One of the saddest things about the comments is the lack of empathy here. I think that there are plenty of us in this world who can say that we’ve been there. This could have been me when I worked full time for Whole Foods while I was taking a full course load at SF State. I can hear myself now, all the things that I would have wanted to ask John Mackey, another clueless CEO wrapped up in his own Ayn Randian logic: Do you know how it feels to ring up $200 worth of high-end groceries that you couldn’t afford to buy for yourself, even after your employee discount? Do you know how it feels to have to throw an organic heirloom apple, that costs an ungodly amount per pound, into a cull bin destined for the compost, just because it fell on the floor or has a small nick in the flesh because that’s company policy? Do you know what it feels like to retreat to the break room for lunch to feast on a can of 365 tuna, a dinner roll, and a banana? Maybe in some of that left over fragment of time that you actually get to sit down (for once), you can scour through the buyers’ unwanted sample shelf and hopefully score a box of cereal (that you’ll undoubtedly eat with a 99 cent quart of Berkeley Farms milk from the liquor store below your apartment building). Maybe you’ll even be lucky to snag a bottle of natural brand shampoo because you’ve got a watered down bottle of Suave at home. Do you know what it feels like when, after your meager lunch break, you go back to your job and ring up a customer’s salad bar box that costs more as you make in one hour, before taxes? So yeah, Talia, I get it.

We live in one of the most expensive cities in the world, Nearly 20 years later, I’m finally doing a job that I love, where I’m valued, and I’m making a decent salary that is more than both my blue-collar parents made and that should qualify me as one of the lower tiers of “middle-class”. But in San Francisco, I still have to count my lucky stars that I have a rent controlled apartment, because according to the latest statistics, I would have to make about 20K more a year to afford a studio at market rate and live “comfortably”.

You’re not ungrateful or stupid for venting your frustrations; you’re actually pretty fucking brave for saying all of the things that so many of us who are currently in or have been in your position have all felt at one point. And while getting fired is the horrible consequence of writing your piece, I want you to know that it’s probably the most dignifying thing that could have happened to you. My one hope for you is that some company snatches you up for your talents and not for your ability to occupy a space. You’re worth more than this. I’ve happily contributed to your Venmo because I’m in a position where I can. Hopefully it will help some.