Live data from Hacker News

I'm a former Miso engineer and the founders screwed me out of 10k

jzhwu.blogspot.com

311–320 of 391 posts

Re: I'm a former Miso engineer and the founders screwed me out of 10k

#311
post #130

"Name and shame" is a thorny issue. Opponents are right in the same way you shouldn't badmouth former employers in job interviewers. It's not fair but it makes you look worse. You just kind of have to suck it up and move on. When companies screw you out of money, you should name and shame them (IMHO). Trust me, over the years I've probably lost out on all told $50,000 or more that people never paid. In some cases it…

The company agreed to pay him a certain amount of money if he referred somebody who stayed for at least 6 months. He referred somebody who stayed for at least 6 months. The company thus owes him the money. His employment status with the company has nothing to do with it, unless that was stated as part of the deal up-front. I'm pretty sure this would last about five seconds in front of a judge. Produce whatever docume…

I wholehearted agree, but..

I'm pretty sure this would last about five seconds in front of a judge

This whole issue would probably cost 50k just to get in front of a judge.

Re: I'm a former Miso engineer and the founders screwed me out of 10k

#312
post #130

"Name and shame" is a thorny issue. Opponents are right in the same way you shouldn't badmouth former employers in job interviewers. It's not fair but it makes you look worse. You just kind of have to suck it up and move on. When companies screw you out of money, you should name and shame them (IMHO). Trust me, over the years I've probably lost out on all told $50,000 or more that people never paid. In some cases it…

The company agreed to pay him a certain amount of money if he referred somebody who stayed for at least 6 months. He referred somebody who stayed for at least 6 months. The company thus owes him the money. His employment status with the company has nothing to do with it, unless that was stated as part of the deal up-front. I'm pretty sure this would last about five seconds in front of a judge. Produce whatever docume…

[deleted]

Re: I'm a former Miso engineer and the founders screwed me out of 10k

#313
post #130

"Name and shame" is a thorny issue. Opponents are right in the same way you shouldn't badmouth former employers in job interviewers. It's not fair but it makes you look worse. You just kind of have to suck it up and move on. When companies screw you out of money, you should name and shame them (IMHO). Trust me, over the years I've probably lost out on all told $50,000 or more that people never paid. In some cases it…

The company agreed to pay him a certain amount of money if he referred somebody who stayed for at least 6 months. He referred somebody who stayed for at least 6 months. The company thus owes him the money. His employment status with the company has nothing to do with it, unless that was stated as part of the deal up-front. I'm pretty sure this would last about five seconds in front of a judge. Produce whatever docume…

[deleted]

Re: I'm a former Miso engineer and the founders screwed me out of 10k

#314
post #130

"Name and shame" is a thorny issue. Opponents are right in the same way you shouldn't badmouth former employers in job interviewers. It's not fair but it makes you look worse. You just kind of have to suck it up and move on. When companies screw you out of money, you should name and shame them (IMHO). Trust me, over the years I've probably lost out on all told $50,000 or more that people never paid. In some cases it…

The company agreed to pay him a certain amount of money if he referred somebody who stayed for at least 6 months. He referred somebody who stayed for at least 6 months. The company thus owes him the money. His employment status with the company has nothing to do with it, unless that was stated as part of the deal up-front. I'm pretty sure this would last about five seconds in front of a judge. Produce whatever docume…

[deleted]

Re: I'm a former Miso engineer and the founders screwed me out of 10k

#315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How excited are you to give it to him? The scenario implies that the impact of the production db nuke was equal or greater than the bonus. Depending on the context, the impact could range from trivial to catastrophic. The fact that it wasn't backed up only makes it worse. Sometimes I joke that correctly working yet poorly-written code is "conceptually broken". Similarly, any important data that isn't backed up is alr…

Sure, but it doesn't take a development team two to three days to recover "conceptually lost" data (as according to the post). If you're about to touch the production database in a way that could potentially end catastrophically, and there aren't backups, you really should stop and consider the meaning of life before proceeding. Preferably, you decide that backups are the meaning of life, and even if it's an imperfec…

The flaw in this argument is that it assumes rremoncake was solely responsible for the decision to not back up prod. I think that responsibility falls on the CTO/CEO, and so yeah, Miso is a bad company for that, and that whole incident should have no relevance to the bonus debacle.

Re: I'm a former Miso engineer and the founders screwed me out of 10k

#316
I think the bigger issue here has to be how much one has to get screwed before they actually come out and tell their tale. I had a former boss and coworker who were sleeping together and to this day the backlash i got for reporting it internally absolutely blows my mind, I can't imagine if I had told people externally as well. While I was right and both people admitted it, it involved months of stress and lies before everyone realized i was right and they should stop being dicks to me. Of course, the two in question have never had to face an ounce of blame while the person who correctly pointed out they were breaking rules got punished badly.

Just remember that the revisionist history will always go on unless you're on the best of terms with the founders always. The fact that my old boss had been there longer than me simply made his he said more powerful than my he said. It is incredibly discouraging how sketchy this industry is becoming, and I hope more people speak out in situations like these before it is too late.

Re: I'm a former Miso engineer and the founders screwed me out of 10k

#317
post #77

Stop calling it a bonus, it isn't, it's payment for your services of recruitment. The offer came as part of a written agreement from an officer of the company in relation to the duties required by employees (adding the optional duty of recruitment) and their remuneration for performing said services (your payment for recruitment). Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck. Bonuses are when you receive additional pay for…

It actually /is/ a bonus – because you're already employed, and salaried, there's no obligation for your employeer to pay you more for services rendered. I'm no lawyer either, but Google seems to think "Referral Bonus" is a common thing.

[deleted]

Re: I'm a former Miso engineer and the founders screwed me out of 10k

#318
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also don't have any systems people who know to run backups.

To my coworkers defense the service was very new and we had plans to put in a backup system. Bad timing I guess.

Never ever plan to backup, just backup.

Re: I'm a former Miso engineer and the founders screwed me out of 10k

#319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The company agreed to pay him a certain amount of money if he referred somebody who stayed for at least 6 months. He referred somebody who stayed for at least 6 months. The company thus owes him the money. His employment status with the company has nothing to do with it, unless that was stated as part of the deal up-front. I'm pretty sure this would last about five seconds in front of a judge. Produce whatever docume…

I wholehearted agree, but.. I'm pretty sure this would last about five seconds in front of a judge This whole issue would probably cost 50k just to get in front of a judge.

Why? This would work pretty well in small claims, which costs not much at all.

Re: I'm a former Miso engineer and the founders screwed me out of 10k

#320
post #130

"Name and shame" is a thorny issue. Opponents are right in the same way you shouldn't badmouth former employers in job interviewers. It's not fair but it makes you look worse. You just kind of have to suck it up and move on. When companies screw you out of money, you should name and shame them (IMHO). Trust me, over the years I've probably lost out on all told $50,000 or more that people never paid. In some cases it…

Integrity isn't about technical or legal validity. It's about having made an agreement with someone, and honoring it. Finding a semantic or legal way to breach an agreement is wack. Extra-much so if due to interpersonal static. I don't know the parties involved nor do I like the attempt to adjudicate the matter in the court of Internet public opinion, but I do understand why folks are reacting to the story.

I would argue that it is the employee, and not the employer, that is searching for a semantic or legal way to breach an agreement. The agreement was that employees (not ex-employees) are eligible for referral bonuses. He failed to settle this issue during his time as an employee, and is now searching for a semantic or legal method to do so as an ex-employee.
Post reply on HN