Dexter had redesigned his website to provide answers to pressing problems faced by employees. He stated unequivocally that people who followed his advice were likely to get fired. He had that statement in large letters across the top of each page. He also mentioned that many of those who were fired would have legal recourse against the companies that fired them.
His first article dealt with how companies were floating millions of dollars worth of loans on the backs of their employees. Not only were employees loaning money to the company, but they were paying interest on that money at credit card rates. That was often a substantial amount, particularly for individuals who traveled frequently.
He used his own history as an example. He described how he had effectively loaned ten thousand dollars to his old company, to pay for two overseas trips to India. It had taken the company two months to reimburse him. He'd had to pay interest on that ten thousand dollars, for both months. With continuing monthly travel, he was always carrying a balance on his credit card. The credit card company put his payment against new charges while continuing to charge interest on the balance.
Dexter's advice was to first request, in writing, a corporate credit card for use on business travel. If the company refused, then the employee should arrange for a new credit card with a zero balance. They should use that credit card for business expenses only. When interest was charged on that credit card, the employee should submit an expense voucher for the amount of the interest using the bill from the credit card company as proof of charges. If the company refused to pay the interest, then the employee should take the company to small claims court. They should do that every month if necessary.
That first article generated a ton of email arguing that his scheme wouldn't work. After several rounds of emails with some of the more vocal folks, Dexter updated the article with the email exchanges. He had to edit some of the nasty language out of the emails, but he tried to be fair.
His second article dealt with companies requiring employees to have cell phones and data plans, without reimbursing them for the costs of carrying the plan under their own name. He suggested submitting expense vouchers on a monthly basis. If the company refused to pay the vouchers, then he recommended changing telephone numbers and turning off data plans until the company agreed to pay the charges. The company either paid for it or the employee didn't have it. It was that simple.
This article generated even more emails than the first. Mostly it was about how people wouldn't be able to do their jobs and would get fired because of that. Dexter replied to the emails patiently. He argued that companies reimbursed you when you used your private automobile on company business. Asking for reimbursement of cellular plans was no different.
It was also about this time that Dexter started receiving emails from corporate lawyers suggesting that he cease and desist his website. He posted those emails. Dexter moved his website to Canada just in case they wanted to sue him. He figured that they'd have to take it up in the Canadian courts first. He didn't realize that his vulnerability was based on where the company was based rather than where the servers were located.
By this time, his website was getting lots of attention. The automated advertising link service had started including links to law offices dealing in discrimination and workplace lawsuits. Those links were getting lots of hits.
The third article dealt with travel. He titled that article 'Traveling on Company Time.' He argued that since people were making their own travel arrangements using online travel services, that there was no reason for them to book flights that were inconvenient to them. They could fly out Monday morning just as easily as Sunday with the advantage that they would have one more afternoon and night with their family. If the meeting they were attending ended late in the afternoon, then they should fly back the next day. There was no need to take a flight that got them home at midnight or later with the expectation that they would tiredly drag into work early the next morning.
He pointed out that a three hour flight, often took six hours of travel time. He had a table that showed the time spent from leaving the house to arriving at the destination. It took into account the trip to the airport, time spent going through security, the flight, renting a car, driving to the hotel, and checking into a hotel. A round trip was basically twelve hours of uncompensated time that the employee was donating to the company. It was even longer if there was a connection in the middle of the flight.
He admitted in that article that there was no legal basis to force the company to accept those kind of travel arrangements. Of course, most companies didn't have a specific policy requiring employees to travel on their own time. Until a company wrote such a policy, they couldn't force employees to travel outside of work hours. If they did, the policy could be tested in court. He admitted that he wasn't a lawyer and might be completely wrong.
Dexter received a ton of email about how companies required people to find the lowest fares possible and those were usually outside of work hours. Dexter freely admitted it, but suggested they find the lowest fares during work hours.
About this time, Dexter started getting emails from folks who had gotten fired for following his advice. Although he felt bad he wasn't apologetic. He posted their emails on the website along with a second reminder that following his advice could end up costing someone their job. He was being honest and wasn't going to hide that bad things happened.
He then got deluged with emails accusing him of taking pleasure in the misery that he was causing others. Without apologizing, he added those emails on the website. He wanted the reader to know that he was getting criticized for his words and that it was up to them to decide how they were going to act.
Dexter added a new page to his website that he called the 'Hall of Shame.' Here he posted all of the letters from companies telling him to stop his posts. He thought it was rather ironic that the advertising system added advertising links to those companies on that web page. His readers must have found it ironic as well since the number of hits on those links went through the roof.
Traffic on his website had increased to the point where he had to increase the service contract with the hosting company. The advertising revenue more than covered the added cost.
At this point in time, Dexter wrote a little editorial on the front page of his website. He stated that he wasn't out to break companies. His goal was to get companies to pay their employees for the time and money employees were unwillingly donating to the company. He argued that for many employees that this would represent a raise of several thousand dollars a year, particularly since it was costing employees post-tax dollars. After all, a hundred post-tax dollars, was a hundred and thirty-eight pre-tax dollars.
He stated that the extra time with family was priceless. A person who traveled twice a month for a company could get twenty-four extra days a year to spend with his or her family. That might not have sounded like much, but it was more than the amount of vacation time an employee typically had.
That editorial seemed to launch his website into the big-time. The number of hits rose dramatically. It made the national news. Then the news reported that this was the same Dexter who had been in the viral video that had been so popular, just six months previously. It was then learned that the company had settled a lawsuit with him under terms that remained sealed. Details of his second lawsuit were leaked, and that made the news ... big time.
It was a week after the editorial had been posted when his lawyer called.
Dexter answered, the phone, "Hello, Mark. What's up?"
"The company wants to settle for twenty million," Mark explained.
"And?" Dexter asked hearing that there was a condition on it.
"They want you to shut down the website," Mark said.
"No," Dexter said.
"It's twenty million dollars," Mark said.
Dexter said, "It will cost them a hundred million for me to shut down that website."
"You can't be serious," Mark said.
Dexter said, "I'm generating fifty thousand a month with that website."
"We've still got the class action suit," Mark said.
"How's that going?" Dexter asked.
"Not so good," Mark answered.
"Why?"
Mark said, "We can't show that any current employee had their careers hurt. Other employees who left and found jobs can't complain that it hurt their careers."
"Shit."
"I agree," Mark said. "Of course, I'm still going to pursue it."
Dexter said, "I have a couple of memos that might be of some help for the class action suit."
"Get them to me," Mark said. "In the mean time, I'll continue pressuring them on your lawsuit."
Dexter said, "Hold out for more money, and I'm not shutting down the website."
"I'll do that. You can't drag this out too long," Mark said.
Dexter asked, "What would happen if I put my legal battles on the website?"
"You'd blow it all," Mark said.
"Okay. I won't do that," Dexter said.
Mark said, "I'll be talking with you later."
"Good to hear from you," Dexter said.
Dexter had just hung up the phone when another call came through. He looked at the caller id surprised at the identity of his caller.
"Hello, Eric. How goes it?" he answered.
Eric said, "Hey, Dexter, it looks like you made the news again."
"Yes, I did," Dexter replied.
"Have I got a funny story for you," Eric said.
Expecting to get material for a future article, Dexter said, "I want to hear it."
Eric said, "You know I took that new job after you were fired."
"You told me about that. How's that working out?" Dexter asked.
"Well, I put into place that program with office engineers that you trialed. I got exactly the same results as you did. My people produced more in less time. They even got to go home evenings at closing time," Eric said.
"That's great," Dexter said.
Eric said, "It sure was, until my bosses learned about what I did. Let me just put it this way ... they were not happy. We had a big assed meeting, with everyone from my boss all of the way up to the vice-president involved. They were looking to fire me."
"So what happened?" Dexter asked.
"I laid out everything. I showed how the number of defects went down, how the system availability went up, and how more functionality was being added in less time. I even had two surveys which showed that employee job satisfaction rose significantly because of the changes," Eric said.
Dexter asked, "Then what?"
"They fired me," Eric said with a laugh. "They said that I had re-organized without getting the Human Resources Department to approve the new job responsibilities."
"Oh, sorry about that," Dexter said.
Eric said, "That's not the funny part. After I was fired, one of the assholes asked me where I got the idea that I could get away with doing that. I answered that I got it from Dexter."
"Oh, my," Dexter said imagining the reactions Eric got from the executives.
"The room went dead quiet. Half of their faces turned white from fright. Half of their faces turned red in anger. Finally, one of them asked me which Dexter I was talking about," Eric said.
"I'm sure they were happy to learn it was me," Dexter said with a chuckle.
Eric said, "Oh, yes. You'd have thought I had shit in their cereal bowl. I was immediately escorted out of the building."
"I take it you are on your way to a lawyer," Dexter said.
"Can you put me in touch with your lawyer?" Eric asked.
"I sure can," Dexter said thinking that Mark was going to owe him one for the referral. "Do you happen to have the data about the impact that your changes made?"
"You bet," Eric said.
"Do you need a job?" Dexter asked.
"Sure," Eric answered.
"You're hired. After you stop by the lawyer's place, why don't you come over to my apartment. We'll add your data to mine and publish another page on my website," Dexter said.
"I'll be happy do that," Eric said.
Dexter said, "I'll text you my address and the contact information for the lawyer. Just let him know that I sent you to him. He's a little irritated that I just turned down twenty million. I figure this might cheer him up a little."
"You turned down twenty million? Are you crazy?" Eric asked.
"They wanted me to shut down the website," Dexter answered.
"I hope you asked for a hundred million," Eric said.
Dexter laughed and replied, "That's exactly what I asked for."
"To tell the truth, I wouldn't be surprised if they accepted that offer," Eric said.
"Why?" Dexter asked surprised by the Eric's comment.
Eric said, "There are a lot of companies that would love to see you shut down that website. You're costing some big companies a lot of money. I'm sure they'd chip in a million or two each, to see your site get closed down."
"I didn't think of that," Dexter said.
Eric said, "I heard that a rather large aircraft manufacturing company got hit with almost a thousand small claims court cases for interest owed employees."
"I know all about that. It's true. Someone down there organized everyone in one of the work sites," Dexter said. "The company sent out a couple of big corporate lawyer types. They are losing case after case. Everyone shows up with the exactly same documentation, and they keep winning. It appears the judge in that district isn't cooperating with the company."
"You are not very popular with the corporate crowd right now," Eric said.
Dexter said, "I haven't started yet."
Eric said, "I'm going to enjoy working with you."
Edited By TeNderLoin