
- Call the company and ask for the buyout number. Many will name a placement fee and let you hire the person with a handshake. This is a normal request, not a declaration of war.
- Get a release in writing. A short signed note saying the company waives the restriction for this hire is worth far more than a verbal “sure, that’s fine.” It closes the door on a claim later.
- Count what you’re giving up. When the cleaner was the company’s employee, the company carried the liability insurance, the workers compensation, the payroll taxes, and the backup coverage for the nights she’s sick. Bring her in house and all of that becomes yours. For one person in a small office that can still make sense. Just go in with your eyes open.
Handled this way, hiring the cleaner you like is a transaction, not a fight. If the deeper issue is that you want out of the vendor relationship entirely, that’s a separate move with its own rules, and it’s worth knowing how to cancel an office cleaning contract without paying for it before you start pulling threads.
How to read the clause before you ever sign
The best time to deal with a non solicitation clause is before it’s binding. When you’re reviewing a new cleaning contract, here’s what a fair version looks like.
- A window of 12 months or less after the contract ends, not an open-ended one.
- A defined, proportionate fee to hire the crew, not a vague “damages to be determined” or a number that dwarfs a few months of service.
- A restriction limited to the people who actually worked your account, not every employee the company has.
- A clear sunset, so the restriction ends when the relationship does, plus that reasonable tail.
If a clause fails those tests, ask to change it before you sign. A good cleaning company will explain why the protection exists, and a reasonable one will negotiate the terms. That back and forth tells you something useful about the company too, which is really the same lens you’d use on the handful of clauses that decide whether the whole contract works.
And if you genuinely value the individual over the vendor, raise it early. Some companies will name the crew right in the contract and build the relationship you actually want, which can beat trying to unwind one later. When you’re weighing a new cleaning partner in Northeastern Pennsylvania, ask how they handle it. The answer is a fast read on whether they see the arrangement as a partnership or a trap.
Frequently asked questions
Can I hire my office cleaner directly?
Usually yes, but check the service contract you signed first. If it has a non solicitation clause, you may owe the company a buyout fee to hire the person during the restricted window. If there’s no such clause, or the cleaner leaves on her own without you recruiting her, there’s typically nothing stopping the hire.
What is a non solicitation clause in a cleaning contract?
It’s a term that stops the client from directly hiring the cleaning company’s staff for a set period, usually while the contract runs and for a window after it ends. Most versions let you hire the person anyway by paying a defined placement or buyout fee, so it sets a price rather than an outright ban.
How long does a non solicitation clause last?
Most run about 12 months after the contract ends, and windows in the 12 to 24 month range are common. Longer than that tends to face more scrutiny if it’s ever challenged, because the restriction has to stay reasonable in duration to hold up.
Is a non solicitation clause enforceable in Pennsylvania?
It can be, if it’s reasonable in time and scope and any set damages actually approximate the company’s real loss. Pennsylvania won’t enforce a clause built to punish rather than to protect a genuine business interest. Because the exact wording decides it, have an attorney review your specific clause if significant money is involved.
What’s the difference between a non solicitation clause and a non compete?
A non compete tries to keep someone out of a whole line of work for a time and is hard to enforce. A non solicitation clause only stops you from hiring this company’s specific people for a defined period. As a cleaning client you’ll almost always be dealing with the narrower non solicitation version, not a non compete.
How much is a buyout fee to hire the cleaner?
Industry figures commonly land between roughly $1,500 and $3,500, or the contract writes the fee as a multiple of your monthly billing. Your own contract sets the exact number or formula, so the real answer is whatever your signed copy says.