They owe you 250K, or their employees?
Ask HN: What to do when you have your employer over a barrel?
21–30 of 44 posts
Re: Ask HN: What to do when you have your employer over a barrel?
#22First, consider your $250k written off. Don't hang on to it: doing so will only make you dig yourself deeper into ground and giving in to the client's demands in the hope of maybe getting paid. This will ruin any strategy to recover from the situation. You can't negotiate anything if you remove your ability to walk away. Leave the $250k and call that the clean state. That's the worst case that might happen so why not accept and start from it.
Secondly, do not deliver the update. That's the only thing you have that might give you some leverage. If they can't pay now, don't count on them being able to pay later. As others have suggested, a sizable portion of the company stock might be another option if you like to gamble. You'll have to think about the valuation, of course, and what the company might be in the future: a reasonable compensation might be 0.1, 1, 5, or 20% of the company. Given the current state of affairs, the stock becoming worthless is also one fair possibility.
If the company is as penniless as it seems there's no point in even suing to get paid. Next time, stop deliveries after one month if payments stop coming in.
Re: Ask HN: What to do when you have your employer over a barrel?
#23Are they 12 months and $250k behind on their own payroll, or on paying you specifically? Because that's an insane amount that never should have gotten that far. Also, if they have a board, it sounds like they're not actually a small client, which means they can easily pay you what they owe you. Can they pay the salaries of their management? Then they can pay you.
That is just me, though as I mentioned in a cousin comment it took some time for this to happen. Its not like I've just been working for the last year with out pay. Its more of a natural decay of their ability to pay... so 2.43 years +-
It's not healthy. Don't let outstanding debt accumulate like that.
On my second job, my boss once told me not to commit any new code changes to the client's repository until they paid an outstanding bill. They paid very quickly. If they need something from you, use that you get them to pay those outstanding bills.
> their ability to pay
Ability or willingness? Do they pay their own people? Their own executives? That's a choice they're making.
Re: Ask HN: What to do when you have your employer over a barrel?
#24Are they 12 months and $250k behind on their own payroll, or on paying you specifically? Because that's an insane amount that never should have gotten that far. Also, if they have a board, it sounds like they're not actually a small client, which means they can easily pay you what they owe you. Can they pay the salaries of their management? Then they can pay you.
That is just me, though as I mentioned in a cousin comment it took some time for this to happen. Its not like I've just been working for the last year with out pay. Its more of a natural decay of their ability to pay... so 2.43 years +-
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Re: Ask HN: What to do when you have your employer over a barrel?
#25Are they 12 months and $250k behind on their own payroll, or on paying you specifically? Because that's an insane amount that never should have gotten that far. Also, if they have a board, it sounds like they're not actually a small client, which means they can easily pay you what they owe you. Can they pay the salaries of their management? Then they can pay you.
That is just me, though as I mentioned in a cousin comment it took some time for this to happen. Its not like I've just been working for the last year with out pay. Its more of a natural decay of their ability to pay... so 2.43 years +-
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Re: Ask HN: What to do when you have your employer over a barrel?
#26First, consider your $250k written off. Don't hang on to it: doing so will only make you dig yourself deeper into ground and giving in to the client's demands in the hope of maybe getting paid. This will ruin any strategy to recover from the situation. You can't negotiate anything if you remove your ability to walk away. Leave the $250k and call that the clean state. That's the worst case that might happen so why not…
Yep. I wonder how realistic a 51% option would be?
Re: Ask HN: What to do when you have your employer over a barrel?
#27If they were that confident they would've found a way to get $250K and pay you for it. Sounds like they are putting that risk on you. Don't give them the code and get an attorney, I presume they broke the terms of your contract.
Re: Ask HN: What to do when you have your employer over a barrel?
#28Will they need any more updates from you in the future if all goes well?
Re: Ask HN: What to do when you have your employer over a barrel?
#29Are they 12 months and $250k behind on their own payroll, or on paying you specifically? Because that's an insane amount that never should have gotten that far. Also, if they have a board, it sounds like they're not actually a small client, which means they can easily pay you what they owe you. Can they pay the salaries of their management? Then they can pay you.
That is just me, though as I mentioned in a cousin comment it took some time for this to happen. Its not like I've just been working for the last year with out pay. Its more of a natural decay of their ability to pay... so 2.43 years +-
Assuming you're Dutch, get a lawyer, get your contracts and communication. Also, be aware that if the gov. sees you as an "employee", you have much more protection in terms of getting paid.