“TLDR: Boss forces us to work late to try to meet a new deadline, then doesn’t pay us, then continues to BS us until I tell him it’s illegal. Then he ghosts me, refuses letter of termination for Unemployment, I report to DoL, they get nothing, I get nothing, company no longer exists 6 months after I left.”
My boss was my friend. Like a little brother to me. We worked together bootstrapping a company. I ran the business, he chased investors and maintained existing ones.
After we lost some major investors (to death) we kept pushing, and he didn’t disclose how bad their loss was.
A few months later, we had a big push and campaign and product launch that we were asked to work overtime and crunch and rush through.
We all did this for a week before we knew we couldn’t feasibly reach the deadline and launching early would not work at all.
The following night before payroll was to run, boss calls crying. Says he’s so sorry but he can’t pay me. He says he’s got some meetings with potential investors that he’s confident in the next day, and if that doesn’t work he’ll use his house for collateral, and if that doesn’t get approved he’ll file for bankruptcy to make sure we all get paid.
I’m supportive. I hear every word and tell him it’s only one thing in time, many more down the road. New opportunities will come.
Next day he’s radio silent. I reach out to ask him how the meetings went. He says not good will see Monday.
I am patient. I wait to Monday. Monday night comes around, he sends a company message out, but no new updates on the situation, and he asks questions about production for the day and movement towards launch.
I question the state of the company, and he replies ‘I have a third meeting in ‘XYZ’ state that I’m flying in to meet with on Wednesday. We’re good!’
(I’m using a ton of brevity for the actual story)
We continue business as usual. Thursday morning comes around, not a word. I schedule a meeting with the directors. Boss chimes in 10 minutes before the scheduled end of the meeting.
I mention we can not launch our next campaign without knowing we can afford us and the launch itself.
He gets defensive and says he doesn’t have it yet, but we need to have faith and ‘God yada yada yada’
Flash forward to Saturday, and I can no longer tolerate not getting paid and him not following through with how I was to get paid via his three options (knowing those don’t happen immediately, but the lack of communication is insulting)
He gets defensive when I tell him Monday will be 10 days from non payment, and we’ve continued to work beyond that, meaning we will be coming up on 3 weeks of unpaid work. And I mentioned that it’s irresponsible and it wasn’t right for him to push us to work extra hours, knowing he didn’t have the money to pay any of us. (I had it in writing that he knew)
He claims I’m unfaithful, this and that, ‘what about all that I did for you blah blah blah. ‘Everyone else said they’d work to fight to keep the company going’ this floored me. It’s as if he thought I at any point said ‘yes I’ll keep working without pay’ or that he even asked.
I tell him I will not continue to work, and that he will need to provide me a formal letter or termination. I needed this letter for unemployment.
He ghosts me for over a month. I then show him proof of my report to DoL and share that he could face jail if he continues to ignore my requests for the letter and that all this time I have legally still been employed and that the withheld pay has exceeded a threshold that would certainly require jail time, not just penalties.
Got my letter that day, then suffered the terrible process of unemployment. Built my case easily against him with the DoL (which they cover and take care of everything if you agree for a % of wages owed to be kept by them) and washed my hands of it and moved on.
After 6 months, the DoL notified me they had attempted to serve him and have turned the case over to a law firm, and that I should answer their questions moving forward.
Did an initial review of the case with them, and that’s that. Nothing happened. No wages. There was no company left. No announcement or ‘bankruptcy’ or ‘house collateral loan’ nothing. Just a dishonest loser who doesn’t have any balls getting away with it.
Things are fine, it wasn’t life destroying, but amazingly unprofessional. Dude still ‘starts companies’ and is an annoying try hard on Twitter posing as a VC with tons of experience and knowledge. And flys over seas for vacations every other month.