My wonderful new job... Oh Shit!

Some months ago I started a new job in Philly.

It didn’t pay quite as well as past employment but the economy being what it is I was happy and it was enough to get by and there was the possibility for bonuses.

It turned out to be a great place to work, with an informal small business atmosphere (not lax, but informal), a bunch of fun and friendly co-workers, a cool boss, and interesting work.

And it has a medical plan.

So I’ve been happier then a pig in shit.

The end of last week, the company sharing the building with us was moving out to go to bigger digs. So we were taking over the whole floor - and I was going to get my own office. Not a cubicle, an office. <Les Nessman>Walls!</Les Nessman>

So Monday the boss told us to dress casual on Tuesday so that we could move a bunch of stuff.

Tuesday morning I showed up and we started the move. I had been sharing a 4 desk structure thingy with three other people. It’s one of those things with a cubbyhole structure as a divider between the desks. I had moved my computer and other stuff into my office (Walls!) and the others had cleared off their desks.

Next we had to disassemble the structure to move it into the other room. Someone who had been there when it was originally assembled knew just where the special alan wrench that had come with it was. He went to get it and of course it was nowhere to be found.

We all began examining the structure and each of us bemoaned the fact that we hadn’t brought to work the wonderful big toolbox we had at home. I found a pair of pliers in my car trunk and each of us went through the ordeal of lying on the floor on our back under the desk trying to turn the special socket head screws with the pliers. To no avail, of course.

Finally someone had the dandy idea to call down the street to the maintenance department of our parent company and ask if they could bring up a toolbox. We had the receptionist call, but there was no answer. We all said try again in a couple of minutes. She did so, and still no answer.

Okay, no problem. A couple of the guys walked up the street to get it themselves.

I went somewhere for a few minutes (I think to the john, but whatever). When I got back the receptionist was talking on the phone saying stuff like “bullshit, you ain’t fooling me” and the others were standing around her desk laughing.

I asked what was going on. I was told that… we’ll call him Joe… was calling on his cell claiming that they couldn’t get the toolkit because the FBI was raiding the office and no way were they going near it.

So I said something like “Why would they be raiding us? Anyway, if they were they’d raid all of the offices at once so as not to tip anybody off, and they’re not here”.

The receptionist said that he was insisting that it was the truth. She got off the phone with him and tried to call the main number down the street but there was no answer.

When the two guys got back (with no toolkit) they seemed deadly serious, and badly shaken. Apparently there really was something going on.

Our parent company is Life’s Good Inc.

Local businessman focus of FBI raids

They were raided on Tuesday because of an alleged ponzi scheme by the owner of the company. They were only interested in the main company and a few financial services subsidiaries (which was not us) so we weren’t raided. Which was a damned good thing. Imagine the FBI bursting into the building and discovering us disassembling desks and computer equipment. :eek:

So our little subsidiary company isn’t really in any legal trouble but now all of the money is frozen and there’s no way to pay us or fund our operations, so I’m looking over the want ads once again. :frowning:

So, I’m assuming you never got that desk apart?

Sorry to hear that, davidm. I’ve left more than one job due to circumstances beyond my control - it sucks. Best of luck finding something good quickly.

Not to be confused withLife is Good, right?

Too bad the boss is a crook. I hate it when that happens.

Actually we did.

When it seemed apparent that they weren’t coming to our office we figured that we should continue with our day. There was not yet any online news about what had happened, the FBI had apparently finished up, and they had sent everyone at the other offices home. We didn’t realize the impact on us at that point.

One of us went out and bought a set of allen wrenches and we got it apart and moved and reassembled it.

Eventually our boss (who was home with a new baby) called and told us to all go home and wait to hear.

As it stands now they owe us all two weeks of pay, which we should have gotten today but didn’t. The lawyers are trying to work that out.

I’m pretty sure that everyone is going to be looking for work but, in the meantime, as a group, we’re planning to work together and bid on some big jobs on places like elance and see if we can make a go of it.

(We did web development and marketing. If you know of anyone who has work for a talented bunch of web developers, videographers, flash designers, marketing researchers, etc. I’d love to hear about it.)

Right. Different and completely unrelated company.

Just to be clear. It wasn’t my immediate boss, who is a great guy. It was THE big guy at the parent company, who allegedly did some wrong things.

Thank you.

Get out while you can, then savor that feeling of “My old boss is in jail but I’m in the clear.”

(I realize your immediate boss is OK, but his boss…perhaps not so much.)

As a side note, don’t hire me to do freelance tech work. About half of the places I’ve done side work for have been shut down with the owners either indicted or jailed. :eek:

I’ve worked for a company that was raided by the FBI for insurance fraud. For over 2 years we bled ourselves dry financially (attorney fees) and lost over half of our customers due to the bad press. We had over 50% of our employees go in front of an adversarial grand jury, some of them coming away in tears, even though they had no idea what was going on. Turns out my boss had in fact committed fraud through one of his ancillary companies some 5 years prior and a disgruntled employee ratted him out. The collateral damage was staggering. Based on my experience, I have to agree with gotpasswords - get out if you can.

Here’s an article from yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer about the raid, etc. I’m not sure how long the link will work.

::reads post::
::checks poster’s username::
::reads post again::

I thiiiiiink I might see your problem.

On the bright side, at your next job interview when they ask “Why did you leave your last job?” you can give them a memorable answer!

On a serious note, that really sucks. I hope you find another job quickly.

**Cordelia: "**Everything has been taken away because Daddy made a little mistake on his taxes… for the last twelve years. "

Weren’t you suspicious when your 401K went up by 1,250% in the first 60 days after you signed up?

Wow. davidm, I’ll be praying and wishing you a speedy great new job. You made my current job troubles seem miniscule in comparison.