When Bad Things Happen to Bad People
Now, you all might think I am a wicked person, and I know this is way wrong, but last night I found myself rejoicing at someone else's misfortune.
I was attending the Bar Mitzvah of the son of two very lovely, salt of the earth people, with whom I used to work. We all worked for a dot.com (I would post a link, but I don't want anyone to go to that site and accidentally boost their page hits), which more or less tanked. But it took all of us down along the way.
The CEO would always pay us late (there's a shock for a dot.com) and by around August of last year, salaries stopped coming at all. If one's monthly salary was, hypothetically, 9,000 NIS, they'd throw you 1500 NIS to keep you quiet and working, and a few weeks later you'd get another couple thousand shekels. By October they weren't even doing that and by November I quit. One might ask, why didn't I quit when the salary stopped coming regularly (as in all of it, on the first of the month)? Well, they basically let you know that if you'd left, you'd never see what was owed to you.
And they made it seem like this was a temporary money crunch. Right.
Eventually I quit, and about a week later we were evicted from our office space, for not paying rent. That day, I, along with 4 other employees, went into the office space and basically looted, taking all the equipment we could carry. I don't mind sharing this, as we later had to tell the court what we pilfered and I proudly told them: 2 Flatscreen monitors (one 19" and one 17"), a computer, a scanner, a digital camera, and lots of bits and bobs.
Meanwhile, we found out the CEO, who had at many points cried big fat crocodile tears about how proud he was to support Israelis and the Israeli economy, had never once paid his taxes. That's right - no income tax, no healthcare tax, no bituach leumi. Despite having taken them from our salaries each month, he had never turned them over to the country. Support the Israeli economy my ass -- he was a drain on it.
We eventually had to file a forced liquidation (we made them declare bankruptcy at OUR expense). Meanwhile we had people in the company who were in such poor financial situations from this whole mess, that they literally could not afford to feed their children. Collections were taken up to feed those that were really off, with donations made by those that could ill afford it.
And all the while, our CEO had been taking all the company's assets out of the country, and had been signing a large deal with Ma'ariv to create the english online version. So please don't visit Maariv International -- you will be supporting people who thieve from the tiny State of Israel.
So there I am, at the Bar Mitzvah of these two people, who got hit particularly hard as they both worked for the company, hence had no money coming in. The husband was forced to take a job in Canada to support his wife and 5 kids, and in fact was leaving from the Bar Mitzvah to get back on a plane to his job. The whole business still makes me angry.
Then, a former co-worker came over and told me that the lying, stealing prick, I mean former CEO, had fallen on the ice back in New York, broken his leg in 6 places (that's right, 6!), the bone was sticking out of the leg, and there was even a possibility of amputation. And my first thought was....
"Yay!"
It might be petty -- and I know I am supposed to turn the other cheek and all that. My former coworker called it "cosmic karma" -- you know, what goes around comes around. I like to think of it as an act of God. All too often in this world we see bad things happen to good people -- I think its about time we see bad things happen to bad people.
I am thinking about sending the CEO a get-well card.
"Dear Elliot. We are so sorry to hear about your pain. We are even sorrier to hear that they are giving you morphine for it. You don't deserve that -- you should have to tough it out without medicine. Hope you get to keep your leg...."
My boyfriend thinks I am an absolutely awful person for rejoicing in my enemy's downfall (literally). I'm not saying it is right --- but it only reinforces my belief in God.
I was attending the Bar Mitzvah of the son of two very lovely, salt of the earth people, with whom I used to work. We all worked for a dot.com (I would post a link, but I don't want anyone to go to that site and accidentally boost their page hits), which more or less tanked. But it took all of us down along the way.
The CEO would always pay us late (there's a shock for a dot.com) and by around August of last year, salaries stopped coming at all. If one's monthly salary was, hypothetically, 9,000 NIS, they'd throw you 1500 NIS to keep you quiet and working, and a few weeks later you'd get another couple thousand shekels. By October they weren't even doing that and by November I quit. One might ask, why didn't I quit when the salary stopped coming regularly (as in all of it, on the first of the month)? Well, they basically let you know that if you'd left, you'd never see what was owed to you.
And they made it seem like this was a temporary money crunch. Right.
Eventually I quit, and about a week later we were evicted from our office space, for not paying rent. That day, I, along with 4 other employees, went into the office space and basically looted, taking all the equipment we could carry. I don't mind sharing this, as we later had to tell the court what we pilfered and I proudly told them: 2 Flatscreen monitors (one 19" and one 17"), a computer, a scanner, a digital camera, and lots of bits and bobs.
Meanwhile, we found out the CEO, who had at many points cried big fat crocodile tears about how proud he was to support Israelis and the Israeli economy, had never once paid his taxes. That's right - no income tax, no healthcare tax, no bituach leumi. Despite having taken them from our salaries each month, he had never turned them over to the country. Support the Israeli economy my ass -- he was a drain on it.
We eventually had to file a forced liquidation (we made them declare bankruptcy at OUR expense). Meanwhile we had people in the company who were in such poor financial situations from this whole mess, that they literally could not afford to feed their children. Collections were taken up to feed those that were really off, with donations made by those that could ill afford it.
And all the while, our CEO had been taking all the company's assets out of the country, and had been signing a large deal with Ma'ariv to create the english online version. So please don't visit Maariv International -- you will be supporting people who thieve from the tiny State of Israel.
So there I am, at the Bar Mitzvah of these two people, who got hit particularly hard as they both worked for the company, hence had no money coming in. The husband was forced to take a job in Canada to support his wife and 5 kids, and in fact was leaving from the Bar Mitzvah to get back on a plane to his job. The whole business still makes me angry.
Then, a former co-worker came over and told me that the lying, stealing prick, I mean former CEO, had fallen on the ice back in New York, broken his leg in 6 places (that's right, 6!), the bone was sticking out of the leg, and there was even a possibility of amputation. And my first thought was....
"Yay!"
It might be petty -- and I know I am supposed to turn the other cheek and all that. My former coworker called it "cosmic karma" -- you know, what goes around comes around. I like to think of it as an act of God. All too often in this world we see bad things happen to good people -- I think its about time we see bad things happen to bad people.
I am thinking about sending the CEO a get-well card.
"Dear Elliot. We are so sorry to hear about your pain. We are even sorrier to hear that they are giving you morphine for it. You don't deserve that -- you should have to tough it out without medicine. Hope you get to keep your leg...."
My boyfriend thinks I am an absolutely awful person for rejoicing in my enemy's downfall (literally). I'm not saying it is right --- but it only reinforces my belief in God.
posted by Noa at 2:44 PM
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