Beware the Start-Up

This week, I was laid off. Again.

Now, let me explain. In March, I started freelancing articles for a newly launched website.

The pay was low, but the workload was reasonable. And hey, any extra money and exposure is good at this point.

When I first started the gig, the editor I corresponded with was a bit of a nasty douchebag. I didn’t like his tone with me, but I kept my tongue and managed to do the job.

Lo and behold, one day, I received an email informing the freelance staff that that editor was no longer with the company (my first clue something was unstable and amiss at this company). However, his replacement was much nicer and easier to work with and I did several more articles for him.

This past Thursday, I had been expecting payment for two articles I had written to be posted to my bank account. I checked in the afternoon, and no money had arrived. So I dashed off an email to the editor, informing him of the situation. He said to wait until the end of day.

Log on to my bank account Friday morning. Still no money had been transferred to my account. Dashed off another email. No response…until….

Later that afternoon, I received an email from the head of the company. In it, he detailed how the company was in such dire straits that the bank refused to forward money for payroll. Rut roh. This doesn’t sound good.

Then came the real kicker. The financial situation had sunk so low that the he had to “release” (yet another mind-numbing euphemism for “laid off” that makes it sound even worse) all the freelance staff plus some full-time employees, about 40-some workers in all got the steel-toed boot — with no pay!

Since this was a freelance gig, I wasn’t as upset about being laid off as I was when I was kicked to the curb at two previous full-time jobs. At least I was spared the soul-crushing humiliation of having to clean out my desk and do The Walk of Shame all laid-off workers endure as they shuffle past slack-jawed former colleagues who feign sympathy but who are really thinking, Whew! Better her than me! What a loser! I still have a job. So there was that.

Or perhaps I've grown a thick layer of scar tissue from repeated layoffs. It can't hurt me anymore. Whatev.

And freelancing jobs, as I have come to learn, come and go. It’s inherently unsteady. I’ve come to understand that. The money I lost out on was not a huge amount — others, I’m sure, lost much more. But, dammit, I was counting on it to buy groceries.

More than the lost wages, there were several aspects of this disheartening turn of events that made me a bit angry and bitter.

First, the whole focus of this website was on job creation and employment news. The stories I wrote, as were many others, centered on job-boosting projects or programs to help people get back to work. Yes, you read correctly, dear readers, a website devoted to spreading the good news about employment creation laid off a good chunk of its staff.

Oh, the irony, the irony….

In his email, the head of the company was oh-so contrite. He felt soooo bad about this. Not as bad as we do, bub.

His sole reason for starting this website — cue the soft sobs in the background — was because he believes so strongly (cough, sob) that everyone has the right to work (sniffle, sniffle). Except, apparently, the people who work for him. We don’t deserve a job or a final paycheck. 

He boohooed he will try to get us what he owes us. I’ll believe it when I see the money wired to my account. Until then, I don’t believe a word of what he said. His insincere protestations and phony sympathy mean nothing to those of us who no longer have a job or payment due to his miscalculations and blundering business decisions. How did it come to this? In an attempt to ramp up the website, did he over-extend only to fall short as the weeks and months ran on without hitting the revenue projections he optimistically put forth to the bank? Did he not research how deep the market and all-important page view estimates would be for this website? How strong was the competition? Would advertisers buy in? He should have known all of that before he launched his grand scheme. Perhaps if he had, it wouldn’t have crashed and burned.

Nevertheless, I’ll file this under lessons learned. For this is the second time I succumbed to the siren call of a start-up. Last year, I reported and wrote several long, time-consuming features for a start-up website. Per the contract, payment was to be based on page views. Okay, I thought, I’ll give it a try.

Stories were written and posted. Months passed. No payment. Not a red cent. Bupkis. When I inquired, politely, about payment, I was given the usual blather about how wonderful my work was, but there was no money to pay any of the freelancers at this time. A month ago, I submitted my final story and told the editor I could do no more without payment. She understood, and hinted she had not received payment either.

More recently, I applied for a job at start-up website on women’s issues (when will I ever learn?). I spoke to the creator, who assured me that the no-pay period would only be a few weeks. Then, advertising dollars would miraculously rain down from Heaven and all will be wonderful…Uh huh.

During a phone chat, I related my experience with the previous start-up website that has yet to pay me. She understood I'd been "burned (I'll say!). As much as the job appealed to me, I simply cannot take another chance working for no pay.

So, as a job seeker, should you apply and take a job with a start-up? I would be wary, very wary. As the term implies, start-ups are just starting up; there is no promise the company will succeed in the long run. In today’s short-attention-span world, a new company or website can burn viral hot one day and deathly cold the next. It’s a risky business. Not saying an entrepreneur shouldn't take a chance, but start-ups by their very nature come laden with risks. Established companies can fail, but there is a track record and stability that scaffold them in down times. So, are you sure you want to hook your financial future on a precarious start-up venture?

In the crazy start-up world, what happens when the venture capital runs out and revenues cannot support the business? As my recent experience indicates, post-financial crisis, banks have little patience to prop up a money-draining business, no matter how lofty of intentions or technology-driven it is.

And can you really trust the brainchilds behind these start-ups? These hyped-up-on-their-own-awesomeness Millennials think they are so great they can never fail. Or if they do, somebody (Mommy, Daddy, Kickstarter) will come to their rescue. Doesn’t work that way in the real world. And really, most off these start-up ideas are the narcissistic sprouts of an over-privileged all-white generation that has no clue how the rest of the world lives outside of their entitled bubble. Is the start-up idea sustainable in the long run? Will it appeal to a broad audience, or just your craft-beer-guzzling buddies? Just because they are tech wizards doesn’t mean their freakin’ awesome app will make them the millionaires they believe they should be. For every Uber, there are hundreds of failed start-ups (and laid-off employees). But don’t tell them that.

And on what friggin’ planet is it considered acceptable to NOT pay people for their work?

So, yeah, you can go work for a start-up. Me? Pfff…Been there, done that. I'm done.