This is a sad & depressing story worth reading
5This is the story of a lady who ended up working customer support at Yelp/Eat24, and just how bad it is in the area for people who aren't wealthy.
It's sad and induces a bit of rage in me.
https://medium.com/@taliajane/an-open-letter-to-my-ceo-fb73df021e7a
- 19 comments, 41 replies
- Comment
Unfortunately that is the story in a number of places in this country. While that area is incredibly expensive, minimum wage frequently is not enough to be able to pay all your bills even if you are being frugal. Even in cheaper areas of the country. Even if you have roommates, which apparently she did not have, or couch surf.
She should have used a fake name though. Inevitable that someone would have sent her letter on to someone in the company. That was a hard way to learn that lesson.
I do not get you point. She point blank says she came out of college with no skills. She got hired for phone support. Again with no skills. Then is surprised she has to do that for a year before she can try and get in a department she is not qualified for?
Maybe don't apply for, accept, move for, incur debt for and rent an apartment you can't afford for a low end job that you know going in won't pay enough?
There are plenty of hardship stories and issues that addressed. This is not one of them.
@unksol She's got a lot of growing up to do. I'm nearly twice her age, have a master's degree, a good government job, and I could not afford an apartment for $1245 a month. That's just insane. I'm always surprised when I read these stories about these young college graduates who are upset when they don't come out of college making $50K their first year.
@unksol @melwin I'm glad I'm not the only one who was thinking this way. I did a lot of eye-rolling while reading this. I mean yes, everyone should be paid a living wage, but I don't know many single people at that age and skill level who can afford to live alone in an apartment no matter what the cost of living is in their area. Most people need roommates when first starting out.
To be surprised and bitter when she got fired after publicly posting this (and then begging for money) is a bit much. I feel bad that her choices have led her to this point and hope that she'll at least learn something from it. I doubt it, though....
@melwin I made $48k my first year out of college. That was 16 years ago. Of course, I'm an Engineer. Hmm, maybe there is something to this whole STEM thing. "Kids" going into college should be instructed (by adults, teachers, friends, etc) to ask what kind of income they could expect from a degree, and what are the chances they could actually get a job in the field in the first place. Your degree in 13th century left-handed French literature is going to qualify you for loading garbage trucks, not much else.
@PurplePawprints She doesn't seem like the learning type. Unfortunately there are enough sympathetic people who make equally bad decisions that she'll probably get the help she begs for.
@PocketBrain Same here, I did well out of college because I had a degree (also an engineer) that enabled me to get a job and provide for my family. I came out in the last recession and had to really fight for the job I got. But who would they ask? Most people will not tell a kid their degree will not help them to make a living and/or that they don't have the skill set for one that will, which is essentially, "You should not go to college". As harsh as that is it's time to realize that not everyone gets a better life from an expensive degree.
@PocketBrain @RedHot Engineering is definitely a smart way to go. Both of my kids are 'gifted'. They are insanely smart and I'm encouraging engineering for them. My daughter recently got to attend Starbase at our local Air Guard and she really wants to go into robotics. When they're actually old enough to start looking at colleges and making decisions, I plan to really push some type of STEM degree . Otherwise, I'm going to try to convince them to learn a trade instead. We have a decent tech school that works with the high schools. I'd much rather they learn a trade than waste their money on a useless degree. At least with a trade they'll be able to earn an honest living and will have useful skills.
Hope she finds something better.
I trust the "unsolicited" comments on Amazon way more than anything I've ever seen on Yelp. Maybe I just don't get it. It's not even funny, even that would be slightly redeeming.
Hmm, It sounds like she went unprepared into the world, all starry eyed and making horrible choices. and now like so many people these day's who don't understand Personal Responsibility she want's to blame some one else for her choices.
Just love how she begs for money at the end in her update. How about Nope, No way, and Hell No.
@Foxborn I believe that was a Nope cubed!
Her letter is 'entitlement' personified. She wants a short cut to the good life, and she went way, way over the line of acceptable behavior. She can find local soup kitchens and food pantries, if she will stoop so low. Won't hurt her a bit. I volunteer at soup kitchens, and usually anyone who asks can take home an extra bowl/sandwich, if there's enough.
Oh and Whinning about eating nothing but rice at home Geez. Rice is a Staple in Many parts of the world often with very little added to it. Example Conge (sp?) or just pick up some international sauces for a couple of bucks that will last a long time. Personally I love BimBimBap sauce on plain rice and have more than once made a meal of it because my job didn't provide free snacks (or free insurance for that matter)
Let's just file this under 'I have absolutely no sympathy for her.' Many of us have been there. I worked in restaurants, then retail, and even an ecommerce company where I didn't make much more than she was making at Yelp. When I realized there was no possible way I could afford to continue to living that way, what did I do? Damn, all those GoFundMe type pages didn't exist so I couldn't just beg for handouts. No, I applied for loans, went back to school, graduated from a career specific program (not just a random major with no direction) and got a job making significantly more money. I now love what I do, can afford to pay my bills and still have enough money to go on vacation, have fun, and treat myself when I see something I want.
In other words, Talia can pretty much fuck off...
@cinoclav She'd likely just complain that fucking herself didn't provide what she needed, even though she clearly could have better educated herself on how to help herself.
@cinoclav Thank you! I rather hate Sob Stories since they are often difficult to verify and are often problems of a person's own making (like this lady) this is why I avoid go fund me pages in general. Why encourage people to be lazy when they can get up go out and earn what they need. Are there good causes? sure but there is more than one bad apple in that barrel
@jaremelz She should have also taken some other junk jobs to help pay the bills and get a grip about feeling she is owed something professional just because she as a college degree. Recently I spent a miserably hot, deep south hot summer in walmart's parking lot doing manual labor (temp job with the plant company). Well below my education but I didn't care. I needed the money, they offered me the job and I took it as it was the only option I had at that point in time. I worked my butt off and had the #1 garden (plant) section in the region. You need to do what you need to do to survive and not worry about your education level with respect to the job, suck it up and do it with a smile on your face. They own you for those 8 hours a day and it is then your job to do the very best job you can for them. And if you hate it, move on when you can.
Oh, now Yelp has addressed the issues. Poor ingenuous Jane is quoted: “I honestly anticipated something like five hearts on the letter and maybe one reply from someone I know,” she said. I believe the article may be slightly biased, judging from the title. Maybe it's me. http://recode.net/2016/02/20/yelp-customer-service-employee-protests-low-pay-in-medium-post-is-promptly-fired/
@OldCatLady She got what she wanted. People are giving her money and she's Twitter-famous now. She actually seems to be asking for attorneys to take on her 'case' pro bono.
@PurplePawprints Perhaps she and Kanye can team up. They have similar attitudes.
@OldCatLady If I had to guess I would say this was the last straw about an attitude problem at work. Sucks that she can say whatever she wants but her employer has to keep her performance confidential.
@sammydog01 I just read some of her twitter timeline. You've pinned it, but wait- there's more. Kanye is her role model. You can find her at itsa_talia, poop rumbles and all.
Kanye is probably a little more bonafide mentally ill, but since he's a role model to these little entitled dweebs, of course they're going to do exactly as he does and beg for money to get out of a situation that she put herself in, then blamed others when it didn't work out.
She is currently upset that she was fired for writing the post.
I mean, it might not say in your contract "don't bad-mouth our company in public" but I think it's common sense that if you work in Customer Service* it's your job to make the company look good to customers. If you go around saying how crappy your employer is and how crappy your job is....why keep working there?
*Or really any job. If you're publicly shaming your employer, why should they keep you there?
@Collin1000 Think of all the people out there that have been fired for, shale we say unpopular personal options, or bad mouthing the company.
I'm not sure but I think most Employers have something in the contract that whether on or off the clock you are a representative of the business and should conduct your self in a respectful manor.
Or something like that anyway
@Foxborn "you are a representative of the business and should conduct your self in a respectful manor." exactly. This is how things like that Taco Bell exec beating up an Uber driver get you fired. You make the company look bad? Byebye.
Maybe she shouldn't have gone public. But yeah, this is real. I have a very close friend who works for an un-named company doing telephonic support. He's not the minimum wage guy on the phone, but a living wage he does not make. His car is probably as old as he is (not really or it would be worth something) and held together with spit, bailing wire, and virgin sacrifice (kidding about that too)
They outsource to places where equivalent wages are 1/10 what they have to pay here, so why do they want to pay 20x that.
she should move!!! MOVE!! that is where people with lots of money live.. i can't afford to live "in the bay area" (isn't san francisco one of the most expensive places to live in the US?) or other high pricey areas in the other states. or even the pricey areas in my own state!!!...and so i don't.. i live in a not so fancy area, that i can afford and i'm alright, really good even. you have to accept your situation and live within your means! !! !! damn.... crybabies .....
@mick Yes, it is extremely expensive. My wife is from Fremont and when we were dating, we started looking at houses here in East TN where I live. It wasn't even a question. There was no way she wanted to move back to CA, where we'd have to scrape forever. Nope. No thanks
@mick I have a nephew and a niece that recently graduated and have jobs in DC, another very expensive place to live. They have roommates. It works.
@capguncowboy This is called making a sound economic decision. Adults do it all the time.
She has to work on the phones for a whole year? Oh dear god, what hell is this!?
Most companies, including the one I work at, require you to take an entry level position when you start, no matter who you are and what job you're applying for. This prevents people from coming in under a management position and immediately using it to leverage another job somewhere else. It also makes sure you're a good worker and can adapt to your job duties. Another benefit is that you get to learn how the company works from the ground level. You'll have empathy when you're in management because you've been there.
My company, like Yelp, also requires to stay in your position for 12 months before you can move to another job title/department. It costs a lot of money to train employees. They want to make sure they're getting a good return on their investment. It's not rocket science. Figure it out.
I have no sympathy for this woman. She's made some shitty decisions and takes no responsibility for them. Instead, she writes a very poorly structured letter to the CEO and broadcasts it to the public.
She had a benefits package that I would die for! I pay 25% of my salary so that my family and I can have medical and dental insurance. She was getting it for free, and from the sounds of it, she was paying less to the health care providers than I do too. Does she not realize how good she had it?
I think the biggest problem here is simple. She has no real world experience. She has never had a real job or had to care for herself. She has never had to create a realistic budget and learn to go without so she has what she needs. Welcome to the real world, bitch. It sucks, but you'll get used to it.
It sickens me that she's begging for money instead of being a big girl getting another job. It's worse that some are giving it to her.
If people would just tell her to figure it out and gave her nothing but solid advice, she'd likely be on her feet in a few years and doing much better. If people give her what she is asking for, she'll be a lifetime member of the giveittomebecauseIdon'twanttoworkforit club.
I'm all for helping people when they need it. I'm not all for helping people because they won't do it themselves.
No skill? You are lucky someone took you under their wing to pay you doing anything. Start at the bottom, grow, learn, work like hell, and maybe just then you will get some love. I can't stand people thinking it's easy to make $50k-$100k a year. Try making that much money on your own being self employed and you'll have a new respect for any job willing to pay you a hefty yearly salary with benefits, or even a small salary. Money makes the world go round, and nobody gives it away for free. Get skill, become your own boss, and do what you want and make what you want. If not, I don't care how good your job is, you will ALWAYS be owned and leave your fate to someone else's choices.
Sounds like a clever way to get fired and hope to find someone who will hire you in a better position, If that was the intent, job well done. On the flip side, I would not hire someone like you and plenty of other business owners wouldn't either. Nobody likes someone who makes horrible choices then complains about it. Read some self help books, gain some skills, be worth something, then get a job where you actually add value.
She now has a GoFundMe. I have friends with accounts set up who have real fucking problems. Like their houses burnt down, they have cancer, they had a child unexpectedly die. They aren't able to get more than a pittance of help but this bitch posts some entitled drivel about how she doesn't know how to budget or live as an adult, suffers the consequences of it, becomes twitter-famous, and the mindless masses rally around her to throw money her way. I don't want to live in this world anymore. https://www.gofundme.com/Help-A-Yelper-EAT
And then, there's this: http://alotofrice.pixieset.com/thatsalotofrice/
@PurplePawprints She is so busted. She has lots of food photos- brie-stuffed meatballs with fresh rosemary sprigs, chuck roast with red wine, spinach salad with glazed walnuts, cranberries and feta. Coconut cupcakes soaked in rum with pineapple compote. What a total phony. Did somebody report this to the GoFundMe admins? They will cancel blatant cheats. Page title is 'Talia Jane Debunked', so I'm guessing it's been done.
@PurplePawprints check out the comments, they're pretty much saying the same things we have here.
@PurplePawprints Thanks for the links! and GREAT comment. a suggestions for your friends too, Bake sale and or Raffle. They can try to get friends to help or donate baked goods sell them at reasonable prices. Set up by a friendly mostly localish store (with permission of course). It might not bring in a ton of money but every little bit can help. One time I saw that some one had set this up and they were raffling off a $20 Red Lobster Gift Card for $1 an entry. Your friends could even try talking to the manager of the restaurant or store they want the gift card to and if people are nice and your friends are lucky they might even get a discount, maybe. Heck I wouldn't be surprised if they were able to get a gift card donated if they asked the right person / business.
Another possibility is I have seen Domino's Pizza do fundraisers where a percentage of the price of the pizza's sold is given to the person in need. Don't know how to go about doing that one but it might be worth a try. I think I have also seen other restaurants do similar things too.
@Foxborn Thanks for the tips and ideas. I will be sure to pass them along. <3
@RedHot Now I see the comments, thanks. She's such a total fake that she'll undoubtedly keep going, though. She's not in need and never was. Very lavish tastes in food and drinks.
@RedHot A lot of people are commenting calling her on her shit, but people are still donating. Someone just donated another $120 twenty minutes ago. She's gotten over $1800 in 16 hours. :-/
@PurplePawprints Are you comfortable posting your friend's GoFundMe(s) here? If not, send me an email- dashcloud19 at gmail.
@dashcloud I'm having a hard time finding two of them; they may have ended up taking them down. I'm not sure. This one is my husband's cousin. They lost everything in a house fire last year, including two of their five pets. https://www.gofundme.com/py5ztw
I have another friend who lost her partner unexpectedly, but we rallied and were able to raise at least enough to cover the cremation for her.
We all see people who are really struggling every day, whether it's from persistent poverty or from unexpected hardships, and it just chaps my ass when I see an able-bodied young adult begging for handouts because they don't want to pay their dues like the majority of us have had to.
One response to Jane's sob story is more compassionate than many, while still calling her out on the bourbon and bonbons. (Wonder how many posts Jane actually made while 'on the clock'): https://medium.com/@StefWilliams25/an-open-letter-to-millenials-like-talia-52e9597943aa#.im1ahepzf
@OldCatLady Ooh, I read that the other day right after she posted it (before she added the stuff about the liquor and all because that hadn't been outed yet) and thought it was a very good response.
I have to admit, when things like this go down, I'm always amazed that people can read the exact same piece about a situation and come to polar opposite conclusions about it. It really proves that our own experiences and outlooks color how we perceive everything we're exposed to.
@PurplePawprints There is a subtle clue to the real (possible) reason for getting fired here. I'll bet if I'd ever had bourbon delivered to my workplace, I'd have been fired, too. What a total liar she is: http://alotofrice.pixieset.com/thatsalotofrice/?pid=437633674&id=36&h=MTM1Mzk2OTY4Ng
@OldCatLady Yeah, she seems to have no clue about appropriate workplace behavior. Of course, she'd only been there for three months, so maybe she was still learning. eyeroll
@PurplePawprints
Speaking of eyerolls: I think she got training in /eyerolling/ long before she entered the workforce.
That, along with self-pity and whining, should top her resume.
Now what? From her taliabobalia dot com page
What a piece of shit. I thought she was a whiny entitled piece of shit before all the rest of this surface. Now I know she is.
I hope she did lose her job and that she left a stain on her integrity. I hope that stain is big enough to ruin her reputation, or at least reveal it for what it really is. I hope it keeps her from ever getting gainful employment again. I hope she learns what a piece of shit she is. I hope she's eaten alive by crabs.
People are literally starving. Some people would kill for a bag of rice, and a few have. Poverty and starvation is a real issue. It's too bad that someone thought it would be funny to pretend to be poor so they could get a few minutes of fame.
Fuck her.
I'm not normally this angry, I promise. This shit just hit a nerve.
@capguncowboy I agree about the starvation. In 1999 I was in Cambodia adopting my child. The poverty I saw there horrified me. It made the kids on the feed the children ads look like they were fat and living in palaces by comparison. My kid was 9 years 11 mo old (although originally I was told she was much younger) and weighed 38 pounds, wore a 4T and a toddler bike helmet was too big (and she has malnutrition related brain damage unfortunately as well). Her brother, at 6 mo, weighed 4.5 pounds and nearly died. Another brother did die of starvation (we found her family and for years I supported them, finally bought the mom a rice farm as she farmed and her older sister a horse and cart - she made her living taking other people's stuff to market). My kid told me when their grass house blew over (which she could not stand up in - as far as I can tell it was about 6' by 8') a "kind lady gave them a plate and some rice and a knife". She came to me with 4 items, 3 of which I had sent over before I came. I couldn't stand it and started an NGO over there with a Cambodian. Fortunately there are several benefactors who support the school (which also does adult education) and the orphanage and have done so from about 2003 on (the first three years I pretty much supported it single handedly with fund raisers, donations, my money, etc.). No need to ever fund raise anymore for them which is really, really lucky. Amazing what several thousand a month does over there.
I should send that girl the recipe for tarantula (have another one for spiders and assorted other bugs). When my daughter told me how to cook them I asked her if she wanted that for dinner (wondering how will I tell petsmart that I want their biggest, juiciest tarantula and no spider food LOL). Fortunately for me she said no. She said, "Spider no good. In this country we have chicken".
Once she brought me a wasp, holding it by the wings, and was puzzled why I put it in a jar with air holes and not in dinner. She caught a bird once too. She hadn't killed it yet so we liberated it (that upset her). She also wondered why we fed the cats when they could catch their own food and why we didn't eat them. She kept a couple of daddy long legs between the window and the screen just in case. Through a Cambodian friend (speaking Khmer to her) I got her to finally understand that in this country we catch our food in the grocery store and not in the back yard. Took her several years to really believe that there would be food on the table every day. Eye opening and very, very sad.
@capguncowboy so how do you really feel about her?
Seriously though, would you bone her?
@Kidsandliz That is truly heartbreaking and it really puts things in perspective. There are so many things that we take for granted and never give a second thought about
@capguncowboy I know. If there had been food stamps in Cambodia my child would not have brain damage. She told me "one day daddy go to market and come home with a stick and no leg". He had stepped on a land mine. He died of tetanus 3 mo later which is when this family fell apart. Talk about what would have been a preventable death in this country. A tetanus shot. That is all it would have taken for her father to still be alive today and her family to still be together. A stinkin' tetanus shot.
@Kidsandliz
You and your family are just awesome. I am humbled in the midst of my various 1st world problems.
@f00l Well in the midst of my first world problems I also sometimes forget what others live through daily in Cambodia (and elsewhere). I think most people, had they seen what I had seen, would have tried to do something. I just got lucky that I found some benefactors for this.
@Kidsandliz
And here i am getting irritated about all the empty space in amazon shipping boxes (filled with bubble balloons).
I guess i could use a perspective reboot.
@f00l I know... that other thing that was really sad, especially in comparison to the several threads about newborns on meh, is her first easter here someone had a birthday party at one of those ceramic places where you paint them and then they fire the things. She painted an easter bunny that was wearing a dress and apron and holding an easter egg. She had blue streaks down the bunny's cheeks. I asked her why. She told me bunny crying. I asked why. She said with the new baby "maybe no food for baby or family, maybe baby die. In Cambodia people sad when baby born."
The pixieset link is dead now. Wonder why? Hmmmm.
That English degree...
As much as i hate to dump on someone who made a huge life error....well, her whole attitude is a life error....i wish i could send her to do an entry level job in, say, Cambodia, for a year. When she got back, at least she'd have raw material for her writing career. Maybe she could create witty memes about her experience.
@f00l They've been moved to here: http://thatsalotofrice.com