Complaint Review: Stas Rachinov - Santee California

Stas Rachinov is the founder of a company called LabelsLab, based in Santee and has an office Las Vegas. He mainly hires sales persons but also graphic designers, sales are put on 1099 and offers a base salary (normally about $500 a week), graphics/admin gets put on w2 but is well below industry standard. He justifies by stating the pay is "above minimum wage". He incentivizes by offering % on profits of sales and services, to sales, graphics and admin team. Calling them "Bonuses".

The sales team, which has the highest turn around, gets 2 months of "training" typically from another sales person. However, their training is often interrupted and undermined by Stas, giving contradictory information and telling the trainer that they don't know what they are doing. New sales people are often left confused and unsure about their capabilities. When they are unable to perform the over blown expectations from Stas he tells them to work from home and takes away their compensation and he says he is "cutting them loose", and "if they care, they will be successful". 

If a new sales person is in the process of obtaining a client Stas will intervene and give some (often made up) reason why they do not deserve that client and will give it to random senior sales person. Stas will also randomly pick and choose clients to swap from sales person to sales person. Out of fear of losing their jobs, sales people do not bring up issues of favoritism or harassment. If they do, Stas will fire them, not pay them out and belittle them in front of the other employees. When a sales person leave, Stas will save every contact and have more experience sales team reach out to "Close the deal". If a sales person spent any money for travel, supplies, etc they will not be compensated even though Stas promises reimbursement. If a sales person has any issue, Stas will either fire them in a storm of abuse and humiliation or make their work more difficult to point of quitting.

The graphics/office admin team, who are used to help get artwork from clients (provided by the sales team) to production. The production team is overseas, does not speak English, and operates with different standards than American standards. Stas is the only person able to contact with the production team. Stas does not fully understand the process and has difficulty explaining situations and crumbles when the production team pushes back. If/when mistakes happen, the graphics team is the first to be blamed regardless of reason. The company often charges clients to redesign "fix" clients art or create artwork from scratch, which is never mentioned when being hired and when given the new responsibilities the only compensation given. When pressured about that if they are given compensation it is referred to as a "bonus pay".  

The admin (one person), who helps place orders with production, is given broken instructions and "training" is often coupled with expectation on how to do everything properly right away. Admin eventually is responsible to place orders and contact clients, turning her into sales people, with no proper training or instructions. She is also not given an increase in compensation or a % of the sale, as opposed to the sales team. New duties are added and taken away at a whim, and consistency is... there is no consistency. Stas will promises a % of each sale, but it is much below the sales team % and can be taken away whenever Stas feels like it.

Stas does not understand the production process and will blame the graphics team for any reason, he will then "take away" any bonus he had promised in the past. If he cannot to that he will play favorites with the individuals within the team, changing titles and levels of trust monthly. He will also have private "meetings" with individuals, away from staff ensuring off the record agreements. The meetings are often to discuss other team members are underhanded, unmotivated, lazy, or any reason for that individual to "have his (Stas) back" over anyone else including their own. Agreements during these meetings are rarely kept on his end however he will quote that person to their face in front of staff.

After Stas Harassment When a person leaves, regardless if they quite or are fired. Stas will do everything he thinks he can to "ruin their life". He will file police reports claiming the person stole property, even if they did not. Stas will call landlords to inform them that person no longer works for him. Stas will deny unemployment. Stas will threaten the person with lawsuits. Stas will call the person and leave threatening messages. Stas will email the person in attempts to humiliate and belittle the person. Stas will attempt to contact new employers to belittle the persons integrity. Stas will even attack former employer’s family, including husbands, wives, significant others and even children. * an example of which I can provide.