In this episode, Danielle and Brandon discuss what happens when a former employee comes back for “more”, and share tips on how to deal with it (from their experiences).
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welcome back to the on business podcast with tons of experience in different
Industries in Canada and the United States Danielle and Brandon give you real talk no-nonsense expert advice
about running and owning successful companies here’s your host Danielle Jenkins and Brandon White
no I’m on I’m on sorry they’ve been quiet for hours and of course one of the builders have to walk by the window and
make them bark so we were just talking about 10 minutes with nothing of course we hit the button and uh they
start barking but how are you never better how about you good I have I
feel great um for those of you listening who are following our fire or our office burning
down story we have finally obtained a new location as of November 1st so
that’s exciting um I have a little bit of a head cold which sucks but the show goes on so I’m
drinking tea and taking drugs and um other than that everything’s
great everything is wonderful well let’s test that and talk about what
we’re talking about today which is when former employees either that left and or
you fired or sometimes you even left on what you
thought was amicable terms come back later or in the termination process
demand more and what to do you you have a very timely situation going on
yeah and I can share get into your story when it comes to
this because I think there are different results and different outcomes for different cases but there’s still tips
that you can be that you can prepare for that you can always have kind of in your back pocket so a little bit of backstory
about my situation here so I had an employee that worked as a subcontractor
um where they were not an official employee for two years almost two years and then I hired them on as a payrolled
employee um for one year so from November
2020 to November 2021 they were on my payroll as a as a direct employee so
when they were a subcontractor there were no guaranteed hours there was no
employee agreement um it was just kind of like whenever she was available she worked for us we just
paid her her money it was up to her to do with what she wanted um but we didn’t have to do any employee
um taxes or anything like that so when we hired her on again she was working weekends because she had another job and
the money was just an extra job for her so it’s part-time hours so when all of
this was going on this was kind of peak covid time and because she was working on weekends she was cleaning a lot of
The Office Buildings that we had contracts with so when covid was peak time that was a time when people
realized that they could work from home so a lot of the offices that we were cleaning at this time that she was
cleaning um they ended their contract with us because they were no longer working out of the office they didn’t need Services
obviously they had to cut back financially so unfortunately it ended there were no guaranteed hours with said
employee at the time again it was just weekends but it was also again not
guaranteed very important things to have in your employee contracts and agreements make sure you get your lawyer
to go through those um so we you know I had a discussion
with said employee and I said you know unfort fortunately these offices have let go of their services due to the
current situation in the world um how do you want to proceed and she was okay with it we moved on everything
was fine we said okay so the employment kind of had a natural death
um there was nothing harsh everybody was still friends everybody got along we
paid her a week pay so in Ontario the
employment standards act says that for every year worked as an employee you get
one week’s pay for termination pay in lieu of
um notice so because everything happened kind of all at once we said you know it will be fair we’ll give you the funds all is good so we gave her a week’s
worth of pay as per the Ontario employment standards Act so a year late well over a year later
now well it was a year ago now I guess so last week um I got an email saying
hi it’s been a year since I’ve worked for you um can I get my holiday or vacation pay
and we obviously responded with will you receive your vacation pay on every paycheck when you worked with us so
you’re not entitled to any more vacation pay and she said well what about termination pay and we said well you received that
already so then she came back saying that she was entitled to two more weeks for the
two years that she was a subcontractor which in my opinion
um or so I thought she wasn’t um but I guess she is so immediately
before starting an issue before starting a fight I contacted our lawyer so one
thing to take from this conversation is again everything is going to have different outcomes however you need to have a relationship with an employee or
an employment lawyer um or a business lawyer of some kind that knows employment standards whether
you’re in U.S or a Canada very important to know so I reached out explained the situation and they helped dissolve the
situation obviously we have to pay out and I’ll get into that however it’s
better than saying something or doing something out of emotion and anger because you feel like punching this
person in the face well that’s how I felt anyways because I did them a favor by putting them as a subcontractor so
they don’t have to pay taxes um or as many taxes which is a benefit of here in Canada I’m not sure what it
is in the States but if you are not an employee you don’t have to pay certain taxes
um so I I helped her out with that I was flexible with her scheduling and all of those things it was an amical separation
I thought that we were on good terms and a year later this is what she pulls so
um I reached out to the lawyer and the lawyer you know explained to me the law
yes but that’s the minimum and then explain to me the common law and based
on precedented facts uh with other cases some people have to pay a month for
every year so basically you never want to give in to 100 of what
this person is asking for and our lawyer was is always very honest with us and
says ultimately when it comes to law 80 of its Common Sense 20 is legal and really we just
need lawyers to concrete those things um but lawyers are going to string you
along especially in employment law you they need to be direct they need to be upfront and they will help you so within
an hour uh my lawyer he’s amazing Amiri um from hummingbird lawyers here in
Toronto um they are great business lawyers so anybody who’s listening and needs a good
firm I would highly recommend reaching out to them so we came up with an answer
to her email and basically we are offering the
minimum which was be which would be the three weeks um for all years that she worked
um because apparently subcontracting still does count as a business relationship so we offered that but with
that one thing to remember is we’re not just going to give the money here we want to make sure that there’s not going
to be any bad mouthing like any kind of slander any kind of reputational Hazards
when it comes to the company and if this person’s coming back a year later asking for money God only knows what else they
could do on social media on the law on web whatever it may be because I can tell you now that person is not going to
say nice things about you um so we did up a uh a release and indemnity agreement
with um the employee and basically to be able to get the funds that she’s asking for
um then she has to sign this and within an hour she did sent it back we cut a check and issue resolved but the release
and indemnity is the most important aspect of this situation
um you definitely want to protect yourself when it comes to things like this because as a small business
you can easily be taken down people may not want to work for you based on what this client or this employee is saying
about you in the community or online so it can cause a whole slew of issues
um and that is really that’s really what happened but it can be so stressful I know when you and I spoke a few days ago
Brandon I was stressed because I’m like how much does this employee think they
know are they going to accept this offer because if they don’t one thing to
always think about too they may not and they may push this and take it to a court take it to trial it’s going to be
expensive and it’s going to be a lot some situations lawyers will be honest
with the employee at the time and say this is not even worth your time or money over the thousand dollars you’re
going to get or whatever it may be so they are going to be honest however some do drag out and they can get costly so
you definitely need to speak with a lawyer that knows your business knows your company knows the ins and outs of
everything maybe they’re the ones that have done up your employee agreements um but that is the biggest thing to
remember and to always be prepared for you don’t need a lawyer or a law firm on
retainer you know for 24 7 you definitely don’t need to do that but definitely have somebody who you’ve
built a relationship with that when there are issues like this you can reach out to them
um even if it costs you a couple hundred dollars it will cost you or it will save you thousands down the line
I don’t understand this person
so I don’t know Canadian law here in the United States in general California’s
a little naughty actually California is an interesting State sometimes it’s really far one way and really far the
other but that person was a contractor for you
on a part-time basis they’re not even full-time in the United States if you
bring on a contracted quote-unquote employee which would be an individual
for over a year you start to get into some gray areas and unless that person
has other businesses or another job which in this case with this person that
you’re talking about they did in the United States if that person only works for you and you’re directing them and
you are doing all this then then most States laws say
that is an employee you have to treat him as an employee because actually if you are self-employed in the United
States as an individual you still pay self-employment tax it and it’s not it’s
self-employment tax but it’s the same tax you and I as business owners pay to the government to have the employee it’s
that when you’re self-employed you have to cover that too so but the advantages of being a
air quotes contractor is that you get to write off a ton of things related to your business
so in this person’s case if they were doing contract work for cleaning
it’s possible that they could write off part of their car they could write off an enormous amount other things that
they can’t as an employee so I don’t understand and maybe this is just
a Canadian thing how that person gets compensated
when they were very clearly a contractor I mean that law so was this person
incorporated or were they an individual they were an individual
um and Canadian laws a lot of people do
have quote subcontractors because the responsibility is off of the
employee we pay a ton of employee taxes when we have an employee we pay a
lot um of taxes to the government remittance tax payroll taxes things like that so a
lot of people want to avoid that and that’s when they do the subcontractor thing or the people get paid cash
because then obviously it avoids all of that um so but it does just to stop you it
actually doesn’t avoid that because if you pay cash
out of your business entity eventually you can’t expense that in
your GNA of your p l as petty cash because it will be too
much which means if you don’t get a receipt at those amounts that you were talking
about it adds up so it’s it’s I’m not saying companies here in United
States also put people as a contractor to quote unquote save taxes because there’s Medicare Social Security workers
comp these things do absolutely add up and I’m trying to remember as we’re
talking should know these stats off the top of my head because I was just talking to Yvette about it the other day
about one of our company’s payroll I think those taxes wind up costing us in the United States in California
in general uh three or four percent and I think that’s the case mostly across all states
the so just to come back to this your case
she works for you or he works for you as a contractor for two years
the fact that the law says that you now have to count those two years
that just screws everything up for any contractor because
right I mean this is the thing Brandon it does and
I’m I consider myself very ethically inclined very morale inclined and so
when this employee was a subcontractor I could have went 100 percent
quiet and just paid this person cash cash out of like my personal account no
record of it no tracking of it whatever if I would have done that there’s no proof of anything
um so when this came down to it I could have said no you didn’t work for me for two years there’s no record of it
I don’t I don’t condone that I’m not recommending that for anybody it causes
more headaches in the long run um it was because we sent her funds from
the company every Friday um like basically as if she had sent us an invoice and we had paid her but she’s
technically should have sent you an invoice she should have she didn’t and so that
was another thing you know and this is kind of off the record for anybody listening this is not legal advice I’m just telling everybody kind of what we
chat about but the lawyer said if we want if the CL if the employee wanted to push this and
push it and push it for an extra two weeks worth of pay which the full three weeks of pay literally is equivalent to
like twelve hundred dollars so for all of this effort for this much money
um the lawyer did say that if we wanted to push it it’s on her she should have claimed
those taxes we did or that income we did our right by sending her the e-transfer
if she does not claim those on her taxes that is on her so if we wanted to be and turned it around we could
have but again I’m ethically in rallying and morally inclined and I also have a
reputation of a company to protect and that is why we sent her the funds
through the account yes it’s still on her technically to claim that money
I don’t know if she did or did not but back to the the situation at hand when
it comes to paying that termination pay the lawyer basically puts it out that in
Ontario um whether you have an agreement or not which pisses me off because I spent
thousands on a perfect employee agreement um to have written up for employees
which really doesn’t mean at the end of the day when it comes to law and uh so the lawyer said to me you know
whether there’s an employment agreement in place or not um it comes down to standard and if
there were funds given in place of service that is a
business relationship that that person is technically entitled to termination pay
you know this is really tricky I mean I don’t want any listeners to
get the idea that we are anti-employees it’s what we’re talking about here today is
as employers how this is gets really complicated and
really expensive and I’m not sure always
that employees understand the expenses because a lot of people
in general in general say oh well the owner is making a bunch
of money and they’re making money off of us and we’re here doing this and all this stuff and you know my immediate
answer is go start your own company if you want to do that and by the way
I’ll support you however it it just adds up and having this huge
burden of this stuff it’s just it just gets crazy and I wonder sometimes I heard the other day a
statistic in the United States that legal fees
were around three percent of GDP which
is a small percentage but actually when you think about that
and the number that GDP is which I’m not going to quote right now because I can’t remember exactly what GDP is in the
United States but it’d be easy to Google and do the math like that’s an extraordinary amount
of legal fees so I really wonder sometimes here who wins um and and why this
perpetuates and I understand inherently that air quotes the government wants to take
care of employees so that people aren’t exploited the problem is is for those of us who
treat their employees well those extreme laws that get made for the
extreme cases come back and hurt People Like Us in you
know great kudos to you you paid paid the three weeks get her to sign the release which I agree with you
the releases in my experience over two decades are the hardest
thing to get signed because and I’m I’m saying that even
that it gives me a little anxiety mainly because it’s so finite
well I mean when they sign that release it is overdone you are asking for so I’m
saying for business owners out there if you feel like oh man this is going to be uncomfortable now sometimes it’s good to
get an attorney involved but I’ll be honest Danielle there’s been times when I think the attorney made it worse
because as soon as you I mean we’re all humans
so as soon as you put the lawyer in front now it just became a
legal thing and he booked their backs up about it Well yeah if you and I would too
if you sent your lawyer and one minute I’m talking to you and the next minute I’m talking to your lawyer I’m gonna be
pissed I mean I’m gonna be pissed because you know if if it got escalated and it
got into this heated battle I’m probably not going to get I still probably gonna get pissed but I’m gonna understand
right if if we’re just doing something amicable
and it happens I think you risk escalated and I think attorneys
you know not everybody’s not good or doesn’t do the right thing but
I think life is about incentives and lawyers aren’t incentivized to cut
the case short I don’t care how you cut this I don’t like
you have to look at economic incentives because in general economic incentives
Drive behaviors yeah it’s true I mean going down this Rabbit Hole here but
because I just wonder but going back to your case so basically well and only
wait sorry oh all I was just going to say was um in regards to people having their
backs up when lawyers are involved so obviously I had my lawyer involved but
not on the front line and that was advice from him I mean everybody knows
me I’m very calm until I’m not calm and stuff like this especially like you said
when I treat my employees extremely well we had a very amicable end of business
relationship I did what I thought was fair um in regards to the situation a year
ago and when that person comes back and starts
saying that I’m lying not being honest and saying not nice things that’s when I get
my back up and that’s when I want to say here’s my lawyer because I’m being very
honest when I say this when I received that first email my before I didn’t even send it but my first initial response
because I do get hot-headed and unfortunately that is something I have to calm myself down on and work on
um but my first initial response was if you don’t like this please reach out to
my lawyer and information here then it was my first response or what I wanted to say but then when I thought about it
for that reason I thought okay this could get really messy and we could maybe resolve this without it getting messy so that’s when I contacted the
lawyer I deleted that email I did not send that email um but when I did respond to this
employee in the email all I said was hi so and so
um I have consulted with my lawyers and they have advised XYZ and that’s how the
conversation went so she knows that there are legal advisors behind but it’s not here
such and such my name is ex-lawyer and now you’re screwed it’s because people
do get their backs up and then they want to go get lawyers and then it gets expensive and then it goes on but look we got it resolved in less than 24 hours
um and so you know there are ways to handle things so people don’t lose their
I agree I’m just as you’re sitting here talking the thing that bothers me
sometimes is that here’s what goes on in a business at least in my mind as as a person runs and
owns companies is or has and does is
basically says okay this person comes in they say they want
three weeks it’s twelve hundred dollars let’s just use that number I don’t know if it’s real or not real it doesn’t matter
I’m gonna get my attorney involved my attorney charges me four or five hundred dollars an hour
what’s the math and here’s the here’s the and this is just me venting because I don’t know
that it resolves anything but it’s just maddening that the math in my
head says pay them because I’m going to pay my lawyer and then I could lose and
now I’ve paid 3x so what happens is is that you wind up
conceding things that you might not otherwise conceded in in your example
I’m not saying you’re not nice you already were nice you you this is a year ago so I don’t even understand where
this thing comes out of left field I feel like this person could have had a conversation over lunch with some friend
who said you know you could get three more weeks of money and and and and and
you’re not past the whatever uh rule uh time that you could make a
claim so maybe you should do that and then you’re in this bind where
that it’s either the lawyer fees or this fees so well and on top of the fees Brandon
the reputation that’s another thing well well sure the reputation but here’s the I just
want to say this because there could be employees listening out there who get the idea like hey we can leverage employers all the time well guess what
you you also may not get a job again yeah or when you’re in a tough spot and you need some
side work or you want part-time work that this person could have come to you after they left and said hey Danielle we
work together for three years it didn’t work out because of the
economy basically right and and hey can I come back well guess what no that
person’s never never ever coming back so what they lost is an
opportunity they’ve lost a referral because there’s not going to be any
reference here and ultimately you know and somebody could say well I don’t care
okay well let’s see how that works out in the in the in the long run so
you know if that person I guess what I struggle with is that person a hundred and ten percent
entitled to that or did they extort you and you know because look employ uh
business owners I make mistakes I you know hey if that was if that’s the
law but this seems like an interpretation of the law that wasn’t
worth going to a lawsuit so I I think you have to be and maybe this comes down to which then
creates another uncomfortable situation which is making sure that you have Ironclad contracts but once you do that
with somebody now you’ve turned into this like negotiation thing that takes
five times as long the last thing I’ll say here on this is the one thing that I’ve learned
is that I won’t in general do unless this person is so exceptional and can
give me a really good I a really good reason why they haven’t Incorporated
I’m not going to do business with an individual they’ve got to have a business
it’s not hard to incorporate and if I can say one thing with that that was the one one person the one time that I ever
did a subcontractor and I the reason for it was I ended up then hiring them as an
employee to prevent issues that I had learned that could come about of
subcontractors and look where we are even a year later two years I guess after hiring that person
um to avoid things like this and this is what comes down from it and yeah I mean there’s just so many things
and we’re definitely not anti-empoise I treat my employees like gold I give them
the world I know I would give them more if I could um you do the same and
you know I a lot of it comes down to like you were saying is what makes sense
whether it’s financially reputationally or if that’s even a word whatever it
could be it really does come down to what’s worth it because yeah you know the twelve hundred dollars of the three
weeks pay we actually gave an additional gracious week so it ended up being four
weeks um to just have the best positive outlook on it
um because the lawyer did advise that really if if this person wanted to push and I can talk about it now that the
documents are signed but if this person really wanted to push I may have to give them three months because the common law
and precedent has had before where a person gets a month for every year so
this person oh sorry go ahead well here’s what you were gonna pay you were for sure gonna pay legal bill with 20
hours invoice so that’s what I say and it’s just extortion yeah it feels it it feels bad
but there’s repercussions on the other side yeah um for sure but for listeners when you
say subcontractors not that you don’t have other subconscious is that you I think do not hire people who aren’t
Incorporated yes exactly so I just refer listeners out there
even and and the culture is now a
a Creator community and people out there really creating miniature companies I
think the internet has labeled them or made them
um I don’t know what they call them I’m trying to remember Danielle but one of
the main words is so they’re basically they’re basically many businesses and
if you’re a mini business the truth of the matter is if you’re out there and I’ve done this
even as a solopreneur you should incorporate yeah for your own protection
because if you this is a whole nother episode if you don’t incorporate your
personal assets are a lot closer to a lawsuit they’re not separate yeah so
I think in that case just for liability standpoint and and here’s the not to go
down that rabbit hole but here’s what people in those positions tell me well
Brandon and I don’t know what it is in Canada I got to pay a yearly fee I got to pay a yearly franchise tax
that is absolutely true you will also have to potentially give away your house if something bad happens
because someone makes a claim against you and and your personal net worth and that’s not worth it not to mention net
net you can write off those expenses as a business expense so yeah you’re paying
them but you’re getting credit quote unquote for it because they’re a business expense so
it’s just one of those things but I I did learn that lesson the laws
in in the United States and in different states can be really strict the one
thing I didn’t understand um as a case around this is in California
there’s been and and the California citizens voted on it which turned it
down which was that Uber drivers would be considered employees and this is very
similar to your case where these people are independent contractors
as it feels like to me individuals who work for Uber and there’s a group
I don’t know what the group is who is advocating for employees out there California is an absolutely absurd state
in many ways I mean just it it borders socialism and sometimes
but the I think and I want to say this like
protecting employees is important but when it goes beyond that because the
very incentive of those organizations Staying Alive is creating issues so they can
raise money to pay themselves to create issues that becomes a problem and that I
mean that’s that’s what goes on that’s what these non-profits do and it’s sad because ultimately I think a lot of
these businesses goal should be to go out of business because you should solve something
and be done with it that’s a whole other topic too like I love it where to donate
your money and my experience with with a foundation and giving money non-profits
for two decades but the I think that
with the Uber case it was turned down but what I don’t understand is
why don’t you just get all Uber drivers to incorporate and if I were an Uber driver I wouldn’t be driving people around in
my car without being Incorporated because if I get into an accident
and something happens that God forbid is really terrible
I mean the legal repercussions of that are crazy and I don’t know the ins and outs of what that contract looks like
but I would bet you if I were an Uber’s case I would pass a lot of that liability onto that person
and you know why not incorporate so that’s really you know I think the lesson
takeaway is don’t if you’re going to hire part-time people either bring them on his employees and
pay him part-time which I would guess even in Canada classifies them different
I mean I can’t imagine part-time employees are entitled to the same benefit of someone who worked 40 hours a
week the employment lawyer law law here in Ontario whether you work six hours a
week or 60 hours a week what happens is you are still entitled to one week’s
worth of pay for every year worked that is the minimum however it is based on
average hours so this person did an average of
um so it ended up being 1200 so it was like 400 worth of hours a week
um and that’s what they were getting paid for their termination pay however if somebody did fifteen hundred dollars
worth of stuff then it would be you know four thousand um that they would get so it just
depends on how many hours worked but they are still entitled to a week’s worth of pay regardless
well at least it’s prorated so well because it couldn’t be it couldn’t
be the same as someone who was full-time otherwise this turns into like you just wouldn’t hire anyone for a time yeah
it’s true so I think that’s fair I think that that’s fair that it’s prorated
in that sense because it protects the employer but you know it’s an unfortunate case I
think you have to I think the answer is to make sure that that person is
incorporated so now it’s a business so now that all these things instantly go away
I mean they do they instantly go away they’re they’re a business you’re you can hire as many business I’ve hire a
ton of businesses that yeah do different things from sales marketing accounting my accountant is a
separate business that I pay a business I don’t pay him as a person
so um I think that that’s really the the thing I will say this that in almost
every company that I have Ron and still do
any in potential employee comes on as a contractor for three months
and yeah and you know that gets gray because in in in
this sort of advice that I guess I’ve dished out or not it’s not advice you should
contact your lawyer it’s my experience but I’ve done that because and I have
some other colleagues who run very large companies who do the same thing mainly to make sure there’s a fit because
when you interview someone and you sit next to across the table like it’s really hard to everybody’s not the
person that they’re going to be once you know someone for 40 hours I’m sorry in
general in general um even people who are genuine to themselves are still on their best
behavior so that that runs a risk but I think in those cases as I think about it
I’ve assumed that risk because I’m already saying yes so it doesn’t necessarily matter it just
eliminates some of the some of the legal uh work but more importantly
we and they know that we’re both trying each other out before we go through
20 hours of paperwork like there’s an expense to bring in an employee on onboarding so yeah yeah I mean it just
there’s there’s a ton of admin work so at least you save that so I’ll say that
and I’ve had similar experiences not a year later with you but where
actually we brought people on they the skills that they
said they had they didn’t have and in one case I’m thinking like we
even test people and they pass the test I don’t know what happened maybe they just got lazy um
or they thought they were going to cruise and and they basically extorted us for for extra pay
even after three months worth of work four months worth of work but in my mind
it was very simple one is I will never hire the person
again they will absolutely lose a reference word gets around you know it’s a big
world but it’s a small world too and it was just going to cost me more with
my attorney yeah and there are cases that I’ve been in Danielle where I’m going to hire my
attorney on principal so that our reputation is that we will not get
taken advantage of right so if you do want to sort of press the press the line
because there’s something out there that says that were we can get pushed around or you
could get this because they’re nice occasionally you’re going to have to put your foot in the ground and and you can’t look at that money as on your
attorney fees and all that sort of stuff and time as importantly as
that case necessarily but zoom out and say what do you want your company’s
reputation to be I think you wanted to be kind caring and all those things but
not being able to get taken advantage of because as soon as that happens
you know it turns into uh people could right they could take advantage of that
so right and and those are all great points to everything that we are chatting about and I mean we could spin
off so many episodes from this I was just making a note here on my phone um about the incorporation about why you
need to be incorporated um and then about the onboarding and hiring those employees too but
ultimately back down to our main topic um you could have the best employees for
years you really could I have amazing employees and unfortunately life happens
to people and desperate times lead to Desperate Measures unfortunately and it
could be a situation like that where yeah like you said they have that year threshold after the end of a tournament
of a unemployment and then they’re going to come back a year later to try and get whatever they can because they can
um and so ultimately I mean it doesn’t even come down to subcontractors or employees or
or individuals and corporations it comes down to the fact that people can and will try anything
um you know we’ve also had situations where we’ve had a contract with a client and it’s went to and it’s gotten
messy due to their part um in in the end of a of a contract termination
um so one thing that I must must say is always have your you need a team of of
your legal people your board you need your advisors you need your employees you need your staff you need all these people it takes a village it really does
and you need to have a relationship with some kind of business lawyer or
employment lawyer somebody who you can refer to when and if or when actually
these things happen um even if it’s just a half an hour conversation with that lawyer to get a
clear um answer on something before you put your foot in your mouth and that is
something that I have taken graciously and I’m very appreciative of appreciative of
um because I can I guess answer abruptly sometimes and I you know I am thankful for my lawyer to
be able to advise on the right things to say uh when something like this can happen so that’s my advice is it can
happen no matter the how great of a boss you are how great of an owner you are how well you treat your employees it can
happen so just get the people on your team that you need and I’m not talking you need a fifty thousand dollar a month
Law Firm like you see in the movies I’m talking get a business lawyer like this situation cost me 470 dollars I had a
one hour Zoom call with my lawyer he helped me with the answer to send back his assistant Drew up the release and
indemnification um or Indemnity uh paperwork and done so
it’s a quick and easy cost to end something like this um and that’s that’s all I’m gonna say
about this situation the only thing I’ll add for listeners and from my experience
to do is to get the release it will be uncomfortable for both parties because
it is very final and legal language is very raw but without that release you
are opening yourself up to a future situation like you had mentioned earlier
when we were talking that this person’s going to do this now what are they going to come back with oh my God Danielle you know I got an infection
that I didn’t tell you about and now you I mean that can happen so it can happen get the release but having been there
and done it and am I am willing to do it it can be really hard
to do and be careful how you also deliver it yeah depending on the
situation not necessarily have your attorney but if you are talking to that person and your attorney is advising you
just tell them hey look there’s a release coming I’ve got to get that for the business we
have got to get that for the business hope you understand if you have any questions let me know yeah and and sort
of be that way so well it’s a good good lesson well and it is a it’s a great lesson because there’s there’s times
prior to having legal people behind me
um where I probably got really lucky that things didn’t escalate
um due to situations that I had no idea about but for anybody listening when we say release an Indemnity paperwork I’m
gonna just add a little bit about that so if anybody has never went through something
like this and has no idea what we’re talking about when I say this a release an Indemnity paperwork basically says
that this is done now you’re going to take these three or four weeks pay you’re signing this
paperwork saying that you cannot come back on the company or Danielle or any
company to do with Danielle um for any more you cannot you know try
anymore you cannot push for any more anything like that and then also to put in there that nothing can be said
negatively defamation no kind of slander or anything about the company in written
oral or anything like that and I mean it’s a lot it’s like a four-page document that even just for this minor
one was done up but they sign it and they cannot come back for any more money they cannot sue you for any more stuff
they cannot try they can’t write on Facebook that you’re the worst ex-thos in the world because you only paid them
four weeks like like whatever like you you know it protects you it protects the company
um from any further Financial or issues to do with your reputation in a
community so it’s very important um when it comes to that
I agree it’s a good lesson if anybody listening out there has some experiences and other advice please write us our all
of our information is in the show notes and description Danielle have a good week you too
