Mercenary Audio fires employee for blogging

the tiny dancer · Post by **the tiny dancer** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 11:33 am

misterock wrote:I am 40. I was an employee for 13 years before I owned my own pad, and coincidentialy, I've currently owned my own expanding pad for 13 years. I am upto 45 employees. the business started with 3, my partners and me.

Being an employee, the less money you get, the less you cared. Employers understand this but are still dicks while at work. They don't fire you because they don't pay you squat. I always hated that, so none of my employees fit this category. Then there are the interns who will work for free and love the work for what it is. This type of employee does not exist in my business, but it does exist in the recording business, I am a perfect example. I was an ADAT rep for a local retailer when they first came out. I worked for jack. I also still believed I had a music career ahead of me.

I am not in the music or recording business, but have spent $50,000+ on gear over the years, recorded many bands and written and performed several hundred songs, studied and used the gear to it's hilt etc... I still play but no longer pursue the career because I live like a rock star anyway.

So I am now the asshole boss who lost his way. Sold his soul and went into a commercial business that he has no passion for, but it pays, and it pays well.

45 employees. Sales $4.5mil Payroll $1.5mil not including beni's at $1mil. We are a manufacturer so tooling, raw materials and shop upkeep cost us $500k. So after everything, 3 guys make $100k each + travel and vehicles. Not a bad way to live.

Sales staff and those close to top brass: This is the worst or best place to be in small business. Face time is big here. The owners may not be there, but they were when they paid their dues, that's how they figured it out. Some employees seem to embrace me and think they are me, they think they know where I am when I'm not around, they think I am living the high life, which in some cases I am, but they think it belongs to them. They don't know where I've been, over 1/2 the time it's work.

The most important messages in this thread ar:

1: It's OK to start your own business
2: Treat your work like your own business and earn WAY more money ( I did this for a few years), bosses LOVE this (or get fired and start your own business like I ultimately did)
3. Be a bouncing bitch, standing down people with checkbooks
4. Not all bosses are so loaded that they can live your dream and their dream simultaneously.
5>>>START YOUR OWN BUSINESS

Sorry, but I think this is pretty inspiring. Far mor fascinating than talking about Radiohead. Or the new Arcade Fire record. Or cheap compressors. Or the Dandy Fuckin' Warhols.

the tiny dancer · Post by **the tiny dancer** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 11:46 am

hiddendriveways wrote:I think misterock feels akin to Fletcher. He gets to be Mr. Big Man and shit all over the little guy. Straight out of the Guitar Center tool-brain playbook.

I think you missed the point. If you read Fletcher's take, it makes sense. If you read Drew's, it's equally articulate and sensible.

Moral: both of them are right, this scenario personifies working for the man, and the only way to really avoid such circumstances is start your business and work for yourself.

I've thought of starting my own business, because I hate formalized authority, and that guy said everything I wanted to hear. It's pretty punk, especially considering all the follower ding-dongs on the TO messageboard. That's not everyone, and I certainly don't mean it that way.

I do like the search function,

kelly

drewbass · Post by **drewbass** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 9:04 am

"because I hate formalized authority,"
you think starting your own business is going to liberate you from formalized authority? you are dealing with banks, lawyers and acountants and the gov't daily. then there is a chance you end up being a regretful, confused has been 40 year old.
there is nothing punk about it, actually, unless your business is a barter system.

misterock:
i'm not sure what flyover state you are from, but 100k is actually not alot of money, and hasn't been for a while. it's a nice starting point. depends on where you came from i guess.
speaking of travel, do a little more and ask some more questions.

not sure what rock stars you are refering to when you say you live like one.

drew

i am monster face · Post by **i am monster face** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:13 am

i'm not sure what flyover state you are from

sigh...

i do miss...large bodies of water...

lancebug · Post by **lancebug** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:15 am

drewbass wrote:then there is a chance you end up being a regretful, confused has been 40 year old.

Hey, I'm a confused regretful 40 year old (39 actually) and I don't even own my own business. Could this be an opportunity for me? $100k is still a fair bit of money in my flyover state, but then again I work in the non-profit sector. Shit, were I grew up $100k is barely even a down payment on a house anymore. I miss having a tan. And spicy food.

ThunderFaceWizardHead · Post by **ThunderFaceWizardHead** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 9:45 pm

lancebug wrote:
drewbass wrote:then there is a chance you end up being a regretful, confused has been 40 year old.
Hey, I'm a confused regretful 40 year old (39 actually) and I don't even own my own business. Could this be an opportunity for me? $100k is still a fair bit of money in my flyover state, but then again I work in the non-profit sector. Shit, were I grew up $100k is barely even a down payment on a house anymore. I miss having a tan. And spicy food.

Maybe it's time to open up that tanning parlor that serves pad thai you've been dreaming about for years.
$100k can be a huge or tiny amount of money depending on where and how you live. I can live like a king off of half that, and by king I mean eating at taco trucks and drinking high life.
I'm still trying to figure out how to be a bouncing bitch. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Oh yeah, what's this thead about again?

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 12:44 am

i am monster face wrote:
i'm not sure what flyover state you are from

sigh...

i do miss...large bodies of water...

i do hate...coasters who feel superior...

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 8:46 am

*struts past dwlb with nose in air*

100k isn't a lot of money? i suppose if you have two houses and 14 kids. i live just fine on less than a third of that.

KilledByAlbany · Post by **KilledByAlbany** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 8:56 am

Listen, if you guys are giving out 100k checks, please direct me to the waiting list. Get at me, we can work out something over Paypal if I can remember my password.

spankenstein · Post by **spankenstein** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 11:33 am

If I ever... ever... complain about a $100k/yr job somebody slap me. Just to put it in perspective the median household income, that's household not person, is $50k. People making $100k a year are going to be in the top 12 - 14% of wage earners in the country.

Jon Nolan · Post by **Jon Nolan** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 12:50 pm

spankenstein wrote:If I ever... ever... complain about a $100k/yr job somebody slap me.

me too man. what i could do if i was pulling 100k a year.....

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 8:53 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:*struts past dwlb with nose in air*

100k isn't a lot of money? i suppose if you have two houses and 14 kids. i live just fine on less than a third of that.

I read in some magazine the other week that $200k is the "new" $100k. Or in other words, the same high/mid-level execs who held $100k as a benchmark ten years ago are now routinely making lots more than that and $200k is now the "you've made it" cutoff point.

i think there's some bizarre notion that engineers in certain circles make more than we do. I was talking to one guy at a downtown post house about changing jobs a couple of years ago and he said, "I don't know if we could steal you away, our highest-paid guy only makes about $125k." And I basically thought, holy shit, what does this dude think I pull down? I'm an in-house engineer, not the damn A room mixer at CRC, fer cry-eye!

the tiny dancer · Post by **the tiny dancer** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:33 am

drewbass wrote:"because I hate formalized authority,"
you think starting your own business is going to liberate you from formalized authority? you are dealing with banks, lawyers and acountants and the gov't daily. then there is a chance you end up being a regretful, confused has been 40 year old.
there is nothing punk about it, actually, unless your business is a barter system.

So, you're an expert on the topic of starting your own business and the nature of all varieties of authority? And yeah, 'formalized authority' sounds ridiculous. I guess I mean "bosses". And I've dealt with plenty of banks, lawyers, and accountants.

Yeah, 100k sounds fine to me. I make half that and feel like a king.

chris harris · Post by **chris harris** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:00 am

this is probably one of the worst threads ever... and, i clicked it and read the whole thing.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:51 am

this thread should have died back in mid-March.

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