Bad With Money 2018: When I die, bury me in the blockchain.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Bad With Money 2018: When I die, bury me in the blockchain.

«‹›676 »

Chin Strap: Nov 24, 2002; I failed my TFLC Toxx, but I no longer need a double chin strap; Pillbug

BWM, losing a 6 figure job by being a sleazebag:

Thread:

quote:

I'm the director of operations at my company. Moments ago, I was told by my boss, in confidence, to prepare to be officially accused and made aware of a sexual harassment investigation on me. This is from an incident that occurred in June.

I need to know what steps I need to take to protect myself.

Here's what happened:

In June, the company was attending a conference and bought hotel rooms for everyone. At the hotel pool I chatted up with a female guest. I was getting pretty drunk and she brought up her husband. I asked "oh you're married?" And she said yes and that she has three kids. I told her that with a body like hers, I'm surprised she doesn't have 10 because I sure would give her 10 and I laughed. She smiled and sometime later she got out of the pool and I said "my oh my, your husband is a lucky man."

I didn't see her again and I got the vibe that she felt uncomfortable. I was a little drunk and would not have said any of that while being sober.

Apparently she found out the name of my company and complained to the hotel who then joined her in complaining to my company. We are also banned from the hotel for life.

I would like to know how I can get out of this with no blood on my hands. I make $125, 000 a year and cannot afford to lose my job and career. It was everything for me to get this position. I also have a family. My wife cannot know about this.

My boss (VP of operations) is a bit paranoid because I notified him 2 days after the incident and because I'm the best director he has ever had and I perform exceptionally well, he decided to sweep this under the rug and pretty much ignore it. I would never throw him under the bus so I will not mention that I told him.

So far all I know is that there has been a sexual harassment complaint on me and an investigation has opened up. I will be speaking with the investigator (forgot his official title), and subsequently the HR manager and VP. I'm nervous about it. he's a former law enforcement detective and from what I've heard he is a pretty tough guy. He has a very aggressive interviewing approach and does not play games. He will try to get me to crack.

My boss told me that he was advised that a suspension may be imminent and to possibly prepare to seek a replacement. This means I might get terminated. I would like to know what type of proof there may be against me. This incident happened 3 months ago.

I get off work in 3 hours and I cannot focus. This is devastating.

please provide, in vivid detail, the steps that I need to take starting right now.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:01

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 22, 2024 22:12

CornHolio: May 20, 2001; Toilet Rascal

Can that be harassment? Sleazy yes, but I thought for something to be harassment he had to be told to stop, and then continue anyway.

Granted there is likely a lot more here than he's telling.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:09

Krispy Wafer: Jul 26, 2002; I shouted out "Free the exposed 67"
But they stood on my hair and told me I was fat; Grimey Drawer

There's so much that's not being told in that story.

You don't get a whole company banned from a hotel for a couple of crude remarks.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:09

Vox Nihili: May 28, 2008

Krispy Wafer posted:

There's so much that's not being told in that story.

You don't get a whole company banned from a hotel for a couple of crude remarks.

Basically this. The hotel would generally go out of its way to keep a big corporate customer. This guy must be an incredible piece of poo poo to get his whole company banned.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:18

Something Offal: Jan 12, 2018; by FactsAreUseless

That or it's again a very strange fake story. The way the guy has been answering questions has honestly been weird and not what I would expect from a person in his position and in his situation. Weird wording and strange attitude. "I cannot lose this $125k job"

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:19

Xenocides: Jan 14, 2008; This world looks very scary....

Some of the comments are gold:

quote:

The fact that ANY company would fire someone over allegations that have NOTHING to do with the company, its employees or the performance of the accused, is ludicrous. I make $125k a year as a DIRECTOR. I can't lose this position and salary nor my marriage.

To quote Spock from Star Trek VI:

What you want is irrelevant, what you have chosen is at hand.

You are apparently deadest on thinking more bad decisions will get you out of this predicament when literally everybody has told this this is not the case. You are looking for validation for a decision you've already made, not advice on one you're considering.

They can�t do this? Do you know who I am?

quote:

I know everything. If I get fired I promise I will take them down with me.

I should be given the benefit of the doubt.

Yes, offering to turn state�s evidence over a sexual harassment claim......

quote:

My wife can�t know about this

She ~~should~~ will.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:19

KYOON GRIFFEY JR: Apr 12, 2010; Runner-up, TRP Sack Race 2021/22

i like the nincompoop that thinks Director of Operations is some big deal title

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:25

potatoducks: Jan 26, 2006

Sets off bullshit alarms all over the place. I'm not sure what people get out of posting fake stories, but they do.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:25

GoGoGadgetChris: Mar 18, 2010; i powder a
granite monument
in a soundless flash

showering the grass
with molten drops of
its gold inlay

sending smoking
chips of stone
skipping into the fog

potatoducks posted:

Sets off bullshit alarms all over the place. I'm not sure what people get out of posting fake stories, but they do.

He's mad at women for perceived slights, and so he fabricated this story to get more people mad at women

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:26

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

potatoducks posted:

Sets off bullshit alarms all over the place. I'm not sure what people get out of posting fake stories, but they do.

Reddit really likes to post fake stories, or true stories where they leave out 99% of what they actually did, that are basically "I made a bad joke, but now I have a sexual harassment/rape charge from this woman!"

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:27

Xenocides: Jan 14, 2008; This world looks very scary....

I suspect some of it is true and he actually thought he would come out looking like the good guy with his heavily edited story.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:28

Vox Nihili: May 28, 2008

potatoducks posted:

Sets off bullshit alarms all over the place. I'm not sure what people get out of posting fake stories, but they do.

The fake story wroters usually work in more semi-intelligent and flowery prose, but who knows.

Stupid poo poo like this happens all the time.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:31

FateFree: Nov 14, 2003

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

Not in 99.9% of cases. Unless you count fraud.

There are some situations where it has happened. The New York Times had an article about it.

It basically boiled down to people donating things of intangible value (in the NYT story, the woman donated art that was rare, but had little to no commercial value. It could have gone for a lot of money in the right circumstances, but it was essentially impossible to sell for that assessed value) by using a plausible assessed value and double-dipping on some charity tax credit that New York had at the time.

Well it's certainly not that because she set up an automatic cash withdrawal every quarter to a charity on the advice of her CPA. Wouldn't be surprised if it went directly into his bank account! But she didn't want to hear anything about it from me so oh well.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:32

Krispy Wafer: Jul 26, 2002; I shouted out "Free the exposed 67"
But they stood on my hair and told me I was fat; Grimey Drawer

Maybe the woman walked away and was then independently harassed by every other executive at this really terrible company with a shitload of skeletons in its closet. All the Les Moonvies Lites decided to pin it all on the first guy to save their skins.

It makes as much sense as anything else. Or it's fake.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:39

Colin Mockery: Jun 24, 2007; Rawr

FateFree posted:

So my question is, is it ever possible to donate money to charity (that you would NOT be donating otherwise), specifically to gain more money back from taxes? The obvious answer sounds like no, but who knows what loop holes may exist that I'm not aware of.

Actually, yes (if you consider 2018 money and 2019 money to be different, which you should for tax reasons).

If you have a large windfall in 2018 (taxed at 50%) but your normal income is lower (marginally taxed at 30%), and you normally donate money to charity (dodging the 30% tax), then you can create a nonprofit to hold your 2018 windfall (dodging the windfall�s 50% tax).

And then, if in 2019 you pay to charity from your nonprofit INSTEAD of from your 2019 income, you end up net positive by that 20% tax differential).

And the point of making your own nonprofit for that is so you still get to donate to the places you would normally donate, on the schedule you would normally donate at.

So for example if you had a 100k windfall and normally donated 10k/year to charity, this strategy (with those arbitrary tax rates) over 10 years would mean you�ll have donated 100k to charity as you always do, but ended up with 20k more in your pocket.

This strategy does not work unless you regularly donate significant amounts of money to charity.

Colin Mockery fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Sep 11, 2018

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:44

potatoducks: Jan 26, 2006

Vox Nihili posted:

The fake story wroters usually work in more semi-intelligent and flowery prose, but who knows.

Stupid poo poo like this happens all the time.

You never know for sure I guess but the real stuff is usually more "I got drunk and said some inappropriate things that I shouldn't have" rather than "I told her that I would knock her up 10 times hurr hurr hurr"

This is specific enough that if real, HR would just print it out, put it in front of him tomorrow, and say get the gently caress out of here.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:48

Phanatic: Mar 13, 2007; Please don't forget that I am an extremely racist idiot who also has terrible opinions about the Culture series.

CornHolio posted:

Can that be harassment? Sleazy yes, but I thought for something to be harassment he had to be told to stop, and then continue anyway.

There's "harassment" as a crime under the law, which this almost certainly didn't rise to the level of, and there's "poo poo that can get you fired by a company that doesn't want to be associated with your creepy drunken antics."

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:50

FateFree: Nov 14, 2003

Colin Mockery posted:

This strategy does not work unless you regularly donate significant amounts of money to charity.

Still a little confused - in your example, if that person never donated before and never donated at all even during this windfall, would they have more money by the end of the 10 years than if they reguarly donated the 10k purely for tax purposes?

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:53

Subjunctive: Sep 12, 2006; ✨sparkle and shine✨

Colin Mockery posted:

Actually, yes.

The post you quote specifically says �that you would NOT be donating otherwise�. Capitalized and everything.

So actually, no!

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:54

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Colin Mockery posted:

Actually, yes (if you consider 2018 money and 2019 money to be different, which you should for tax reasons).

If you have a large windfall in 2018 (taxed at 50%) but your normal income is lower (marginally taxed at 30%), and you normally donate money to charity (dodging the 30% tax), then you can create a nonprofit to hold your 2018 windfall (dodging the windfall�s 50% tax).

And then, if in 2019 you pay to charity from your nonprofit INSTEAD of from your 2019 income, you end up net positive by that 20% tax differential).

And the point of making your own nonprofit for that is so you still get to donate to the places you would normally donate, on the schedule you would normally donate at.

So for example if you had a 100k windfall and normally donated 10k/year to charity, this strategy (with those arbitrary tax rates) over 10 years would mean you�ll have donated 100k to charity as you always do, but ended up with 20k more in your pocket.

This strategy does not work unless you regularly donate significant amounts of money to charity.

There are different tax rates for "windfalls"? What's a windfall defined as?

# ? Sep 11, 2018 20:55

Colin Mockery: Jun 24, 2007; Rawr

gvibes posted:

There are different tax rates for "windfalls"? What's a windfall defined as?

It�s marginal income tax rate, but you�re in a higher tax bracket than normal.

Or short-term capital gains for stock stuff.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 21:03

Krispy Wafer: Jul 26, 2002; I shouted out "Free the exposed 67"
But they stood on my hair and told me I was fat; Grimey Drawer

Isn't a windfall tax against an industry, not an individual?

You can save money on your taxes by donating to charity, but you'd still be better off keeping the money unless you'd be donating anyway. I donate because I love to get mounds of solicitations in the mail and I like the tax break - but I'm not really saving money.

You can donate stuff to Goodwill, which I'm pretty sure is just a middle-class tax shelter. My old CPA told me the IRS doesn't care as long as your donations don't exceed $2k. If you're claiming $10k in value you'd better have something to back it up.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 21:05

Colin Mockery: Jun 24, 2007; Rawr

Subjunctive posted:

The post you quote specifically says �that you would NOT be donating otherwise�. Capitalized and everything.

So actually, no!

Yeah, my bad; I edited to clarify I interpreted �if you wouldn�t normally donate otherwise� as if you were treating money as different if it comes from different sources, so like �I don�t plan on donating my IPO stock revenue, but I do throw 10k at charity every year�.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 21:07

Colin Mockery: Jun 24, 2007; Rawr

FateFree posted:

Still a little confused - in your example, if that person never donated before and never donated at all even during this windfall, would they have more money by the end of the 10 years than if they reguarly donated the 10k purely for tax purposes?

No, if you never ever donate money, going from �0 money donated, net per year� to �more than 0 money donated, net per year� is net-loss to you (with the previous examples of donating intangibles, etc excluded).

But if you start at �some money donated, net per year� (includes tithing at your church, etc, I think), you can use trickery to make that �some money� stretch further and pocket the difference.

Edit: So, one slightly-non-absurd way the lady in the example could be not super-confused would be if she normally donates money to her favorite charity AND 2018 is a really high-income year for her and she knows she�ll want to drop from working 80 hrs/week to 30 hrs/week in 2020, the CPA could say �shove your highest marginal-tax income into a nonprofit you control and set the charity disbursements to come from that fund instead of from your normal income�.

Colin Mockery fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Sep 11, 2018

# ? Sep 11, 2018 21:14

Elephanthead: Sep 11, 2008; Toilet Rascal

You can tell the story is fake because no important employee only makes 200k.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 21:54

Moneyball: Jul 11, 2005; It's a problem you think we need to explain ourselves.

Chin Strap posted:

BWM, losing a 6 figure job by being a sleazebag:

Thread:

-Makes 120k a year.

-In danger of losing $120k a year job.

-Posts on forum asking for advice instead of driving straight to a lawyer.

:raise:

# ? Sep 11, 2018 22:23

CmdrRiker: Apr 8, 2016; You dismally untalented little creep!

Hyrax Attack! posted:

Some of my older coworkers are very very lucky the company auto-enrolls everyone in a 401k plan that auto-increases their annual contributions by 1% of their pay each year (up to 20%). It�s a good plan with tiny fees and generous company contributions based on how much you are putting in.

You can opt out or not have it auto-increase, but most don�t do that. Based on the blank expressions of these coworkers when asked anything about their retirement plans, having it set up this way by default is likely saving hundreds of retirees from poverty.

So contributing to pre tax retirement accounts because it lowers taxable income is not odd because people are more likely to not think about contributing to their pre tax retirement accounts at all? I can't follow any of this to its logical conclusion.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 23:02

CmdrRiker: Apr 8, 2016; You dismally untalented little creep!

CornHolio posted:

Can that be harassment? Sleazy yes, but I thought for something to be harassment he had to be told to stop, and then continue anyway.

Granted there is likely a lot more here than he's telling.

Did you read the same thing that I just read? "I told her that with a body like hers, I'm surprised she doesn't have 10 because I sure would give her 10 and I laughed"

Let's go over this again. He is physically checking her out and making lewd comments about her body. Then he is saying that he is surprised that she doesn't have more sex with her husband and if he were her husband than he would have so much sex with her that it would cause her to always be pregnant and having babies.

That's going a little far. It is very surprising that more alarm bells are not ringing.

Krispy Wafer posted:

There's so much that's not being told in that story.

You don't get a whole company banned from a hotel for a couple of crude remarks.

If this is a genuine and factual recount of what happened, then it is completely reasonable that you would fire someone for described sexual harassment. Especially with how completely unaware of he is both during and after the events transpired.

Phanatic posted:

There's "harassment" as a crime under the law, which this almost certainly didn't rise to the level of, and there's "poo poo that can get you fired by a company that doesn't want to be associated with your creepy drunken antics."

This is 100% harassment. If it is this hard for everyone to understand harassment, then would not want to be at a cocktail party with anyone on this page.

CmdrRiker fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Sep 11, 2018

# ? Sep 11, 2018 23:10

KingSlime: Mar 20, 2007; Wake up with the Kin-OH GOD WHAT IS THAT?!

For you less socially-adept folks out there, imagine if a dude came up to you and started saying that kind of poo poo to you. Or your mother/sister/platonic bestie, whatever. How does this make you feel?

It's 100% clear-cut no questions about it harassment, though I definitely agree that his actions are probably more egregious than he claims. But even just taking his account into consideration, his behavior is extremely lovely and I bet he would be the first to flip his poo poo if someone else targeted his loved ones with the exact same sleazebag behavior

# ? Sep 11, 2018 23:16

Krispy Wafer: Jul 26, 2002; I shouted out "Free the exposed 67"
But they stood on my hair and told me I was fat; Grimey Drawer

CmdrRiker posted:

Did you read the same thing that I just read? "I told her that with a body like hers, I'm surprised she doesn't have 10 because I sure would give her 10 and I laughed"

Let's go over this again. He is physically checking her out and making lewd comments about her body. Then he is saying that he is surprised that she doesn't have more sex with her husband and if he were her husband than he would have so much sex with her that it would cause her to always be pregnant and having babies.

That's going a little far. It is very surprising that more alarm bells are not ringing.

If this is a genuine and factual recount of what happened, then it is completely reasonable that you would fire someone for described sexual harassment. Especially with how completely unaware of he is both during and after the events transpired.

If any of this is true then we're getting a sanitized version from him, so yes you're probably right in how serious this was. This was the most sympathetic he could make himself sound and he sounds horrible.

I'm just amazed it got this far. There are multiple stages in this sequence where the issue could be deferred or defused. You have to roll snake eyes a bunch of times to reach this end result.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 23:22

KYOON GRIFFEY JR: Apr 12, 2010; Runner-up, TRP Sack Race 2021/22

It's not rolling snakeyes if you are being a deliberate shithead at every possible point

# ? Sep 11, 2018 23:24

CmdrRiker: Apr 8, 2016; You dismally untalented little creep!

Krispy Wafer posted:

If any of this is true then we're getting a sanitized version from him, so yes you're probably right in how serious this was. This was the most sympathetic he could make himself sound and he sounds horrible.

I'm just amazed it got this far. There are multiple stages in this sequence where the issue could be deferred or defused. You have to roll snake eyes a bunch of times to reach this end result.

Uh, actually it is very possible that this is not a sanitized version. This could very well be a real person experiencing real events that left them crying on reddit about how unfair their life has become because they kept innocently complimenting a woman.

People really look past these situations of harassment with that much indifference. This is something that women frequently deal with. Men can really NOT understand exactly how cut and dry sexual harassment is and how serious the consequences are, as evidenced by this post.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 23:30

Something Offal: Jan 12, 2018; by FactsAreUseless

CmdrRiker posted:

People really look past these situations of harassment with that much indifference. This is something that women frequently deal with. Men can really NOT understand exactly how cut and dry sexual harassment is and how serious the consequences are, as evidenced by this post.

Haha it's not a real story. At this point I would be really surprised if it were real.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 23:34

CmdrRiker: Apr 8, 2016; You dismally untalented little creep!

Something Offal posted:

Haha it's not a real story. At this point I would be really surprised if it were real.

I don't understand the argument of this not even being a real story. Does that make the harassment OK? What are you trying to accomplish with this statement?

# ? Sep 11, 2018 23:37

Barry: Aug 1, 2003; Hardened Criminal

Maybe we can just take what will be an undoubtedly very reasoned and calm discussion about what is or isn't sexual harassment to D&D or whatever and go back to laughing about hilarious BWM. I present:

Parents are set on buying a vacation rental property by draining their 401k...how do I convince them otherwise?

quote:

My Father is going to pay the house in full (760k) by using the funds in his 401k account through some kind of process through "theentrustgroup(dot)com". They have 1 personal house, 2 rentals and this additional house they are planning on buying. Though this sub it has been embedded in me that a 401k should never be use to buy a house...especially all of it.

Their reasoning:

No Mortgage and renting the vacation rental house will bring profit.
2 other rental properties is giving them profit
vacation rental house will be my dad's source of income for retirement.
My mom has a pension/SSS/ 401k (900k), she states that when retirement comes around, she will be recieving 7k monthly
My dad has his SSS and the new rental house
I tried explaining the possible worst case scenario of slow business..possible natural disasters.. but it did not convince them..

Can you guys give me some advice to convince my folks otherwise?

Are they truly making a wise decision?

Pops wants to cash out $760k of his 401k to buy a vacation rental house.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 23:38

GoGoGadgetChris: Mar 18, 2010; i powder a
granite monument
in a soundless flash

showering the grass
with molten drops of
its gold inlay

sending smoking
chips of stone
skipping into the fog

You don't have to come to the defense of the m'lady because she's not real and the thing didn't happen

CmdrRiker posted:

Does that make the harassment OK?

The harassment is neither OK nor unacceptable because there was no harassment. Like how the poor peons in that Penny Arcade comic weren't actually raped to sleep by the Dick Wolves

# ? Sep 11, 2018 23:40

CmdrRiker: Apr 8, 2016; You dismally untalented little creep!

GoGoGadgetChris posted:

You don't have to come to the defense of the m'lady because she's not real and the thing didn't happen

The harassment is neither OK nor unacceptable because there was no harassment. Like how the poor peons in that Penny Arcade comic weren't actually raped to sleep by the Dick Wolves

By that logic, all of these stories are GWM and BWM because there is insufficient evidence that they actually occurred. I am now left with a hard time understanding what you could possibly find so entertaining about this thread.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 23:44

Barry: Aug 1, 2003; Hardened Criminal

CmdrRiker posted:

I am now left with a hard time understanding what you could possibly find so entertaining about this thread.

I find myself asking that very same question more and more these days.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 23:47

CmdrRiker: Apr 8, 2016; You dismally untalented little creep!

Barry posted:

I find myself asking that very same question more and more these days.

I try to hold out for another gem like TRUCK EQUITY.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 23:49

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 22, 2024 22:12

Vox Nihili: May 28, 2008

GoGoGadgetChris posted:

You don't have to come to the defense of the m'lady because she's not real and the thing didn't happen

The harassment is neither OK nor unacceptable because there was no harassment. Like how the poor peons in that Penny Arcade comic weren't actually raped to sleep by the Dick Wolves

Mods, can we add an automated :goonsay:

to each of GGGC's posts? Thanks, in advance, for your kind consideration in this matter.

# ? Sep 11, 2018 23:57

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Bad With Money 2018: When I die, bury me in the blockchain.

«‹›676 »