Sure, but this is equivalent to being let go without severence. You have no buffer to get you through thr job finding process.

I have been given "agreements" to sign in which the non-compete clause is plainly unconditionally worded: no matter what the cause of termination. I don't know whether they expected to enforce it or not. I redlined the part covering "dismissal", and my annotated agreement was not rejected.

This was in Massachusetts.

In the end I did get RIFed. They nailed me by conditioning the severance package on accepting a freshly drafted non-compete. I went along with it because I considered my likelihood of continuing in that line of work to be negligible anyway.

Actually, even in California, in the limited instances in which a non-compete is enforceable, being fired has no bearing on the non-compete's enforceability.

Most of the USA, including Massachusetts (but not California).

You can find a new job if your noncompete is terminated. The problem is that you might have a 12 month non-compete so you might book a 3 month vacation at the beginning because nobody will hire you 12 months in advance.

You're just left in the lurch if your former employer then terminates the noncompete within a month and stops paying you. The alternative of just sitting home for those 12 months doesn't sound great either.