Overworked startup employee gets ghosted by boss for weeks and then suddenly fired and blamed for the business's failures: 'They're using you as a scapegoat'

Startup culture isn't exactly for the faint of heart. Most folks who have started out in that world know all too well that when you make the commitment to work at a startup, you're already taking a risk. You are agreeing to spend far too many hours a week working and potentially taking on responsibilities that should, in theory, be shared by an entire team of people. What you are also agreeing to is the strong possibility that the business is going to run out of funding and that it will fail to get off the ground.

It's a common reality that everyone who works in that small universe is likely to experience the effects of, at least tangentially, at some point in their professional careers. Unfortunately for this author, who joined his startup toward the very beginning of the business's gestation period as the company's third employee, he was also dealing with a flaky and manipulative CEO on top of all those other risks.

Essentially, once the business started to be in jeopardy, the employee's boss disappeared and ghosted him for weeks on end. Clearly, that's not the type of leadership strategy that boosts morale or inspires confidence. When he resurfaced, the inevitable happened, although the CEO tried to frame the business's failures as a result of the author's actions.

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_{The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.}
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The way in which the CEO handled the downfall of his own startup just goes to show that a lot of people think they want to start a business but completely lack the leadership skills to be able to sustain one. If this dude wants to lead a company again in his career, he needs to take away some key lessons from this experience. One of these significant takeaways should be about the importance of assuming responsibility. After all, wouldn't you want your employees to do the same?
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"I got FIRED - They asked me to give my 100% at the end"

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_{The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.}
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