Chapter 14: Popularity

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 expenses and interest were charged on that credit card, the employee should submit an expense voucher for both the amount of the expenses, and the interest, using the bill from the credit card company as proof of charges. If the company refuses 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 wrote that 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.