Hell hath no fury like an employee scorned…
I’ve been meaning to put up a post for a while now about how badly an ex-employee can sting your business…even if you have all the standard non-solicitation and confidentiality provisions with the employee in his or her employment contract.
Prime example: Nelson Piquet, Jr., a former Formula 1 race driver. As can be seen here, here and here; Mr. Piquet and his former bosses at Renault F1 agreed last year that Nelson would crash his car deliberately in order to give an advantage during a race to his teammate. The circumstances surrounding Mr. Piquet’s (and his bosses’) acts are not that important other than for illustration…but the point is this: once Nelson was fired from the team, he got back at his former employer by telling all to the Formula 1 governing body. Chaos ensued for his bosses and his employer.
This happens all too often in small businesses…paying employees under the table…installing one licensed software program on many company computers…and other similar activities occur with the open endorsement of those in charge. Then, once a knowledgeable and disgruntled employee leaves the ranks, he or she decides to get back at his former employer by ratting it out to anyone that will listen.
The moral of the story is obvious…although most business owners play this game to some extent or another despite warnings like this.
