S
S

Salesboi

Director of Sales

Valued Contributor
Good Citizen
Contributor
+1

Company is asking me for money back

EDIT:
told them I wouldn't be paying it back. onto the next gig! 

I got my soon-to-be old company to sponsor my membership to a sales network which provided leadership training. membership started in July. Company is now asking for that investment ($750) back because I'm leaving to get a promotion elsewhere. 

I spoke to an employment lawyer and he said they have no legal grounds to do this, but they could give a shitty referral of me in the future to prospective companies. what should I do?

old company is asking for $750 of L&D courses back from me as i exit, what should i do?

Attached poll
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🧠 Advice
😤 Conflict Resolution
😳 Ethics
28

31 comment

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RealPatrickBateman
Politicker
25
🔪Amateur Butcher🔪
We DO NOT negotiate with terrorists, marketing, or former companies. 
DrunkenArt
Politicker
10
Sales Representative
If a company is worried about $750, they've got some much larger issues to tackle. 
InQ5WeTrust
Arsonist
9
No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL
Tell them to fuck off. 

If they're pulling that card I doubt the quality of the reference they'd give. 

Shitty move. 

You can always reference a friend at that company that you worked with and management elsewhere. 

Save your bag, let them stew. 

One caveat is it depends on internal policies. Some have a yearly training budget and do mention clawback. 
jefe
Arsonist
2
🍁
Totally right. If they're this damn petty then don't expect kind words in the future.
LordBusiness
Politicker
9
Chief Revenue Officer
It surprises me how many companies miss on stupid little things like this. Imagine if you put this little nugget of knowledge front and center on Glassdoor, I know for me it would immediately make me second guess my application or job offer acceptance. 
CuriousFox
WR Officer
7
🦊
Tell em to suck it. The end. 
goose
Politicker
6
Sales Executive
Threatening you with not doing something they aren't going to do is a shitty position to take.  You are moving on without their referral.  All you'll need going forward is for them to validate that you worked there.  Fuck them.
hh456
Celebrated Contributor
3
sales
I’d be like, “nah.”
Jewcan_Sam81
Politicker
2
Account Executive
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, what a bunch of a holes
Salesboi
Valued Contributor
0
Director of Sales
Yea it’s kinda crazy. I got this email from them and was like, dafuq is this lol
Jewcan_Sam81
Politicker
2
Account Executive
I would’ve spent an inordinate amount of time searching for the perfect meme on company time to then send them the message to go screw themeelves
Jbeans
Opinionated
0
Director of Sales
Perfect memes take time. I get it . 
Diablo
Politicker
2
Sr. AE
Tell them to get lost...
cw95
Politicker
1
Sales Development Lead
Does your contract say anything stating you have to pay this? If not, send them an invoice for wasting your time.
Salesboi
Valued Contributor
0
Director of Sales
It doesn’t
whathaveyousoldtomorrow
Opinionated
1
sales
ehhh if your agreement for the company is they pay L&D if you stay, and you leave they don't- pay em back. If it isn't written down somewhere - have em kick rocks. 

Just like, do the right thing... 
Salesboi
Valued Contributor
0
Director of Sales
It’s not written down anywhere
DungeonsNDemos
Big Shot
1
Rolling 20's all day
You should tell anyone else at the company that took the course with you to expect to pay it back if they EVER leave. 
Salesboi
Valued Contributor
0
Director of Sales
I think I then become a slanderer and I can get sued unfortunately
alecabral
Arsonist
1
Director - Digital Sales Transformation
You did the right thing getting lawyering up. The only way they could have pulled that one on you was if you had signed something that said you were supposed to give it back if you left in the following 12 months of paying for that or something. No paper, no legal action.

If they do insist, just send them your lawyer's bill. And if you do get a poor review, counter back with either the same coin (you can review them too after all), or more legal trouble. They'll back down. They just can't believe you found a job that's better/makes you happier than what they offer and they can't stand it for who cares what reason.
UserNotFound
Politicker
1
Account Executive
I have laughed about this like 3 times today... I wonder how bad it must have felt to say that? Like, dude if you're at me about $750 you must need it more than I do- glad you're leaving before a paycheck bounces.
Jbeans
Opinionated
1
Director of Sales
This is some BS. It’s a hard no with f you and flip off as you leave the buildings 

do you want a reference from these guys? Seriously as a person who hires/interviews, if you told me straight up you left and they did this? I’d not expect them to be a good reference anyway. It’s actually a story I would love to hear in an interview. I’d laugh and be like wow dodged a bullet there huh? 
Investing into training your staff is a risk and a cost companies take. I’m sure there’s some Steve jobs quote I can find on this .. it would be perfect. Let’s pretend I used it. Thanks 🙏🏻 😂 and ps. Good luck on the new job!! 
Salesboi
Valued Contributor
0
Director of Sales
Thank you! So glad to hear this, I was super worried about the next job because of this. Super stoked to be out of there and in to the next role, thank you!
SaaSData
Catalyst
1
VP of SaaS & Unit Economics 🏴‍☠️
The only answer here is, no.
ChumpChange
Politicker
1
Channel Manager
Good luck with that.
Salesboi
Valued Contributor
0
Director of Sales
Thank you
ATX_Seller
Opinionated
1
Cat Herder
Tell them to write a formal request, fold it up, and shove it up their ass.

Congrats on the new gig.
Salesboi
Valued Contributor
0
Director of Sales
That’s basically what I did
SuperSaaSd
Executive
0
SDR
Came here from email highlight but yes, don't give them anything back, you don't owe them shit! If anything, the previous co does own that membership and should take it up with their billing dept to have it refunded pro-rated or other, not your jam.

If you're worried about negative feedback/reviews from said previous co, my suggestions it to come clean to the prospective new co and explain they're trying to sully your rep because they asked for the funds back from something that is work-related training.

That all being said, I wouldn't access the resource anymore since you didn't technically pay for it.
dcarb
Good Citizen
0
Account Manager
I can't remember ever having a company actually call to get a reference but I'm sure it happens.  HR departments will typically not give anything other than verification of the dates that you worked there.  They don't want to get sued.  I wouldn't worry about it.  My old company tried to get all of the sales people to sign a document that gave the company the right to "claw back" the money that they were going to spend on us to attend Sales Kickoff in Vegas one year.  It was worth about $8k.  The HR manager was a friend of mine and I told her I wasn't about to sign that shit and I wouldn't be attending if that was the case.  The tickets were already bought and everything was scheduled so I knew there was something fishy about it.  She told me that she couldn't make me sign it and said don't worry about it.  As it turns out mgmt had found out thru the rumor mill that one of our SE's was planning to leave and go to another company and so they sent this out to shake things up.  That person elected not to go to Sales Kickoff and quit a couple of weeks later.  

My point is this...if you signed something that gives the company the right to claw back this money then you might be stuck like Chuck.  But it you didn't, they are just being assholes and trying to scare you.  My old company had our Cisco Engineers sign something that said the employee would pay the company back for training if they left within 2 years of the date of the training.  But this makes since IMO for technical roles because the company could spend several thousand dollars on CCIE course training and certification tests and the employee could use that CERT to get more money somewhere else.  In that case it makes sense for the company to protect itself from a loss.  Good luck!
CourtForShort
0
Head of HR & Recruiting
Salesboi
Valued Contributor
0
Director of Sales
They did not

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