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Yelp Employee Posts Open Letter About Cost Of Living And Low Wages, Gets Fired (modernreaders.com)
whoever57 writes: Talia Jane was employed by Yelp in San Francisco but after posting in an open letter to Yelp's CEO, Jeremy Stoppelman, that her after tax income of $8.15 was insufficient to provide basic necessities like heating, food, etc., she discovered that she had been fired. How did she discover? Her work email stopped working. Even her boss did not know what had happened. Stoppelman denies having a hand in her firing, making the claim "(There are) two sides to every HR story so Twitter army please put down the pitchforks," replying to the criticism. He didn't personally turn off her email, perhaps he did not even make the decision to fire her, but as the person who ultimately sets the culture and policies of the company, his claim to not be directly responsible is unconvincing.
I truly hope none of us here will express amazement that someone who criticized their employer, and blamed them for what are essentially her own poor life choices, got fired.
This is how the real world works, jr. You are not owed, or entitled, to shit.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Why is anyone making barely above minimum wage trying to live in San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities in the U.S. without even getting a roommate to split the rent? Also, the low temperature doesn't get below freezing so there's no need to ever run a heater. Yes, that means you'll probably want an additional heavy blanket to sleep under, but you're not going to die.
Even if it's not in the employment agreement, California is an at-will state. You can be fired for not sounding cheerful enough when you greet your CEO in the elevator, if he so desires and is that petty.
Imagine all the people...
What a crock. Sure you don't work for Yelp's HR department?
Here's the post in question.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
I'd bet she has a roommate. I looked at living in SF and my rent would be in the ballpark of $3k/mo for a small piece of shit. My salary would need to increase about 28% from where I live to offset the cost of living increase, which doesn't take into account the fact that my current state has no income tax.
You're a human being. You're owed food, shelter and healthcare. Otherwise wtf is the point of civilization? Why shouldn't I just sell your organs on the open market or crack your skull open and feast on the goo? Stop acting like dog eat dog is just how it should be because you got yours (fuck me). We band together as a species to make life better for all of us. You're more vulnerable than you think you are. Wake up before it's too late.
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The open door policies of ALL companies is bullshit. It doesn't mean what people think it means. The best it gets is, "We will openly listen and TRY to address your criticism." Most people think that also means the company won't be insulted or won't fire them or won't impact their career. This is false. Somewhere in that machine, there is a cog that will feel insulted and will seek redress. The open door just slaps a name on the offender. Someone who goes through that open door is really trying to help the company at their own expense. If they want something personal, they should choose someone they trust, and have a closed door conversation.
Enforcing such a clause is illegal if your company is subject to the NRLA (hint: most US companies are): http://www.npr.org/2014/04/13/...
A lot of people (sock puppets?) seem to be making this the story of a brat who can't make good choices, but I see it as the story of how a young American worker's enthusiasm and determination got her ground into hamburger. It's a warning to other young would-be Yelp workers to steer clear lest they suffer too. That's the only way these soulless corporations will ever feel the sting and be forced to raise wages.
Let's emphasize that Yelp is PAYING this insultingly low wage in such an expensive city.
There are plenty of technical jobs in Silicon Valley that start off at $10 per hour — and plenty of people who take those jobs. Employers aren't going to raise their pay rates until they have difficulty finding people to fill those positions. For the kind of I.T. support work that I do, recruiters are offering $35 to $40 per hour to find people to work in southern Silicon Valley — San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale — because young hipsters can't commute more than 30 minutes away from San Francisco.
Please be very careful when trying to "fix" moderation on Slashdot. This is one of the features that work reasonably well, compared to other sites. There's always room for improvement, but there are dozens of more rewarding fixes and changes than the moderation system.
This site is already a technological anachronism; we stay for the comments and the discussion. If that breaks down because of half-assed fixes to the moderation system, it's good night.
Just my 2 cents.
Ah, arrogance and stupidity, all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari
Most companies can make up this type of bullshit reasons for most of their employees. If I search your work laptop and browsing history, I am guaranteed to find worse than that...
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
And I am sure it had nothing to do with her getting alcohol delivered to her while at work or bragging about making sexual jokes to the companies twitter account. It's either quite a coincidence or she knew she was in trouble and wrote the letter to try and make the company look worse.
Wow...Bulleit bourbon, delivered to her at work. And she was supposedly poor?
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
I wont bother to check all your math, since you blew it in the first line: At $10/hr she would be making $20,400 per year gross, not $35K.
I won't bother to read the rest of your posting, since you did not read mine.
I said "nearly $10/hour over minimum wage". Federal minimum wage is currently $7.25/hour. That places her at *nearly* $10 + $7.25 /hour total, or *nearly * $17.25/hour. The actual amount if she took the job listed on Indeed.com would be $17/hour. Which is *nearly* $17.25/hour.
You will notice that $17/hour * 40 hours/week * 52 week/year is precisely the figure I quoted.