Ігор Вишневський Work 23 June 2025, 09:00

“The former boss said that if her new employers see this note, she could lose her job.” Does LinkedIn publicity help to eliminate salary arrears? Three cases from the tech sector

Despite all the rich epithets about self-development, vocation, team atmosphere, and «kindred spirit,» the main motivator in any job remains salary. Its timely and full payment is the «base.» And if this condition is violated, not everyone will want to continue working with such an employer.

But what to do when salary debts accumulate, but it seems like no one is thinking of paying them? Everyone has the right in this situation to go to court, but this involves a lot of time, expenses (after all, it is difficult to cope on your own without a lawyer) and nerves, so not everyone goes this route.

«My messages haven’t been read for weeks»

Senior SEO Specialist Oksana B. recently posted on LinkedIn that her former employer, a marketing agency, had not paid her back wages after she was laid off from her position as SEO Team Lead in 2022. At that time, according to her, the salary delay was three months. But until she took her problem public, she managed to receive only a few minor payments, which, however, did not eliminate the debt. Until Oksana resorted to publicity, the situation was «put on the brakes» and then simply stopped contacting her. At the same time, according to the specialist, the company not only continued to work for a significant period after her position was reduced, but also hired new employees.

«I had no money at all, and my credit cards were empty. They gave me less than half the amount, and then they ignored me very often. My messages went unread for weeks,» she told dev.ua.

We asked Oksana how communication with her changed after the public disclosure. And most importantly, she said that she was paid the remaining debt. And this is despite the fact that the company itself closed down as of June 2025. However, it was not without another dose of manipulation from Oksana’s former employer. In this case, the former head of this agency was seriously concerned about Oksana’s publication on LinkedIn, because her current employers could have noticed it.

«I was told that I was being very unfair to her, because she is currently working, and if her new employers see this note, she could lose her job,» the Senior SEO Specialist told us. So the former head of the agency, worried about her new job, asked Oksana to remove the note from her account. Nevertheless, during the negotiations on the return of funds, the former director of the agency, according to Oksana, continued to manipulate, «pressing on pity» and appealing to the fact that with this publicity the girl was supposedly «setting up» her other colleagues, who were also not paid their debts.

«This person is pressuring me and also blaming me for this situation. I said that I cannot be responsible for other people, but I am doing what I promised. After all, I have said several times that I would write a review, but, apparently, my former employer simply did not understand where exactly I would write it. Maybe she would even block me on LinkedIn, and then I would not be able to put a mark on her,» Oksana said, stating that during the conversation she set ultimatums: no further empty dialogues. Oksana was ready to talk about removing the mark or post only if the debts were fully settled.

«By the evening, there were still many manipulative messages that I simply didn’t even read. But in the end, by the end of the evening, they asked me to reset the account. And so, we paid,» said the Senior Seo Specialist. She did not disclose the amount of the debt, but noted that for her it was a «good amount,» which is almost equal to her current salary as a Senior SEO.

The expert believes that in such situations, publicity on LinkedIn can be effective if the employer maintains his own page and it is important to him. At the same time, it is difficult and questionable in situations where such an employer «completely disappears from the radar.»

Oksana also said that just in case, she tried to record as much information as possible that proved that her former employer owed her money, if it came to resolving the situation in a legal way. «I had all the correspondence. I even downloaded it so that nothing would be deleted. There were amounts, dates, I saved it all,» she says. At the same time, Oksana saw this course of events only as a last resort, because success is not guaranteed, and it requires paying for the services of a lawyer.

After settling the debts, Oksana deleted the former manager’s tag, but not the post itself. She also noted that her former colleagues who liked or commented on her post were also promised to pay off their debts, but she doesn’t know for sure whether they did.

«There was nothing to lose, and at least everyone would know the „heroes“ by face»

HR Manager/Recruiter in the iGaming sector Anastasia Grossman also has a positive story of how publicity on LinkedIn helped her get her hard-earned money back. At the time of publication, she had been waiting for her salary for four months.

«For the first three months, there was nothing at all. They postponed the deadlines every two weeks. For example, they said they would pay on the 15th, but on the 15th there was nothing again, and they said it would be on the 1st. Then, before the post was published, they still paid about $500. And again they disappeared for a month,» Grossman said about her former employer.

HR Manager/Recruiter Anastasia Grossman, photo from her LinkedIn

According to her, the communication boiled down to the fact that there is no money now, and when there is, we will pay it. But the former employer did not voice any guarantees or deadlines.

The HR Manager wrote to the company’s operations director and warned that she would take the situation public if a clear payment schedule was not established for the debt, for which she even received «a hint of threats.»

«When we said we would publicize this story, they said, 'Well, then we’ll just close down and none of you will get anything at all,'» Grossman shared the details of the negotiations with the unscrupulous employer.

The girl says that she had already said goodbye to her money in her mind, but still decided to do as she had planned, because it didn’t matter. «There was nothing to lose, and at least everyone will know the 'heroes' by face,» she says of the effect of public publicity.

After Anastasia Grossman posted her post on LinkedIn, according to her, the issue was ignored for half a day, but when the post gained quite a lot of traction, she was contacted and arranged a «call» the next day. And this despite the fact that Anastasia did not specify the name of the company in the post itself — she only described the situation and the field in detail.

«The entire C-level was present on this call! Some adequate communication was starting, then they started pressuring me again. They simply asked me to delete the post, and said that we would pay the money somehow. But how and when is unclear. But when I went to the call, I understood — I would say that either you pay me the full amount, or I will name the company,» she says.

According to the recruiter, that call ended on a low note, and the company’s management said that they would not pay her anything. But by Monday they got in touch again, took her details, and first paid out part of the money, and then, by the end of the week, the rest. As far as Anastasia Grossman knows, they also paid out some of the other employees who were in debt — perhaps half of these people.

The rector says it’s the first time she’s encountered such a situation and used this method, but she advises her colleagues not to be afraid of publicity.

«When you take some steps, they wake up very quickly, and the money comes from somewhere. So, I think the main thing is not to remain silent in such situations,» she shares.

«Usually people score. But I have a slightly different character.»

Unlike her «fellows in misfortune,» Junior Project Manager Valeria Zolotareva has not yet received her funds, despite the publicity on LinkedIn. It is difficult to say for sure whether there are any chances for this, but at least the debtor has definitely paid attention to it. Her situation was somewhat different — as an external team, they worked on a product, the customer of which was NK Group Consulting and its owner, Mykola Kysel. «Later, he bought out a share of the company, which is why he actually „bought out“ us as a team,» she explained. According to Zolotareva, due to his toxicity in cooperation, the team unanimously decided to complete the product and deliver it by the deadline, and to terminate the cooperation itself. But they have not received payment for the last 1–2 months.

In her post, she warned colleagues to be cautious when they are offered cooperation with NK Group Consulting or personally with Mykola Kysel, and in the comments it later became clear that she was not the only one who had an unsuccessful experience of cooperation with them.

In a conversation with dev.ua, Valeria Zolotareva said that she has serious intentions to see the case through to the end, including advancing the case in the legal arena.

«This is definitely not his first similar situation, so I’m not sure that publicity alone will work with him. I think he simply chose this option for himself — to sit quietly and then no one will touch him,» she comments on the debtor’s tactics.

The Junior Project Manager confirmed that she is at the stage of collecting documents in order to be able to submit them to the court. But first she intends to contact the State Labor Service of Ukraine. «I was advised to contact them first, because it will be easier with them. They cannot just go and check companies, but only upon request. After they process the application, they can go and check and this will need to be documented,» she noted.

According to Valeria Zolotareva, her colleagues, to whom she also owes money, have different intentions — someone decided that their mental health is more important than fighting for their rights (and money), and someone, like her developer colleague, also intends to go to court, just like her.

The Junior Project Manager says that in the case of NK Group Consulting and its owner, she hoped more for compliance with the contract than for good faith. Nevertheless, the debtor employer was «in contact», although he constantly gave new reasons why he could not pay right now. This situation was a week ago, but, according to Zolotareva, it was nothing more than an attempt to simply stall for time.

After Valeria’s post was published, the debtor’s employer showed up twice — first, he banned her from marking his profile in the LinkedIn settings. But later, he wrote to her that he hadn’t forgotten about her, urged her not to worry about the money, and promised to pay by the end of the month. Valeria is critical of this promise, but if these words turn out to be empty, she will resort to legal methods. «Usually people score. But I have a slightly different character,» says Zolotareva.

Interestingly, even before the publication of this material, Valeria Zolotareva informed us that her former employer had promised to pay her back if she deleted the post, while also threatening her with legal action. dev.ua also asked Mykola Kysel for comment, to which he only received a number of critical remarks about «damaging his business reputation» and no explanations on the merits. In return, the editorial office was also threatened with legal action.

The CEO of Ukrainian RetroStyle Games announced financial problems at the Beatshapers studio, which owed his company $3,000.

The developer claims that his former employer is threatening him and his new CEO with legal action. It is likely that the former employer is unwilling to pay the salary debt.

A programmer sued a state employer for almost 100,000 UAH in salary arrears. How did she do it?