Drama!!! need help to find the truth.

[Peace]

Hi, I just have to get this story off my chest and would very much like your opinion. My company
ClassyContent, has been supplying content for 10 years now, and thankfully we have some very big
customers.

As a gesture of good will, I asked an employee of ours to do some marketing so he could make
more money. Previous to that he did mostly video editing work. So he lands this customer and all
communications with this customer is exclusively through this one employee. So I pay him an extra 5%.
This relationship has been going on for two years, and now I find out that he has been selling exclusive
content to that customer behind my back.

Now I don’t want to name the company, but they are a big company, one that you would feel was very
reputable, and I have met them personally. So I contacted them and made them aware of the situation.
I feel as though this employee, who was selling them product, was in effect stealing my ideas and good
will. After all he learned to do what I do working for us.

I really expected this company to agree with my views and not continue supporting this employee. Their
response was that they didn’t know, and even though I gave them the whole story they really didn’t care
and would continue buying content from this employee. Now they are buying less from me and more
from him, which effectively means I’m losing approximately $1000-1500 a month in lost profits. On top of that
this employee has recruited one of my shooters and orders shoots from him. which screws my relationship

My whole point is that we are a community and if we support this kind of action, which I consider
unethical, then we all ultimately lose out. I’m hoping you agree with me and with your thoughts and
opinions, maybe this customer will reconsider the relationship he has with this employee.
However, if the consensus is that things are just that way in the world we live in, then I’ll shut-up and
accept that things are the way they are. I do hope that common sense will prevail.

Thank you so much for letting me get this off my chest. I look forward to your responses and opinions. i hope more people would be for the truth and hopefully the customer stops buying from internal competitor.

[Danevaninc]

I will have more comments on your predicament later, but for now, did you know that ClassyContent.com is like 50% broken image links? looks like perhaps a faulty load balancer ,or a broken CDN.... have you checked that out?

[Peace]

Originally Posted by Danevaninc

I will have more comments on your predicament later, but for now, did you know that ClassyContent.com is like 50% broken image links? looks like perhaps a faulty load balancer ,or a broken CDN.... have you checked that out?

I did not see it. look ok to me. can you send a screen shot?

[Danevaninc]

img221.imageshack.us/img221/1073/boom1.png

img94.imageshack.us/img94/2598/boom2a.png

[Peace]

Originally Posted by Danevaninc

img221.imageshack.us/img221/1073/boom1.png

img94.imageshack.us/img94/2598/boom2a.png

Images do not show for me

[BJ]

who cares?

[MaDalton]

you can't tell your customer what to do but you can fire your employee and make your shooter choose for whom he wants to work (probably the one of you who brings more jobs)

[BIGTYMER]

Make better content

And fire the employee.

[xenigo]

It sucks, yes... But all you can do is incentivize people you hire by keeping them happy. Unfortunately it's difficult to enforce or establish exclusive relationships, especially when we're talking about contractors. Just focus on moving forward...

[Matyko]

Very unhappy situation. Had similar bad experience in the past, however the harm that was done was way smaller than yours. The employee has to leave, be careful about his paperwork and stuff, don't do anything based on your emotions but pay for a lawyer to handle this. Zexino is right: "Just focus on moving forward..."

It's a shame, but it happens...

GOOD LUCK for you!

[wehateporn]

Peace,

I'm sorry to hear about this. It's not the customer's job to care; if I go and buy something from a supermarket, then someone who works there tells me that one of the cashiers has been stealing from the till, that's for the supermarket to sort out, I wouldn't want to get involved.

From your perspective, now that the trust has gone, you've got to work out if it's still safe and beneficial to be working with this employee...in some cases it will be, it depends on the situation, but if you can easily replace him then it's better to have someone you trust, or at least who hasn't been caught red-handed stealing clients.

As Matyko said, take you're time and don't many any hasty decisions. There's no rush; it's more important do make the right decision and do things the correct way.

[bean-aid]

I'm really confused. What happened to hiring the local thug and beating the shit out of your ex-employee?
Your client, tell them to pound sound. Your prices or the highway.

Really, you need some balls.

[alextokyo]

If you're serious about your business and want to take action, you need to go out and talk to a lawyer. A real lawyer, one that charges money, with qualifications and his name on the door. A suit and a big desk wouldn't hurt much either.

Best not listen to us, our opinions here are worth exactly what we charge for them. I haven't been out of the house for 3 days and am currently sat naked eating a bowl of cereal at 9pm. I was thinking about getting a call girl over, but can't be bothered to shower or change my bedding...

[mchacal]

Hire a hitman

[raymor]

I agree that's shitty and there's been more than one law suit over such a thing. I wouldn't do business with the guy if I were the purchaser, but then we're pretty serious about ethics. Once an employee of ours told a webmaster a bullshit excuse why the job took so long. ONCE. I let him know that the next time he said anything untrue he would be fired.

It's probably not worth a law suit, though you'd likely win since the employee was employed WHILE he was screwing you. So all you can do is get a carefully worded non-compete to use with the next employee. The non-compete needs to be pretty limited. You have to allow the employee to earn a living after leaving you, but not allow them to sell your exact type of content to your customers. For example, our non-agreement says they can't market on GFY, but also gives one employee full rights to do any work he pleases for clients in his home country.

[pornguy]

If you have to ask what you should do, then you should not be running that business and its amazing that you lasted as long as you have.

[alextokyo]

Originally Posted by pornguy

If you have to ask what you should do, then you should not be running that business and its amazing that you lasted as long as you have.

[Grapesoda]

bring in an NDA and non compete agreements on the new guy

[potter]

In any other business or job the employee would have been fired in a heartbeat.

[potter]

Originally Posted by Content Shooter

bring in an NDA and non compete agreements on the new guy

this should be done with all employees regardless. cannot believe there wasn't

[TurboAngel]

Originally Posted by potter

In any other business or job the employee would have been fired in a heartbeat.

[Hank_Heartland]

Peace, fire the employee and in the future make your employees who have access to clients sign a non-compete agreement