In partnership with
the last decision a company makes
On a Tuesday morning, the head of partnerships at a growing tech firm signs a hard-won five-year agreement with a new client. By Tuesday afternoon, she is told the firm is closing. The company had hired eleven people since the summer, its order book was the fullest it had ever been, and revenue was ahead of forecasts. Over lunch, the investors decided they no longer wanted to run the business, and they were not willing to spend the time or money to close it carefully either.
By Wednesday, the new starters are wondering whether they should have stayed where they were. The client who signed on Tuesday hears the news from an out-of-office reply. The head of partnerships, who looked that client in the eye and promised delivery, now has to explain a decision she did not make and could not have seen coming.
On paper, a closure like this is tidy. A liquidator is appointed, notice and redundancy pay are settled, and the contracts are dealt with. Every legal obligation is met, and nobody is obliged to put anything right between the people involved. The damage does not wind up with the company and travels with the people who leave.
The salesperson who joined in September will carry what happened into her next job in the same sector where she will hear every reassurance from her new employer through the lens of the last one. The damage travels with the executives who made promises in good faith, who now have to rebuild their credibility with clients who cannot easily separate the person who signed the contract from the people who walked away from it. And the damage travels with the investors themselves, who will one day want to hire, invest, or partner again, among people who will do their due diligence and see how this venture ended.
The health of this business is what makes the closure so damaging. When a company is failing, its people see the end coming and make their peace with it. When a company is the picture of health, people act accordingly: they resign from other jobs, make commitments, and keep recruiting. The closure ends their work abruptly, and it also teaches them not to trust what they are being told.
The way a company ends is the last decision it makes about the people who built it, and is the one everyone remembers. An ending can be fast or slow, and it can still be handled with enough care that people leave knowing what happened and why. When the reason is communicated from the horse’s mouth, it helps to keep the relationships built intact enough to go separate ways.
Ending well is the hardest repair to ask for, because by the time it is needed, nobody is obliged to provide it. Some leaders choose it anyway, because they know the people leaving will be their future colleagues, clients, and references.
If a closure has left relationships damaged that you still need, with clients, colleagues, or investors, email [email protected].
The WayFinders Group repairs working relationships after an investigation, inquiry, review or tribunal.
your (reframed) watchlist 🔍
In the week where EY gave its UK partners a pay rise of more than 10% while staff pay rose by an average of 5.2%, Chancellor John Healey delivered his first Budget, Anthropic filed publicly to list on Nasdaq, people with ADHD became eligible for a third off rail fares, and Alastair Campbell’s Persevilience knocked the Gruffalo Granny off the top of the Independent Bookshop Top 20 in its first week, the question is who is in and who is out when the rules change 🤔
investigation of the week🕵🏽♀️
The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into ADAPT (North East), a Hexham disability charity, after an internal dispute left its trustees unable to engage with the regulator as a collective. The regulator says it is not a mediation service, which leaves the trustees to work out who is.
tribunal finding of the week 👩🏾⚖️
An Edinburgh employment tribunal has awarded £13,048 to a then 15-year-old waitress at the Royal Thurso Hotel who faced a tirade of abuse from the chef and general manager after she dropped an apple crumble. She suffered in silence for fear of losing her job, which is what happens when the person shouting is the person you would complain to.
regulator of the week 👸🏽
The Information Commission has formally reprimanded Staffordshire Police for giving a domestic abuse victim’s new address to the alleged abuser, in the very notice meant to protect her. She had already moved home several times to get away from him.
boardroom drama of the week👩🏽🔧
Three independent directors of Poundland resigned after its owner, Gordon Brothers, turned down a solvent offer for the chain it bought for £1 last year. Poundland has since filed notice to appoint administrators, putting up to 12,000 jobs at risk weeks before Christmas.
surprising intervention of the week 😧
A pharmacy worker at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, employed there since 2008, has won a victimisation claim after raising a grievance over a mock “Invisible Employee” certificate, one of his department’s joke awards. The trust took about 95 days to deal with his grievance against its own 12-day target, which is how a joke becomes a judgment.
did you know 💡
From today, employers must take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment at work, and they become liable when customers or other third parties do the harassing. Claimants now also have six months to bring a tribunal claim, so how an employer responds to a complaint matters for longer than it used to.
Leah Brown FRSA is Britain’s leading workplace repair expert, fixing the things everyone else would rather sweep under the rug 🧹
Popsmith Passed $1M. Its Final Community Raise Is Closing
Popsmith has surpassed its $1 million fundraising goal and is now officially oversubscribed, and its StartEngine campaign may close early.
The business behind the popper: over $20 million in lifetime revenue, $9 million projected 2026 revenue, a 45% repeat purchase rate, a growing consumables subscription business, and a launch in Williams Sonoma stores nationwide.
This is Popsmith's second and final planned equity crowdfunding raise. $350 investment minimum, under 5 minutes to complete. All investors also receive 25% off Popsmith purchases for life.
If you're considering an investment, don't wait until the deadline.
