The Reference

An Employee Told A Horrid Lie And Apologized Seven Years Later - For A Reference.

Someone from my old life wants a reference. I posted on Facebook asking what to do—a crowdsourced ethics quiz for the terminally online. But this isn’t really about a reference. This is about money, betrayal, and a lie.

Let’s dispense with the lie first.

My lie.

I did not quit my job. I was asked to resign – the polite way of saying “you’re fired.”

In November 2017, I was pushed out of Capital Region Special Surgery (CRSS), a medical group I had built from a graduate school project into a cash-printing colossus. My crime? Refusing to fire ten percent of the staff so that multimillionaire partners could maintain their draws during a cash crunch.

The founding partner—Ed—had been my closest friend. We vacationed together. I watched his children. When we launched CRSS, I was the only one who didn’t take a salary. I personally guaranteed the office lease. Ed couldn’t get credit. I could.

The plan was mine. I had identified the golden intersection of American healthcare: back pain. Prevalence o…