A Yelp employee has been fired after writing an open letter to the company’s CEO complaining about her low pay and her struggle to pay rent.
The employee, a customer service agent, wrote a lengthy, despairing account of her post-college debt and her current inability to afford groceries.
Read The Mind Blowing Letter That Got This Yelp Employee Fired Within TWO HOURS https://t.co/im75TpSbY4 pic.twitter.com/WqL6RsPR58
— ɹǝƃɐɹd uɥoɾ (@EvilLiberalPig) February 20, 2016
“Dear Jeremy [Stoppelman],” wrote Talia, a pseudonym. “I can’t afford to buy groceries. Bread is a luxury to me, even though you’ve got a whole fridge full of it on the 8th floor.”
Jane had struggled with finding freelance journalism work after graduating with a BA in English before settling for her customer service job at Yelp. At one point, her financial problems became so acute that she couldn’t afford to pay for a public transportation ticket. In her letter, she complained about everything from the copay at the dentist to her phone bill.
“Look, I‘ll make you a deal. You don’t have to pay my phone bill. I’ll just disconnect my phone,” Talia wrote.
On Friday, Talia said on Twitter that she had been fired, and that the order came from the top, since her manager didn’t even know.
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 CEO Jeremy Stoppelman has denied that he had anything to do with letting Talia go, and sympathized with her issues with rent, which has risen steadily in San Francisco.
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
According to Talia, she was let go because her letter had violated the terms of conduct set for her employment.