Friday, August 17, 2007

A blast from the past!

I wasn't going to blog about this, but I figure you have to have a sense of humor in life right? So here I go....



Some of you know about the era in history I like to call the ".com" era, this is where everyone was going to make millions selling things on an online storefront. This started booming in 1999 and was short lived until approx 2001. There were tons of investors throwing money ant start up companies, and there were average Joe's going from making $45,000 a year to $125,000 a year overnight. Money was no object. Some of you are aware I worked for a couple of these start ups. Well one of the companies I worked for took (if I remember correctly) $6million dollars to get there software company going. I have to admit this was some of the best people I have ever worked with, we all gelled and had a great time. We all put in long hours and took one for the team, because we were going to conquer the world. Then in and around late 2000 the investor money dried up. The $6 million was gone and the employees were left with no paychecks. The vendors were knocking at the door, screaming for payment and things went from bad to worse. No paychecks were given for a few weeks, but us soldier employees we were fighters and we were going to fight our way through, so we stayed. Going unpaid. After all we could save this company it was a righteous product (so we thought) after all it blocked out pornography on the internet, how couldn't we fight for it? Well after I think it was month of no paychecks morale tanked and the ship sank. There were many employees owed tens of thousands of dollars. I personally was just under $30,000 from both salary and commissions. This was Feb 2001 employees were told 30 days we would get some kind of payment. Well this "30 days" went on for months and then years. Lawyers got involved and after about a year I stopped wondering when I would get paid. A year ago I got a letter from the lawyers saying there would be a payout! Wow after 5 years? cool I thought. The kicker it was going to be $.03 on the dollar. 3 cents for every dollar I was owed? what that is crazy! Well at this point what can I do, I was going to get something... so be happy. Well a couple of weeks ago I got my check 6 years later this ordeal is over! Out of $30,000 owed to me I received a check for ..... drum roll please..... approx $1,000.00!! oh wow. Derrick and I had a good laugh, wow, we got jacked..... but no... The lawyers got the last laugh. You see the company I worked for was a Canadian company. So when I cashed the check it wasn't even in US funds! Ah smack! They got the last laugh and I received a portion of the $1,000.00! As Derrick says, "now that's funny!" what else can you do but laugh! The story is now over I can put it to rest completely. So I say a final farewell to the .com era. I count it all joy as I did meet some great people during that time and had a blast working with them! I can't complain because I know I worked hard, and some where, at some point I will be given back what was taken 7 fold! So really what is there to complain about? Have a laugh with me ~ oh to the .com era!! What fun it was.

3 comments:

The Young Family said...
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The Young Family said...
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Unknown said...

I can't believe that Em! Crazy! Gotta love that company. I am glad that you can finally lay that to rest. Go buy yourself some thing nice. But something that costs less than $100. :) I am laughing with you on this one!