You claimed to know at least an approximation of their salary with decades of experience, which was not much more than yours was, at minimum wage + $0.50. That’s ridiculous if true. Even if they only had 11 actual years of web experience + the other years in other related design pre-internet.

Yes, well sometimes coworkers talk. Salary numbers may have been mentioned but I can’t remember. What I do remember is that they had another job at the time teaching web design, that they relied on medical insurance when they had an accident only to discover that the company had not been paying their insurance premium. It was around that time that I was terminated, so I didn’t keep in touch with them much after that. Suffice it to say, this company didn’t have enough money to meet payroll each month and it meant one employee would have a bounced paycheck - whomever got to the bank to cash it last.

Yes, it was ridiculous and true. Jobs in this town were slim for this talent and by and large, no companies at that time were hiring for remote work, despite it being technically possible as we were all working on the web itself.

You keep changing your history and points to fit your narrative. I understand anonymizing things but you’re making specific claims then saying you don’t know when called out.

I really don’t though. I’ve been very consistent throughout this conversation. I find it funny that you think you’ve “got me” when I’ve literally experienced this myself. I could prove all of this to you but it would cost me my and their anominimty and this convo isn’t worth it just to prove to you that YES, sometimes people (even professionals with lots of experience) end up in shitty situations.

I’m really surprised you need a conversation this detailed and need to backcheck every detail of my story just to understand that point.

But by all means, continue to do so if you really care. Just know that things aren’t going to match up 100% due to trying to recall things from memory of 23-24 or so years ago. Things which aren’t really needed as the story of people making a little bit of money in their first job and then going on to make more money in other jobs is a story that I don’t really think needs to be explained in vivid detail.