'He is shocked... he finally realized that his actions have consequences': Magazine boss loses trust in employees, tries to force them into signing sketchy contracts

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jul 18, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

This person went from enjoying their job to being baffled at their boss's decision-making in just a short time. 

It seems like u/aqualink97 had a weird experience working for this boss. They started the job at a youth center. But after starting the job, their boss enlisted them to make videos and graphic designs. The boss then decided to create a separate magazine which fell under the youth center's purview. Over time, it started becoming clear that the boss was intending to fully focus on the magazine business, and he wanted all of his employees to do that, too.

Turns out that the boss's dreams were a bit short-sighted. This person shared their story of malicious compliance: they were being strong-armed into signing a contract that would've made their employment worse. It's incredibly shady of their boss to try to swindle them into basically taking a pay cut! He thought he was being subtle and clever, but unfortunately for him, his employees realized what he was doing. Nice try, but his magazine dreams are over. 

Next up, read about the people who realized they aren't dating the brightest bulbs, like the person whose partner told them that their homegrown plant "was not 'food grade'".

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10375422464
    via Leon Seibert on Unsplash
  • 02
    Boss presents a contract and says I can quit if I don't want to sign... so I do.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 03
    I used to work for a local youth centre (kindof). I wont name. them. The story goes like this: The man who ran the centre knew a friend of my family, who told him I was going to college for graphic design and video.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 04
    He calls me and lets me know that under the umbrella of the youth centre he wanted to revive an old local magazine, and wanted it to be run by youth (I was 18). He said that as well as a physical magazine, there was going to be a video component that would go on youtube and the website and that I would be a great fit for the team to help with this. He also said that they would assist in getting all participating youth started towards their own business.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 05
    I was thinking "wow, I'll have a job right out of college this is great". I was promised on the job training, an eventual pay increase to $18/hr, and a lot of other stuff. I started at $14/hr. I won't go into every detail, but basically I was told that I was to write articles for the magazine as well, as all employees would do this. No problem.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 06
    Slowly but surely we built a small team. I recommended a friend rom college, who would eventually become the editor. Let's call her Editor. Another person who would become my friend was hired, and directed/edited a lot of videos | worked on. We'll call him Director. and there was also a sound technician. Named Rapper.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 07
    There were other employees as well, but the four of us were the main magazine crew. The rest helped but mostly worked at the Youth Centre for youth reasons. Now that I've explained that we can get into it. Over the course of my employment a lot of shady things happened.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 08
    The centre claimed that they would help us start our own businesses, and we should get business licences and they would contract us. In reality this was a way for them to avoid paying taxes, and making us do it instead. As well, there were a lot of "make a video about blank orders, but no instructions until the finished video was handed in. We did stories on a lot of cultural topics,
    via u/aqualink97
  • 09
    so this could be really difficult at times. On top of that, the boss was almost never there, so when we had questions we basically had to figure things out ourselves. Despite all of this, I was loyal.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 10
    I worked there for two years, and I'm confident that I was a major reason we were going for a while, because whenever somebody messed something up in video, I was the one they came to to fix it. Sometimes with hours left to deadline. I filmed almost all events we covered, I knew where all of the files were for everything, the passwords, and a lot more. People asked me about all of these things when they forgot. I also managed the YouTube page all by myself.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 11
    But for whatever reason the boss started to trust us less and less. Locks were changed on the doors. so none of our keys worked, Director and I were placed in an office where somebody was constantly watching us, our timecards were argued about, and we were accused of only playing video games while at work (we played our switches at lunch).
    via u/aqualink97
  • 12
    I think he had trust issues because he's a sketchy person. He had the kindof fake being friends with everybody in case you need a favour view on life. Director and I started to be blamed for bad camera framing when we weren't even at the shoot. This got to the point where we were told to take extra training, but Editor, who was mostly responsible for these mistakes was treated like a queen. Even if I complained
    via u/aqualink97
  • 13
    about something Editor had done, nothing would ever come of it. Then comes December 2018. Boss calls a meeting. He tells us all that the magazine will be transitioning into its own business separate from the youth centre. Here, on top of video and writing duties, we will be searching for contracts, and driving to other cities in our province to film. He then proceeds to hand us a contract
    via u/aqualink97
  • 14
    that we're required to sign if we continue to work for him. This contract . There were a lot of things in there that would screw us over, but the main things were that while working for them we wouldn't be allowed to conduct our own contracts, and if we quit, we can't work in our field in any of the whole province for 6 months. On top of that, our job titles would be changed to interns and our pay would stay
    via u/aqualink97
  • 15
    the same even though we were promised $18/hr. Literally all of us were mad about this contract, but whenever we brought up problems, he would say "this in non-negotiable. It's a perfectly normal contract." He also accused me of trying to find loopholes whenever I tried to discuss it.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 16
    I have no idea about contracts, but if you're claiming to start youth up on their own businesses, this is not how you do it. He let us know that to aid with the transfer to a new business he was in talks for a new contract worth a lot of money. But didn't disclose how much. Probably so we wouldn't feel entitled to be paid for mor doing all the work.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 17
    He gave us a week to look at the contract. (After that there would be one week until christmas) I spent all of the week dreading the next monday when I had to make a decision. I begged boss to change it but he stood firm. He even indicated that if we weren't happy with it we might as well quit. (This is important)
    via u/aqualink97
  • 18
    Then, on the Friday evening, I notice that my job is listed on a job board. I'm shocked. I check facebook, the magazine website, and everything. My passwords are removed. I have no login. He is trying to strong arm me into signing.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 19
    Then on Monday my gf and I get breakfast before I go in, when I get a text from Director letting me know he got fired upon walking in to the building. My gears start to turn in my head. If he fired Director, then he's definitely counting on having me to do all of the work still. I know that I won't get fired because I'm the only person capable of making videos properly.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 20
    So instead of going to work, my gf and I type of a letter of resignation, walk over to staples and print it out, and bring it over to work. Before I give it to him he greets me and lets me know that he fired Director.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 21
    The casual way he talks to me about it confirms he expects me to stay. But, he did this to himself by listing my job, and arrogantly stating that we should quit if we didn't like the contract. So I hand him an envelope which has my letter in it. "What's this aqualink97?" "My letter of resignation."
    via u/aqualink97
  • 22
    He is shocked, but accepts. I think in that moment he finally realized that his actions have consequences. Then he walks inside. I say goodbye to everybody, hugs all around, pack up my stuff then find him crying in the sound room.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 23
    I talk to Director later, and he tells me that his mom was connected to boss's "huge paying contract" and that he actually hadn't had the contract yet. Director's mom was really upset, and since they hadn't signed anything yet she pulled some strings and got Director the contract instead. Turns out it was worth something like $60000.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 24
    So basically the boss tried to strong arm us into signing a contract, then lost the only competent employee, and a $60000 contract. Editor and Rapper eventually quit too. Rapper decided to focus on his music career, and is doing pretty well for himself. I worked video contracts for a while until I got a full time job again.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 25
    So, as a result of all of his shittiness, and overall arrogance, boss no longer has enough money to print an actual magazine, is short staffed, constantly going through new employees who always end up quitting, and rarely upload videos. Their videos have titles too, like the title of the camera footage, and rarely have edited thumbnails.
    via u/aqualink97
  • 26
    I think it's safe to say we destroyed his ambition of starting a business exploiting youth talent. Right before Christmas. And just to be clear, even though I had the effects that my quitting would have on him in mind, I also knew that the youth centre was funded separately from us, so we didn't ruin any poor kids lives.
    via u/aqualink97

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