Worker Gets A $25 Gift Card To A Movie Theater In Another State As A Reward For Making $1.5 Million For His Company
After he left, the boss tried to get him fired from his new job.
ANTONI SHKRABA production / Pexels If businesses want to have any chance at all of retaining employees, they have to pay well, listen to workers, show appreciation, and invest in top performers. One man shared his story of the slap-in-the-face gift he received from his job after bringing in a whopping $1.5 million.
The video was shared on the Reddit TikTok account and detailed exactly what happened and the fallout afterward. He shared that over a two-year period, he had earned the business over the past couple of years. His salary was only $45,000 per year, so he was expecting some sort of recognition for his efforts.
The man was shocked when he got a $25 gift card for Christmas.
To add insult to injury, it could only be used at a movie theater in a different state that was one and a half hours from where he resided.
The perceived lack of consideration made the employee so upset that he decided to put in his two-week notice, but not before finding another position and training another person to do the job he was leaving. During the resignation meeting with his boss, what was once a good working relationship ended up in shambles.
Though the man assured his manager that he would be taking a job in the same field, but would have a different position, so it would not violate his non-compete agreement, the higher-up still saw fit to bring the company’s Chief Legal Officer (CLO) into the conversation via speaker phone.
According to the man, the CLO told him, “You can’t even mop floors at a company on [our] field for at least a year.” Human Resources (HR) was then added to the call and allegedly told him, “Since [you] won’t be pursuing your new job, we are going to let you work two more weeks to make sure [the] handoff goes smoothly. Then [you] will be fired for looking for other jobs.”
He said HR and the CLO continued to prod about the new position he had been offered, but her refused to disclose any further details. He ended up quitting his job and claimed that the company called him repeatedly for weeks in an effort to intimidate him. The former employee even said they had reached out to his new employer, whose CEO stood up for him and let the organization know they would fight for him.
They backed off and the employee never heard from them again, so suspected they never intended on pursuing legal action against him for potentially working for a competitor. He is happy to be out of that working environment and grateful to have found a good business to work for.
The intention of non-compete agreements is to ensure that a company’s competitors don’t get their hands on trade secrets when employees leave. It is a binding contract and since this employee signed it, bars him from working in any capacity for a company that is in direct competition with his former employer for a specified time period, in this case, a year.
Non-compete agreements are problematic in nature because if you are employed in a certain industry and leave your job, you are likely to find work in the same field since you have the experience and expertise. Fortunately, the Federal Trade Commission recognizes the unfavorable position this puts employees in and in January 2023, sought to ban these agreements.
The public comment period closed on April 19, 2023, so it won’t be long before a ruling is made on the matter. If the ban is successful, not only will employers have to stop entering into non-compete contracts with incoming workers, but they must also rescind the pre-existing clauses imposed on current and former employees.
NyRee Ausler is a writer and author from Seattle. She covers issues navigating the workplace using the experience garnered over two decades of working in Human Resources & Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.