This happened years ago. I used to work at a liquor store, and my boss at the time was one of those “We’re like a big family here!” And “We look out for each other” type of dude.
Needless to say, that was all horse shit to get employees emotionally invested in the store to be taken advantage of.
One of my coworkers, a manager, wanted to open her own business. If I’m recalling correctly, it was for private mixology lessons for cocktails and whatnot, where short videos would be taken for social media promos. So when my boss heard her talking about it in passing, he acted excited for her, encouraging even! He wished her luck, and told her to reach out to him if she wanted friendly business advice.
A few months later, coworker began the process of taking the leap, and went to apply for trademark of her intended business name…. Which she soon discovered was already owned. Purchased fairly recently, actually. Her business name was going to match her current instagram tag, which has a decent following for her independent posts already. It was a unique name as well, so she was confused as to who the hell bought the rights. She hadn’t told anyone her business name because she wasn’t sure back when she started talking about it.
It was our boss. Our boss bought her business name idea without her even telling him, he just guessed she would use her Instagram handle. Coworker approached him about it and asked him why he would do that. He claimed he grabbed it on her behalf for “safe keeping” or something weird like that. She asked him for the rights to be transferred to her so she could start the process of applying for everything needed to start the business.
He quoted her triple the price he paid for it initially, citing the name’s value was in demand and therefore more valuable.
So much for family.