Dear Talia Jane ~Yelp Open Letter To CEO
3–2–2016 Come to find out — she owns part of a Yelp Competitor, isn’t broke, and conspired to defraud Yelp and Medium audience and writers.
When you accepted employment at Yelp you agreed to several contracts.
- You agreed to work beyond your best to make the brand grow.
- You say you are making minimum wage or $26000 a year in San Francisco but it appears Yelp starting salaries are closer to $30000. Let’s assume you made $29000. This means your rent should be around $966. not $1250 in order to make ends meet. Rather than renting your own apartment, a roommate situation in your market is perhaps the only option. You say you moved to be closer to your father, perhaps living with him for a year was an option.
- Food provided by a Corporation as employee snacks is not your personal right.
- Health benefits are a wonderful option but since you are still under 26 it may have been more cost prudent to ask your father or mother to put you on their benefit package.
- It is not a life necessity to have cable, wireless, and a car in a city that has great public transportation
I graduated with highest honors in English and Art while working forty hours a week during Undergraduate years. I understood literary fiction and painting were not going to sustain myself, didn’t want to teach, but never stopped being a creative person. After college I lived with four women in a one bedroom flat. After scraping my way up the totem pole and paying off my student loans, I went back to graduate school continuing to work full time. I’ve been proud to grow brands for a number of employers, had wonderful mentors, made money, and raised children all by myself.
Something you missed along the road Talia… I pray you allow this to get under your hat, as we all tend to shield ourselves from criticism with snarky darkness. Never publicly shame the hand that feeds you.
An employer is not responsible to give you a living wage. You agreed to the contract. When you realized ends could not meet in the first month, it was time to take action. You could have found a night job, drove Uber in order to keep the single apartment and your car — a room of your own. You could have found a roommate. You could change jobs. You always had the power to fix the problem. Click your heels and shake off this moment of fame and make something wonderful of adversity.
