We’re reporting live from the courtroom, where Salt.ly executives are defending themselves in a historic case that comes at the heels of the introduction of Ontario’s Working for Workers Act.
While the act makes it illegal for employers to contact their employees after work hours, the consequences of violating its terms remain to be seen (it merely requires companies to have a written policy about employees disconnecting from their job at the end of the workday, whatever that means). However, one particular executive did indeed resort to more felonious activities in his efforts to circumvent the legislation and is now on trial for trespassing, harassment, and stalking.
Today, the court presented subpoenaed Slack messages between the executive's team members as evidence. The rest of this article is a direct transcript of these messages, with the names of affected employees redacted to protect their identities.
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December 6th, 2021
Employee X: hey do u have a sec?
Employee Y: Yeah for sure, what’s up?
X: ok i’m not sure who to talk to about this, but matt’s being weird
Y: Oh no. What happened?
X: so remember at that all hands on wednesday, leah gave that HR update about the working for workers act and how the company is taking it all really seriously or whatever?
Y: Yeah…
X: so i figured that’d be the end of matt texting me every night asking for status updates and giving me all his thoughts about this client or that client. but then last night i was watching succession and he texts me being like “lmaooooooo u watching succession? the roys really blew that deal!”
Y: What the hell
X: right? but like, it was sunday night and he knows he can’t do that anymore so i just ignored the message
Y: Good
X: but then
Y: Oh my god
X: 5 mins later he texts me AGAIN and is like “hey actually speaking of deals, that reminds me… how’s the pitch for tomorrow coming along? all squared up? anything i need to worry about?”
Y: 😒
X: obviously i still didn’t respond because like… he can’t do that. and then this morning he slacked me right at 9 am asking again how the pitch was going like nothing happened. what do i do lol
Y: Well good for you for not responding. And the fact that he waited til this morning to Slack you sounds like he maybe got the message? Hopefully he doesn’t try it again.
X: yeah ur right, thanks pal. how about that succession ep though lmao
Y: OMG Greg was sooooo awkward, I couldn’t handle it.
December 8th, 2021
Y: Hey! Has Matt been leaving you alone after hours since we last spoke?
X: yeah so far so good, seems like it was a one time thing
Y: Hmmm, ok. I don’t want to sound paranoid but something weird happened last night
X: go on…
Y: So after dinner I get a text from an unknown number that says “Hey sweetie, it’s your mother! Got a new phone today, xo.” So I text back, just saying, “Got it! What phone did you get?” And then she texts back right away being like, “Hey by the way, how are those numbers coming along that you were telling me about the other day? Think they’ll be ready by the end of the week?”
X: wait
Y: And then my ACTUAL mom texts me from her regular number telling me this man from our old neighbourhood that I’ve never met died of a heart attack, and suddenly I realize this is probably Matt trying to pull one over on me with a burner phone or something.
X: WHAT
Y: So I just blocked the number, but like… I’m definitely going to HR if this happens again. This is ridiculous.
X: u definitely should. smh
December 14th, 2021
X: ok i’m done. i just booked a meeting with leah
Y: What happened?
X: so u know i’ve been doing a lot of zoom yoga to get try to get centered, cuz of the pandemmy
Y: Right, yeah
X: matt slacks me last week saying his wife is looking to try zoom yoga, and asking which studio i would recommend, blah blah. i didn’t think anything of it, told him the place i like. then last night i log on to a virtual class and guess who’s in the zoom room
Y: NO
X: as soon as i saw him i went on mute and turned my camera off, but then the teacher asked everyone to take turns saying one thing that happened that day that we were grateful for, and matt just goes “i’ll go first” and then starts talking about how he’s grateful to have employees who have a good sense of boundaries, but that he’d be REALLY grateful if he also had employees that understood that we work at a busy agency in a competitive market, and sometimes there are exceptions to the rule and we have to make sacrifices and tell our bosses how much progress we’ve made on certain deliverables because after all, a deadline is a deadline
Y: What the FUCK
X: so he’s just going on and on and eventually the teacher mutes him and moves on, but then he’s just sitting there in lotus pose, staring directly into the camera and mouthing “i’m the boss of you” and “we have a deadline” over and over. i couldn’t take it, man. i just left.
Y: Well obviously that’s completely over the top and uncalled for. Glad you have a meeting with Leah to tell her what’s going on. Let me know what she says!
X: u know it
December 15th, 2021
Y: Buddy. You up? Sorry to Slack you after hours but something wild just happened
X: oh god what did matt do this time
Y: He tried to undercover boss me
X: do i even want to know what that means
Y: So a few hours ago I’m washing the dishes after dinner and there’s this loud knock at the door. I go to the door and it’s Matt in the worst disguise I’ve ever seen. Fake moustache, curly discount Halloween wig, the whole bit.
X: ur joking
Y: I open the door, see him, immediately start to close it, and he just puts his arm out and forces his way in. I think he was doing, like, a Super Mario impression? He just kept saying, “It’s-a me! The plumber man!” (Honestly pretty offensive tbh). So I obviously call 9-1-1 because at this point he’s trespassing, and he’s just yelling “Hey, don’t phone-a the cops! Hey, where’s your lap-a-top-a?”. I think he just wanted to get his eyes on the Yüva pitch before tomorrow.
X: ok this is way too much. ur coming to that meeting with leah tomorrow
Y: So actually Matt’s in jail
X: WHAT
Y: I mean, the cops got here, he refused to leave, they arrested him, asked me if I wanted to press charges… I said yes, so…
X: damn. i mean u did the right thing but damn
Y: Anyway just wanted to update you so you’re not caught off guard at work tomorrow. See you at the pitch??
X: see u at the pitch, man
