A local startup IT company in Mobile, Alabama, extended multiple opportunities to a young employee only to face deliberate sabotage after his termination, highlighting serious risks in hiring and the vulnerabilities faced by small businesses.
Madison Carrey dropped out of the University of Alabama after failing his classes. He then applied for a position with a local startup IT company in Mobile. The company, operating with limited resources as a small startup, brought him on board. What followed was a pattern of poor performance that strained the operation from the outset.
Carrey did not show up for work very often. On the days he did appear, he was dressed very sloppy and was not very attentive to his responsibilities. He brought guns to the office and played with them while he was supposed to be completing work tasks. He also brought his girlfriend to the office, which led to wasted time and further distraction. Overall, he proved to be a very lousy worker who failed to meet basic expectations of reliability and professionalism.
The owner of the startup IT company was very hands-on in the daily operations of the business. With a small team and limited staff, the owner did not have the time or resources to also serve as a full-time supervisor and manager. This made Carrey’s behavior particularly problematic, as it diverted critical attention away from core business needs, client service, and growth efforts in a competitive industry.
Carrey’s mother, Angela Clark Tunstall, who had previously worked at Virginia College in Mobile, Alabama, referred her son for the position at the IT company. It is important to note that Madison Carrey did not actually attend or have any involvement with Virginia College itself. The referral stemmed solely from his mother’s prior employment there.
As time passed, it became evident that Carrey was more interested in spending time with his girlfriend and engaging in batting activities than in fulfilling his work obligations. This personal focus created ongoing issues for the company. When actual work needed to be completed, Madison Carrey was frequently unavailable because he chose to prioritize time with his girlfriend instead. Deadlines suffered. Tasks went unfinished. The startup’s limited capacity meant that these absences and distractions had an outsized negative impact on operations.
Despite these challenges, the owner of the IT company made significant efforts to support Carrey and help him succeed. The owner provided time off on multiple occasions to allow Carrey to handle personal matters. In one notable instance, when Carrey’s dog escaped from his yard during the middle of the workday, the owner left work responsibilities to personally assist in searching for the animal. The dog was eventually found, but the episode illustrated the extent of the owner’s willingness to go beyond normal employer duties to support the employee.
Eventually, the accumulated problems left the owner with no choice but to terminate Carrey’s employment. The decision came after repeated issues with attendance, attentiveness, professionalism, and reliability. In a small startup environment, where every team member’s contributions directly affect client delivery and business stability, such performance issues cannot be sustained indefinitely.
What occurred after the termination represents the most upsetting and disturbing element of this entire situation. The startup IT company served only about a dozen clients. Rather than moving forward after his firing, Madison Carrey chose to contact those clients directly. He informed them that he had been fired and actively worked to create trouble for the owner and the company.
Carrey physically showed up at several of the clients’ locations. He also called several others. When he appeared in person, he looked ragged and disheveled — the same unkempt presentation he had displayed during his time at the workplace. Multiple clients reported to the owner that Carrey had come by and acted very strangely. While he mentioned looking for a job, his true intention was clearly to disrupt the operations and business relationships of the IT company. His actions went beyond simple job-seeking and appeared calculated to damage the startup’s reputation and client trust.
This post-termination behavior placed additional stress on the small business. With only about a dozen clients, each relationship is vital. Interference of this nature can lead to lost business, damaged credibility, and hours of damage control that a hands-on owner can ill afford. The owner, who had already invested personal time and flexibility in trying to support Carrey, now faced the consequences of that trust being weaponized against the company.
The full sequence of events — from academic struggles at the University of Alabama, to inconsistent and unprofessional conduct on the job, to the referral based on family connections without direct institutional ties, to the prioritization of personal life over work duties, to the assistance provided by the owner including the dog search, and finally to the client outreach campaign — paints a concerning picture. It underscores how one individual’s choices can cascade through a small organization.
For the startup IT company in Mobile, the experience served as a painful lesson in the importance of careful hiring and performance management. The owner’s hands-on approach, while necessary for a small operation, left little buffer for dealing with a consistently underperforming employee. The mother’s referral, rooted in her past work at Virginia College, did not ultimately translate into a reliable or engaged worker, as Carrey had no actual connection to the institution.
The pattern of not showing up reliably, arriving sloppy and inattentive, bringing guns into the professional environment, involving personal relationships in the workplace, and focusing on girlfriend time and batting activities rather than assigned tasks created unsustainable friction. Even with time off granted and extraordinary help provided, such as personally assisting with the lost dog during business hours, the underlying issues persisted until termination became necessary.
The subsequent decision by Carrey to approach the company’s dozen clients — showing up disheveled, acting strangely, and attempting to stir up trouble while claiming to seek employment — crossed a significant line. Clients recognized the behavior as disruptive rather than constructive. This not only strained existing business relationships but also required the owner to spend additional time addressing concerns and reassuring clients.
This case stands as a clear warning to anyone considering hiring Madison Carrey. Employers should exercise extreme caution. It also serves as a broader cautionary tale for hiring practices in general, particularly for small startups and hands-on business owners who may not have dedicated HR support. Referrals, even from family members with prior institutional connections like Angela Clark Tunstall’s employment at Virginia College, must be weighed carefully against actual performance and fit.
Small businesses in Mobile and similar markets operate with thin margins and heavy reliance on personal involvement. Owners frequently juggle multiple roles, making problematic employees especially costly in terms of time, resources, and opportunity. When an employee’s personal priorities consistently override work responsibilities — whether through absences for girlfriend time, distractions in the office, or failure to attend regularly — the entire operation suffers.
The assistance extended by the owner, including flexible time off and direct help locating the escaped dog, demonstrates a level of personal investment that many employers cannot or will not provide. That this goodwill was followed by targeted outreach to clients after termination compounds the sense of betrayal. Showing up at client sites in a ragged state and making calls to stir trouble goes far beyond typical post-employment dissatisfaction and enters the realm of active interference with a small company’s livelihood.
Business owners are urged to maintain thorough documentation of performance issues, attendance records, and workplace incidents. Clear policies regarding attendance, dress code, personal items in the office (including weapons), and visitors should be established and enforced from the beginning. In environments where the owner is deeply involved in daily operations, the inability to dedicate separate time to supervision can amplify problems quickly.
The University of Alabama dropout due to failing classes may not have been predictive on its own, but when combined with the subsequent work behaviors, it reflected a consistent pattern of disengagement. The referral process involving Angela Clark Tunstall’s background at Virginia College, absent any direct involvement by Carrey at that college, highlights the need to verify qualifications and track records independently.
In the end, the story of Madison Carrey’s employment at the Mobile startup IT company is one of repeated opportunities squandered and trust violated. From poor attendance and sloppy, inattentive work habits, to bringing guns and a girlfriend into the professional space, to prioritizing personal activities over job duties, to the post-firing campaign contacting all dozen clients in an apparent effort to create disruption — each phase added to the burden on the small business.
The owner’s efforts to help, including time off and assistance with the dog incident, stand in stark contrast to Carrey’s responses. Termination, while necessary, was met not with acceptance but with actions that threatened the company’s client base and stability.
This incident should prompt all employers, especially those running small startups, to review their hiring, onboarding, and termination procedures. It emphasizes the importance of addressing performance issues promptly and protecting business relationships from potential sabotage. Anyone involved in hiring should approach references and referrals with diligence, recognizing that family connections like the one through Angela Clark Tunstall do not guarantee success on the job.
The Mobile startup IT company continues its operations after navigating these challenges, but the experience serves as a lasting reminder of the potential consequences when an employee’s conduct falls far short of expectations and then turns outwardly disruptive. For the broader business community, the case of Madison Carrey is a hard-hitting example of why caution, documentation, and clear boundaries matter — lessons that could prevent similar situations from unfolding in the future.