After spending 15 years in Tech and SAAS start-ups I burnt out. I grew my beard longer and started bartending again to make cash.
A friend of ours and their partner had opened a brewery and needed help. They couldn't afford the market rate for someone to set up their wholesale distribution program so I jumped in.
Working for 15/hr I managed their taproom and stood up an entire distribution network starting out of my personal car.
One delivery of three kegs was no match for the snow and rock that would destroy the back axles of my car. The owners were sorry but would only give me $100.00 towards my deductible. Something that cost me close to $3000 to repair.
I was livid.
They then fired me, as I was not quiet about my discontent.
Two weeks later I received an email they were contacting the AG and were going to sue me for Wage Theft and Fraud. The male owner went through their security footage and cross-referenced it with the hours I was logging and saw discrepancies according to him…
As an offsite sales rep, obviously, not all of my hours would be specified in the taproom…which I told them, and then countersued with over 60 hours of overtime that had never been paid.
The knife twist: WHile employed I created a beer for my partner for our anniversary. It was a Hibiscus Farmhouse Ale, that was purplish-pink with all the raw hibiscus flower used in the process. Thus was born Lorretta after my partner's Godmother. A beer they not only kept the recipe for but sold as their number one beer for the following three years…coool.