(TL;DR) Don’t trust your employer, even if they were your friend first.
My friend started a company and I was his first employee. He promised me partnership in the company and I worked my ass off for him. I started out making commission only so he had no risk and brought in over $70k in profits for the company(after my commissions were removed) in my first 6 months.
I was taking on leadership roles in recruiting and training new sales people. Helped train his assistant and answer questions she had while doing his work. I was a team player.
About 6 years in I was going through something personal and needed a break. I told him I was feeling suicidal and his response was that I should work harder and focus on sales. I tried but it didn’t work. It was making things worse. He also refused to let me hire my own assistant, even though I was willing to pay that person out of my commissions.
After I threatened to quit, unless he gave me a break, we came to a compromise. When trying to come back to work about a year later we got into an argument about past working conditions and how he kept moving the goal posts every time I got close to the targets he set for me to get partnership.
He terminated me and I’m in a lawsuit for severance and final pay. He’s claiming I quit, that I’m not entitled to severance and that he had cause after the fact. He’s using his brother and paying no legal fees while doing everything possible to delay the court case. It’s been a year and half and we still haven’t begun discoveries.
I decided to start my own company as a competitor. It’s been difficult during the pandemic but our momentum is finally catching. I will absolutely use the experiences he taught me to never be an employer like that and put people before profits.
Thanks for listening. Fuck loyalty. Get everything in writing from friends.