This one did the rounds before I finally paused for two minutes to see it.
This sort of abusive relationship endeared me to one of the big names in the content industry in Northern Ireland. It was 2003 and I was working in a brand new startup. Out cashflow was zilch and I had five families to look after.
“If you give me three of these $high_end_powermacs now, then I’ll pay for them in three months.”
Needless to say he was shown the door and I’ve never worked with that company since. Caveat Startup.
Was I too “risk averse” at the time? Did I want to risk the little savings I had (which were paying salaries at the time) in order to try and weather out three months of no cash flow for someone who drove a big car and owned a big building? Maybe I made the wrong decision but it’s my feeling that if I’d taken that step then the following five years of work, fighting and the joy of success would have been condensed into three months of going out of business (and the machines would therefore never be paid for).
I’ve lost money in situations like that by being too trusting. Every situation is different of course, but in my experience if they had the money to pay you in three months, they probably had the money to pay you right now.
John,
The same could be said of the employer/employee relationship.
I’d argue that employees have protection from abuse in a way that businesses don’t from each other?
I, too, have lost money from trusting but with time I’ve become a better judge of character and I’m not inclined to trust these folk again.
I got shafted once very nicely by a customer who got me to make a sample t shirt (for free) which he was going to show his band and then get back to me with an order of 100 shirts. Of course the next time I saw him he was selling t shirts with my design on made by someone else.