On Saturday, a former Yelp/Eat24 employee who goes by the pen name “Talia Jane” published a letter to the company’s chief executive, Jeremy Stoppelman, via Medium.
An Open Letter To My CEO: https://t.co/F7ekRtOm04
— Lady Murderface (@itsa_talia) February 19, 2016
The letter soon went viral because of Jane’s depiction of Eat24’s customer service employees’ inability to make ends meet given San Francisco’s high cost of living. The post includes scathing entries like this:
So here I am, 25-years old, balancing all sorts of debt and trying to pave a life for myself that doesn’t involve crying in the bathtub every week. Every single one of my coworkers is struggling. They’re taking side jobs, they’re living at home. One of them started a GoFundMe because she couldn’t pay her rent. She ended up leaving the company and moving east, somewhere the minimum wage could double as a living wage. Another wrote on those neat whiteboards we’ve got on every floor begging for help because he was bound to be homeless in two weeks. Fortunately, someone helped him out. At least, I think they did. I actually haven’t seen him in the past few months. Do you think he’s okay? Another guy who got hired, and ultimately let go, was undoubtedly homeless. He brought a big bag with him and stocked up on all those snacks you make sure are on every floor (except on the weekends when the customer support team is working, because we’re what makes Eat24 24-hours, 7 days a week but the team who comes to stock up those snacks in the early hours during my shift are only there Mondays through Fridays, excluding holidays. They get holidays and weekends off! Can you imagine?). By and large, our floor pummels through those snacks the fastest and has to roam other floors to find something to eat. Is it because we’re gluttons? Maybe. If you starve a pack of wolves and toss them a single steak, will they rip each other to shreds fighting over it? Definitely.
Shortly after the letter was published—and social media discussion rose—Jane was fired.
i love to get fired because i said out loud that i can’t afford to pay my rent, this has solved all of my problems!
— Lady Murderface (@itsa_talia) February 20, 2016
my manager wasn’t even notified until I called him. this didn’t come from my department. this came from…………….the Big Guy.
— Lady Murderface (@itsa_talia) February 20, 2016
Yelp issued the following statement to Business Insider:
We do not comment on personnel issues. 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.
Jane didn’t mention a relocation, but told Business Insider that the company was aware of her struggles:
I brought up the wages in every quarterly meeting I had with my managers. They were well aware that I was struggling despite doing what I could with what I had.
The crisis continued to grow after Jane’s dismissal, as online conversations intensified.
RELATED: Keep your cool in crisis situations with the following steps.
Some people lashed out at Jane for complaining about her entry-level job and appearing to feel entitled. Meanwhile, many Twitter users heaped criticism on Yelp for firing Jane instead of addressing the disparity between the area’s steep cost of living and the company’s entry-level wages.
On Saturday night, Stoppelman replied to the growing backlash with a series of tweets:
1/5 Late last night I read Talia’s medium contribution and want to acknowledge her point that the cost of living in SF is far too high.
— Jeremy Stoppelman (@jeremys) February 20, 2016
2/5 I have been focused on this issue, backing anti-NIMBY group SFBARF and speaking out frequently about the need to lower cost of housing.
— Jeremy Stoppelman (@jeremys) February 20, 2016
3/5 I’ve not been personally involved in Talia being let go and it was not because she posted a Medium letter directed at me.
— Jeremy Stoppelman (@jeremys) February 20, 2016
4/5 Two sides to every HR story so Twitter army please put down the pitchforks. The reality of such a high Bay Area cost of living is…
— Jeremy Stoppelman (@jeremys) February 20, 2016
5/5 entry level jobs migrate to where costs of living are lower. Have already announced we are growing EAT24 support in AZ for this reason.
— Jeremy Stoppelman (@jeremys) February 20, 2016
Though some supported Stoppelman’s statements, many were angered by his seemingly insensitive response:
@jeremys you could just pay a living wage. It really IS that simple.
— Barbara (@ThisBarbara) February 20, 2016
@jeremys Jeremy, when criticism is lucid and on-target you can’t simply dismiss it as a mob with “pitchforks.” Try cooperation & compromise.
— Michael Dashkin (@mdashkin) February 20, 2016
.@jeremys you’re right in that 2 sides to every story. But you could have simply said “we’re failing our team and that stops today”
— Heidi Braun (@heidibraun) February 20, 2016
@jeremys Generally people don’t write open letters about being working poor when your paid a decent wage.
— Robert Dall (@robertdall) February 20, 2016
@jeremys companies like yours are a disgrace.
— Yesha (@YeshaCallahan) February 20, 2016
Neither Yelp/Eat24 nor Stoppelman has made any additional statements.
Jane is continuing to tweet about her experience, thanking supporters, responding to criticism and standing her ground on raising employees’ wages:
the need for living wages - regardless of where you are, circumstances, or background - is real and it is imperative that we seek change.
— Lady Murderface (@itsa_talia) February 22, 2016
the tech industry can’t afford to NOT pay living wages to their frontline workers who are responsible for keeping their customers happy
— Lady Murderface (@itsa_talia) February 22, 2016
How do you feel the company and its leader are handling the backlash, PR Daily readers?
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