Payroll espionage. Who knew?

Payroll espionage. Who knew?
(or frankly…who care.)

Until now.

Allow me to explain this with the drama it deserves.

The biggest corporate scandal of the year?

Not a crypto collapse, Not a founder microdosing on mushrooms while raising a $100M pre-seed, not rogue AI.

Payroll. Compliance.

Rippling is suing Deel for corporate espionage and at the center of this HR fever dream stealing company secrets?

Keith. From Payroll Compliance. (You were hoping it’d be Chad from Accounting. Please. Chad still prints emails and a criminal mastermind he is not.)

And then it gets wiiiiiild:

• Keith works 5 months quietly and normally

Searches “Deel” in Slack 23 times a day

• Pulls pipeline data, customer lists, internal notes

• A client ghosts Rippling

• 17 employees get Deel offers… no interviews, just betrayal via calendar invite

So Rippling sets a trap…

A fake Slack channel, “d-defectors,”mentioned only in a legal letter.

Keith takes the bait. (Slack logs it. Of course she does. She always remembers)

Then Keith goes full scorched-earth:

• Court tells him: “Hand over your phone.”

• Keith: “I’M WILLING TO TAKE THAT RISK!!” (Ok Braveheart)

• Smashes the phone, locks himself in a bathroom, claims he had a breakdown, says he’s being followed.

All of this…for payroll strategy. Sir, this is not MI6.

Not global espionage. Not innovation.

Just a guy setting his whole career on fire over a sales deck and a Slack search.

What about HR?

Oh, she showed up.

She’s not here to de-escalate,

She’s not here to circle back,

She’s here in day-three dry shampoo, holding a fake Slack channel, and a lit match whispering… “try me.”

HR Tech- maybe not the most gripping, thrilling industry…but rapidly entering the conversation.

#payrollespionage #payrollcompliance #fakeslackchannel