Im so done, just wanted to tell my story to someone.
In 2017 I was super hyped about Digital Marketing and I started a part time job with this small business located in Germany.
When I started the business made roughly 300k per Year, and besides the owner there was a programmer and a designer.
Over the Years this work took quite some time, to scale the business, but I always believed it would pay off. So in 2018 I've spent roughly 30 Hours per week building landing pages, create new Campaigns, new channels to generate revenue. However, I've been per contract paid for 10 Hours per week and I quickly had to realize that it is a similar situation for all employees.
In 2019 as we passed the 1mil revenue mark, I started to pressure the business owner into changing the contracts for everyone who worked on scaling the business.
That's when we had a get-together (most of us worked remotely) and I noticed his new car (BMW i3) , which he strangely tried to hide from me.
The last months of 2019 the business owner kept on telling me that the revenue growth needs to continue the same way. As we grew the revenue by 250% from 2017 to 2019, it was now expected that revenue hast to increase again by 250%. Which is as one might imagine not realistic at all.
So in January 2020 just after we finished the Year with record revenue, Corona struck. It was very stressful as the business owner did not return any of my calls and emails and once he did, it was a lot of blaming as to why the revenue is dropping (he did not believe in Corona) nor did he see that offering huge discounts will be even more harmful.
So, however, it is February and I just launched the Valentine campaigns. I'm asked for a quick call, and I'm told that I now had enough time to look for a new job.
I ask him what he means by that
HE answers me that not all things business-wise are working out.
I ask him what he means by that.
And the conversation continues like that for a while. But I still haven't been told that I'm fired or anything like that.
At this point I haven't been paid for the last few months (Dec, Jan, Feb)I still had not received a letter or been told that I'm fired. And most of my access is terminated.
Now it is march, I receive a letter that im fired immediately, I ask for my missing wages and the social insurance letters required.
As an answer I receive a letter from his lawyer notifying me that it is me that ows him money, and a Letter that im being sued for using his company name in my portfolio.
Obviously, 2 Years have passed since then.
It cost me about 4000€ in Lawyers Fees
I never received my salary
I owe the state the insurance fees that have been missed during this time. 8000€
I had to pay a total of 13000€ for the copyright lawsuit.
I lost all my savings and am more than 10000€ in debt all that for a job that paid about 800€ per month.
Due to me being broke and unable to pay my lawyers they did not inform me that I had to pay some other fee. As I did not pay the fee (cause I did not know about it) there is no open Arrest warrant for me.
Let me say I love my work, but there is no future for me or my work in this poisoned economy. This is not my first or last rodeo. I'm done with the abuse and the exploitation.
I will continue developing software and Apps to automate marketing workflows whenever I can get my hands on Internet Access but I will not continue to be abused like this. I have a Backpack and im having a tent and quilt, altogether weighing about 25kg I will find a nice place in the Mediterranean forests and live there.
It's not what I hoped for but better than the alternatives.