Ask HN: Typical Startup or Abuse?

> I don't want this guy's business to crash and burn.

That's fine, you don't have to want it to crash and burn. HE clearly wants it to crash and burn.

While it's your entirely your responsibility for having chosen to stay in such a terrible situation, he's the one who created it in the first place.

He's the one who's betting his business on mistreating people. He's the one who's betting his business on mistreating, most importantly, a single person who holds his business together.

He could have paid you more. He could have fulfilled his promises. He could have hired other people to make you more dispensible, to hedge his bets, to protect his future.

But he didn't. Because he's not a businessman, he's a user. Users don't think "gee maybe I should use THIS guy a little less, to protect myself," they think "WEEEHEE I CAN SQUEEZE A LITTLE MORE OUT OF THIS DUDE FOR NOTHING!"

That's simply unwise.

It's not your place to worry about whether he goes out of business. It's his plan. It's his mistake.

And, after you leave and you've secured your future income, call the IRS on his butt. He is breaking the law and should be punished and switch his business model to something legal.

Don't do it out of vengeance, do it out of concern for future schmucks.

The IP gambit is potentially career ending. All he has to do is take out a press release that insinuates you may have destroyed his business with lawyers out of purest spite. That press release will hang around on background checks forever.

If you need leverage, go after unemployment insurance. If you were watching the clock, then he should have been paying unemployment insurance on your behalf. The state unemployment bureaucrats are remarkably bitchy and tenacious about it, but the worst case expenses to the company are not enough to start a legal war over. They are, however, enough to get the attention of a paranoid tightwad.

You seem to have an extreme case of nice guy syndrome. You don't want to get into a conflict with your boss and you are highly willing to sacrifice yourself to meet his expectations. My guess is you would feel almost physically ill at the idea of "letting someone down" who was "counting on you".

You need to get over that, at least somewhat. If you don't set boundaries, if you don't have a notion of where your wants and needs are more important than what others want and need from you, you'll always be overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated. Nobody respects a pushover, and there are a lot of guys who will use them up mercilessly.

Did I read that you're only 21? If so, hey, you've got lots of time to get this sorted out. But you might as well start now. :)

Closing thoughts: Get out as soon as possible--there's a lot of ways you could go about this. Don't try to "get even", just cut your losses. Don't do anything unethical on the way out. Do not trust your boss if he starts making promises of change or reform. As soon as possible, start saving money and get a cushion built up. You'd be in a much better position now if you weren't living paycheck to paycheck. Good luck.

Then "...the universe will open doors where there were only walls." - Joseph Campbell