Unfortunately, after building my business and reputation for the last 20 years, I’m now in the rumor mill. I’m in a very tight knit industry so this isn’t a gossip girl trivial thing.

During COVID I accepted PPP. This money helped saved my business. I was able to pay my employees the wages that were historically owed to them. We did have some client payments that came in during this time that helped with wages. I paid these directly to my team, as they were owed. I filled out all the paperwork and the loans were forgiven.

Fast forward to two years after PPP. My employees call a meeting and demand to know why I didn’t pay them PPP. I explained that I was able to pay them. They thought that because they received payments that were already owed to them that on top of that they should have received additional PPP funds. From my understanding, I was able to use client payments and/or PPP to help me protect my business and my employees.

After heated discussions, I released these employees. Their trust in me as a leader was eroded. I supported their decision to start their own company and provided marketing assets (all of which went against their employment agreements). They also signed non-disparagement contacts that released them from their current contracts.

Now, two years later I find out that they’re on a smear campaign against me. They’ve now told hundreds of people that they didn’t receive anything during COVID which is false. You can literally look up online that our loan was forgiven. One past company we’ve worked with just told another person (who’s my friend) that I’m a liar and a thief and that I fraudulently got my loans forgiven. Which is completely untrue.

I don’t know what to do here. I don’t know how to fix it. We’re in such a close knit industry that this is impacting my business. This isn’t at all the type of person I am.

So, I guess the question is, what would you do? Do I need to hire a lawyer or a PR team to help me clean up this mess? Or, do I just ignore it and hold my head high because no one really knows what goes on in another person’s business?