Years ago, a local pizza restaurant named Sweet Tomatoes opened to rave reviews. The owner hired a recent college grad named Josh, and over the new few months, she mentored Josh, introduced him to her business contacts, and shared her plans for expansion.

Josh took the recipes, the business contacts, and even the expansion plans, and started a rival pizza chain. Within a short time he had 21 locations that were doing quite well.

But it all started with a big red flag. How do you think the story goes?

The restaurant began hiring illegal immigrants from the small town of Marilac in Brazil. These employees worked up to 80 hours a week, while the restaurant violated minimum wage laws and failed to pay overtime. Employees risked deportation if they spoke out. In less than a two year period, the owners failed to pay employees $425,000 in wages.

When the owners were ordered to pay these wages, they devised a scheme to recoup the money by slashing wages, resulting in a class-action lawsuit and a follow-up labor investigation.

Meanwhile, Josh bought himself a yacht, a vacation home, and a small airplane, allegedly purchased illegally with company funds.

The company eventually went bankrupt and last year its locations were sold at auction (though the original owner, with the help of some financiers, was able to buy back four locations).

When you see huge red flags, tread very carefully.

Along the same lines, when somebody starts cheating on their significant other to be with you, don't be surprised when they cheat on you to be with someone else. You're not special. You won't get special treatment.

Now I want pizza.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/12/05/a_driven_...

I will never forget the morning I walked by the Waltham Upper Crust location on my way to the commuter rail and watched as workers stripped the place clean. It felt like a victory for everyone who has ever been screwed by an employer and I couldn't help but linger even as I could hear the bells in the distance signaling the inbound train arriving at the station.

Exactly what I was thinking. Once you see significantly unethical behavior, sirens should go off in your head. Get the hell out of there.

I wish I could upvote this more than once: As soon as you see the first signs of unethical behaviour, get the hell out of there. You'll thank yourself later.

> I should have smelled a rat, but at age 20 I didn't even know rats could smell.

Trying to take some of your customers with you when you leave is ... often a grey area.

If they genuinely have more faith in you than in your former employer sans you, then it seems much harder to criticise. The problem, I think, is that anybody in that situation rationalises their point of view to that being true, even if it isn't.

I don't have a good answer here, other than "I don't intend to ever end up in a situation where I have to make a personal choice about it, because generally I don't consider even grey areas worth while."

Yes, it's not really "stealing" customers, it's a more nuanced thing and depends on how it was done, that's why I didn't mention it.

And of course the customer has a choice, he's not forced to go to the new company.

Everybody always thinks they're a special case. "Oh sure, he lied to THEM, but he'd NEVER lie to ME!"

That's why one of my lessons is "Expect the best of everyone, but always believe the evidence."

http://unicornfree.com/2011/lessons-learned-from-16-years-of...