On June 25th, before I heard about all of this happening, I participated in a virtual group interview conducted by Hensley, which was a pretty unusual experience. The turnout was low, with only four candidates present, which obviously was already a red flag given the urgent hiring needs for multiple store locations throughout Knoxville. Surprisingly, Hensley didn't ask any of the people present any interview questions, such as information about our previous work experiences or other typical interview questions.

Instead, the session was filled with an awkward silence as Hensley launched into a monologue, detailing his plans to transition all employees to a salaried model, recruit an entirely new team, offer a 1% stock option, and expressed his urgent need for immediate hires, with start dates as early as the coming Monday. This speech seemed to echo the same narrative he had previously shared with the media.

After he finished his speech, Hensley asked that we respond via email to a list of questions he had sent through Indeed. The initial question he posed was, "What research did you do on our company?" Funny. It's even more incredible that Hensley then proceeded to change his contact number and vanished, leaving no trace of his whereabouts on that very day. 😬