Several years back I worked for a software company run by a madman. How mad? You be the judge. After I left the company I wrote a post about my experience working for the guy. Start reading there for some background.
It’s truly amazing the company is still in business and the madman who founded the company still controls the whole operation. Rumors have long persisted that he hasn’t paid taxes in a number of years. But that’s nothing: In 2007, a young man who worked as a “bodyguard” for the CEO was stabbed to death in a drunken brawl outside a bar in the town where the company is located. And in 2008, he was sued by his former housekeepers for sexual harassment and found guilty. He owes them $330,000 in damages and reparations. And just today, another former employee sent me a link to a news article stating that he was being sued for back rent on his office building.
Quite a swath of destruction for a software company and its unscrupulous owner isn’t it? How many CEOs of software companies even need a bodyguard? The other sad part is that the guy is a talented developer of enterprise software. Software in use around the world in thousands of companies. If these customers knew how tenuous the guy’s grip on his business is, they would do whatever they needed to do to stop using the company’s software because it may not be supported for much longer.
This guy taught me a valuable lesson: Slime, no matter how good it might feel, doesn’t pay.
I could name the company and the man, but I won’t. Even if it is all too true. That would just be too slimy.
As a past employee who was consistently harassed and belittled by the man in question I could not agree more with the sentiments expressed in this blog. I believe in the saying that “what goes around comes around” and do not wish ill will upon anyone on this planet. However, the events I witnessed with this man put a strain on my emotional being and caused me to question myself more then once.
At some point the guy will have an epiphany about his behavior. But probably only after he’s gone broke, or to jail. Or both.
I too worked with this company! I was “subjected” to act as a body guard for the sake of my employment, and learned first hand how the man acts while he has an entourage with him. I experienced first hand the many goings on while I was employed there. I had actually walked into the office in the morning to find broken champagne glasses on the floor and empty bottles lying around. The CEO actually refused to come into the office one week because he was involved in an altercation that resulted in him receiving a couple of black eyes. Lying, cheating, sexual harassment… all in a days work at P.
I was forced to deceive members of our Local Development Corporation and actually was let go after finding my employees were paid more than me! The same employees who would stay out all night “partying” with the CEO and not come into work the following day, or come in stinking of booze and being unproductive. I believe this to be the reason for the pay differentials – maybe I was wrong…who knows.
I do know this; the man is not very welcomed by many in his home town anymore.
This is good.