You just need to be smart and figure out a way to exploit others. That's how these ancap startup founder people think. They believe in a primitive, strength based societal hierachy. They are empathy-less assholes who strive to become the biggest asshole in the jungle.

[–] quetzaldilla@lemmy.world 50 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Lol, I worked for one these assholes once. He bought the small public accounting firm I started my career at.

He loved to go on and on about "business is a warzone, you must be ruthless" bullshit, liked to make it really hard to get any PTO approved or obtain new hires.

Before he came along, I had built an entire database for that business even though my job role did not require it, simply because I got tired of doing things the stupid way and the previous owner made it worth my while.

One day, the asshole new owner pissed me off when I asked for time off to go camping and denied it citing business first, so I simply resigned on the spot and took off to the mountains. He was like "you can't fault me for putting the business first" and I was like "whatevs, I'm putting myself first".

Stupid motherfucker called me all week, dozens of times each day, because nobody but me knew how the fuck you build and maintain a database.

My coworkers, who are still my friends to this very day ten years later because they are awesome, regaled me with tales of the clusterfuck that ensued after my departure. Turns out, it's really hard to find someone with an accounting and a computer science degree.

I still cackle to this day.

[–] Zwiebel@feddit.org 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Post worthy, satisfying revenge. Flesh it out with some of those clusterfuck stories pls :D

[–] quetzaldilla@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It's nuanced due to the nature of the work, so the gravity of the situation would only really stand out to those in the public accounting industry.

For example, we provided payroll services for dozens of construction companies in the area receiving federal grant money, and that payroll could not be completed in time without me.

Before I created the database, client contacts, client billing, project status, and client login credentials to reporting portals & financial institutions were being tracked in an unsecured Excel spreadsheet (as is tradition). I built a database in MS Access and it was pretty straightforward. The owner ended up hiring his nephew who was studying CS, but since he didn't have much experience or an accounting background, he was of little help.

There was further worsening as my colleagues started leaving for other opportunities, whom he replaced with questionable people until the firm was sold about a year or two later.

We used to refer to him as detestable Michael Scott, as he was always blundering and blaming others for problems he caused.

[–] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

And herein lies the core of the issue of "business is a warzone/you need to be ruthless/social darwinism shit"

It's in the business' best interest to treat their employees well

If you have no allies, who are you left with?

[–] nyamlae@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Iconic.