A Woman’s Post On Poverty Goes Viral; She Loses Her Job

by Guest Post

By Lina Bryce

Twenty-five-year-old Talia Jane was employed by Eat24, the food-ordering app owned by Yelp, until Friday, when her post on poverty went viral.

According to BuzzFeed News, Jane moved to San Francisco to begin her job as a customer service representative at the company in August after completing her degree in English literature at California State University, Long Beach.

Jane’s intention was to work for the company’s media team but she was deferred to a customer service representative position as a means to gain on-the-job experience and eventually move up within the corporation.

It turns out that San Francisco is one of the most expensive areas to live. While working 30 miles away from where she could afford rent on earnings of $8.15 (after taxes), she realized that she was in over her head.

“I thought to myself, Oh, I’m tremendously f***ed, so I’m just going to try really hard on improving at this job so I can transfer and get a pay increase,” she said, “but then I was told that wouldn’t happen for at least a year.”

She began to cut back on groceries in order to pay her bills and rent, juggling 40 hours of overnight shifts per week. Jane went to bed one Friday night after drinking a liter of water to curb her hunger. She awoke a few hours later starved, so she made herself some rice.

“While cooking the rice, I suddenly became aware that this wasn’t the first time this had happened,” she said.

Hungry, tired, and struggling to make ends meet, she began her tweeting campaign at Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman.

Eventually, this lead her to posting “An Open Letter To My CEO on Medium.”

That post has been shared by over 85,000 people, making the details of Jane’s struggles with reality a viral story.

Here was Stoppelman’s response after he was contacted by BuzzFeed News:

Stoppleman told BuzzFeed News that Jane was not fired as a result of her opinion. 

“We do not comment on personnel issues,” the spokesperson said. “However, we did agree with many of the points in Ms. Jane’s post and we viewed it as her real, personal narrative about what it’s like to live in the Bay Area. Most importantly, it’s an important example of freedom of speech.”

“We agree with her comments about the high costs of living in San Francisco, which is why we announced in December that we are expanding our Eat24 customer support team into our Phoenix office where will pay the same wage.”

Still, Jane believes that the company isn’t being honest about her dismissal.

“Yelp is trying to make this die down by lying about it,” she said. “Firing someone while their post about pay issues is on the cusp of going viral, that’s like a lightning strike in the middle of a super-dry forest. Things have just exploded.”

What Ms. Jane experienced is not rare, all of us have experienced struggles while trying to find our place among the working class in the real world. However, there is one thing missing from this story and that is personal accountability. The problem with her and many of the Millennial generation is this unrealistic expectation that just because they earned a degree, they should be undoubtedly rewarded. This is even more preposterous when they are toting degrees that do not remotely reflect the needs of the market. 

Also, was Ms. Jane not aware of binding contracts and their terms, particularly when she signed the lease agreement, which she had no intentions of affording on her own? 

According to BuzzFeed News, “She had also planned to find a co-worker to room with her, she said, but quickly discovered many of them were either living at home or otherwise unable to afford the rent.”

College also did not prepare Ms. Jane to be certain of the terms of a job that she voluntarily agreed to. She was told that the job would not earn her big money, but it was a “good way to break into the business, learn essential skills, and transition across departments.” She could have moonlighted somewhere and found a weekend job to make up for the loss in revenue while gaining much needed work experience that is more valuable than her college degree.

It is also glaringly evident that the the cost of living is due to high taxes in local government, causing landlords to increase their rent. This is not the business owner’s fault. Let’s be honest, the CEO is not the real enemy here. Are companies (who also pay taxes or have an obligation to pay an expensive long-term lease) supposed to eat those increases just to pay Ms. Jane a “living wage”? No.

As a result of these costs, the company has exercised their freedom and have voted with their feet, so-to-speak, in deciding to relocate their Customer Service department to Arizona, where the cost of living is much lower. The new department will provide those who live in the area with great entry level jobs to those willing to take advantage of the opportunity. Of course, Ms. Jane could have pursued a position in Arizona or worked for another company in an affordable area. That is, unless she plans on making a six figure salary with an English Literature degree in the San Francisco Bay area.

There is one other important lesson for Millennials like Ms. Jane to learn here and that is: publicly blaming the people who pay you for your life problems is a sure-fire way to NOT be recommended for a promotion. It could even get you fired. 

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