29-year-old millennial rips 25-year-old Yelp employee

[Ex Lurker]

who got fired for complaining about her salary.

http://www.businessinsider.com/stefanie-williams-response-to-yelp-employee-talia-jane-2016-2

[KamaAina]

1. So let me see if I've got this straight. Hostessing pays more than working in tech?!

After coming in for an interview several days later, I was offered a hostessing shift two days a week that paid fifteen an hour...

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

30. Depends on where you are, I guess.

I started out as a coder/DB guy at $9/hr with a masters in systems. After a decade, I was up to $22/hr.

[KamaAina]

32. SF wages should be almost as high as NYC's

[Recursion]

36. She was on a help desk, not coding

Phone bank jobs never pay very well.

[KamaAina]

37. Gee, I wonder why?

The answer might be closer to you than to me. (For those of you just joining us, he's in India.)

[Recursion]

39. Ireland gets more of those, but either way: there's a glut of labor for it

Or, to put it bluntly: English majors can do it, so there's no way to keep wages for it up.

Note that plenty of coding jobs also go overseas, but coders still make more than help desk techs.

Also, to your original question, waiting tables at a good restaurant can pay more than either.

[Trajan]

2. Unnecessary to say

Unnecessary to read

[melman]

3. Wow

This has reached new levels of WGAF.

[snooper2]

4. Wow that was fucking awesome writing LOL

"Being an English major isn’t the problem. Minimum wage isn’t the problem (in this case). Do I like Yelp? Not particularly. Do I like that CEOs make pathetic amounts of money? Not particularly. But turning this girl’s inability to work for what she wants into a conversation about poverty (Poverty! She lives in the Bay Area alone and has a corporate job and can afford fancy bourbon! Not exactly the picture of a third world crisis!) and wage issues, it’s utter b-------."


End is best-

"Trust me when I say, there are far more embarrassing things in life than working at a restaurant, washing dishes, or serving burgers at a fast food window. And one of them, without one shred of doubt, is displaying your complete lack of work ethic in public by asking for handouts because you refuse to actually do work that at the ripe old age of 25 that you think is unworthy of your witty tweet creating time.

You wanted to write memes? Darling, you just became one."

[hfojvt]

5. so it is impossible to be poor in the Bay Area?

Not sure about the fancy bourbon.

One of the problems seems to be the apartment. She perhaps would simply not feel safe living in some of the low rent placed where I lived. (What can I say, I kinda got used to the cockroaches too, although I cut their numbers way down.)

Given her housing expenses and the cost of her commute, her corporate job did not pay enough.

I don't know enough about that area to say she could have found lower cost living.

[Prism]

11. Not in the slightest

UC Berkeley students do it all the time in a decent area with accessible public transportation to the city.

The apartment was her big problem. $1245 is insane. I don't even pay that, and I make way more than she does.

She's just too proud for roommates. $500/month for students with roommates is not uncommon in East Bay.

S.F. does have an obscene real estate market. It is very, very difficult to live in the city for low wage (absent having like four roommates), but there are still plenty of areas that are city accessible that could have accommodated her.

She made terrible financial decisions and felt entitled to live a life she has not yet worked for.

[hfojvt]

21. I would find a roommate situation to be tough

I never cared for having roommates. I would consider having to live with one a fairly extreme hardship - unless it was a significant other or a really good friend. Outside of a college, I don't know how I would go about finding one.

[kcr]

26. Not to mention a room mate means a place has to be bigger

which means it's going to cost more. It doesn't always save you money, particularly in an inflated market. A lot of people who are either older or who have never lived in markets like these don't get it.

[WillowTree]

31. In that case, I would assume.......

.......that you have made it your business to seek out living arrangements that you could manage to pay for and still have money for food without someone to share the rent.

I'm pretty much the same way. Have never had roommates since college. I could only barely tolerate sharing my living space with my Late, Great Ex. But then, I didn't rent or buy anything that I couldn't afford on my own. It meant lowering my expectations a bit a couple of times, but that was the trade-off.

This young lady chose, probably as a result of naiveté, bit off more than she is able to masticate on the income that she was making at the time and found herself living with the consequences. Hopefully, she will learn from this experience.

[Yavin4]

33. I've lived with roommates since 1995. I knew none of them before I moved in.

I saved a ton of money by doing so, and have built up my savings because of it. I am now in a position to buy my own apartment in NYC.

[hfojvt]

34. I am thinking that maybe a lot of people can handle it

Most other people seem to be more social than I am. I tend to be a lone wolf aspie more comfortable with a spreadsheet. In general, people both frighten and annoy me. I noticed at one point that most people seemed to be walking around the campus in groups or in packs, whereas I walked alone (usually).

Also, the phrase "buying an apartment" has always confused me. Does that mean you no longer rent? Or is it more like owning a mobile home, where you own the place but still pay lot rent?

Except for a short period between 1988-1991 (graduate school and the immediate aftermath), I have been buying my own homes (or buildings) since 1985.

[gyroscope]

44. $1245 is very cheap for an apartment or studio in the Bay Area

that's about the monthly rent for a single room in someone's house in the Bay Area.

[Prism]

48. In S.F. proper, maybe. But not in the entire Bay Area

I live in East Bay near Berkeley. There are places and rooming situations that go for far less. Like I said, I have various friends, mostly post-grad students and things, who have nice places around Berkeley for $500-$800 a month, depending on the roommate situation. I live in a spacious one bedroom three blocks from a BART station for slightly under $1,000/month. I have a friend living in a very nice two bedroom three blocks from UCB campus with one room mate. They're paying $800/month each. I know of a lot of two bedrooms around Berkeley that are in the $1600 range.

Her, "The best I could do was $1,245 and 30 miles from work," doesn't pass the smell test. There is a zero percent chance that was her best and only option.

I'm a staunch supporter of a living wage, but her personal situation seems to be majorly self-inflicted due to poor financial decision making.

[kcr]

14. Wait a minute

No Clinton in your sig line. But you're smacking down a young woman who was speaking up for a living wage? Huh. That's interesting.

[Skittles]

18. I think her writing style sucks

[RedCappedBandit]

55. Garbage writing IMO. nt

[NaturalHigh]

6. Wow! That was an awesome response.

[leftofcool]

7. Now this is a millennial my husband would hire.

And believe me, he does not ever hire anyone out of college or anyone who has not paid their dues, ever!

[Egnever]

8. Fuck that

$8 per hour is embarrassing for any company to pay in the bay area. Be it McDonalds or anyone else.

The girl might have made some bad choices but that doesn't for a second take away from the fact that 8 per hour in the bay are is criminal.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

16. It is interesting to me that this other 29 year old woman would bother to write a lengthy response.

The 29 year old woman came across like she was scolding the 25 year old woman... as if four frigging years is so much more in life experience. Give me a break. The 29 year-old woman sounds wicked annoying to me. Her article reads like "blah, blah, blah... I'm better than you". I never read whatever the 25 year-old posted, but $8 does suck pretty bad. I think she was probably justified in making a complaint, but where she went wrong was posting it publicly online rather than speaking directly to her supervisor at work.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

17. So I clicked on the 25 year old woman's post..

Geeze... talk about long winded. I don't get all this blog stuff. Why post all of that? Who reads that stuff anyhow? Yeah, I like to read, but I'm not all that interested reading something that exhaustively details the life of someone I don't know. I couldn't tolerate reading either woman's blog post in entirety. Is this stuff really news?

[Recursion]

38. SF's minimum wage is $12.25, so they were paying at least that

The $8 is "after taxes"

[gyroscope]

45. I don't think so

that would be 34% in taxes which is way too high for 12.25 an hour.

[Recursion]

49. Clearly Yelp is paying at least the city minimum wage. But 34% sounds about right

That would be 6.2% for SS, 1.45% for Medicaid, a state tax rate that shakes out to about 3% effective rate at her income level, a 1% state disability withholding, a total effective Federal tax liability of about 13% (and at that income they tend to over-withhold by default), so just from taxes she's having 24.65% of her paycheck withheld. If her insurance premiums hit the 9% of gross income that ACA targets, then she'd be taking home about 66% of her actual paycheck.

[Travis_0004]

53. It depends on what she listed on her W-4

A ton of people have too much taxes wittheld, then brag about getting a 5k tax refund in April.

[ProfessorGAC]

56. To What End Would You Withhold Less

It's not like you can put the difference in the bank and make any money on it. At an average balance of $2500, you'd make 18 cents a month after taxes.

Withholding as much as possible is a good way to live within a tighter budget (which i admit isn't possible for everyone), so the 5k at the end of April is money you have learned to live without.

Not sure why you consider it a problem to withhold extra.

[Travis_0004]

57. I dont care what they do

But in this case, obviously she is not getting by.

She is complaining her after tax income, when one possibility is she chose to lower it when she set her withholding.

[closeupready]

9. If you read this "Talia" individual's blog, then "entitled" just begins to describe

her attitude problems, in my opinion. So many levels of what the fuck about her and her complaints. Yelp is undoubtedly much better off without her.

[kcr]

15. If we want a revolution like Bernie proposes? We need more people who think like Talia does.

Enough with the "Work ethic" bullshit. It isn't a lack of work ethic that is causing problems in this country. I would think someone with a Bernie avatar would know that.

We need more people with guts like her. The problem is corporations know we're scared and will keep our heads down and our noses clean. That's why they pay us shit. When the Unions died, workers were screwed.

[closeupready]

24. I just completely disagree. Here's a link to the blog post at issue:

https://medium.com/@taliajane/an-open-letter-to-my-ceo

Curious, did you read it already? If not, please do.

[kcr]

25. Why do people assume that those who don't agree didn't read something?

Anyway, there is no excuse for a company like Yelp to be paying 8 dollars an hour for the job she had in 2016, particularly if they're located in one of the most expensive areas in the country. When I was her age I got an entry level, semi-clerical pay your dues and work your way up type professional job in a high COL area on the east coast that paid 9 bucks an hour. In 1998. No way a job like that should be paying less than that now.

[closeupready]

27. I made no assumptions; I asked you to confirm or deny if you'd read it.

As there was no way for me to know. Given the angry, petulant tone of her posting, I'm surprised that you seem to support her. She wasn't paid $8/hour; she was paid $8/hr. NET.

"I make $8.15 an hour after taxes."

Anyway, you seem to be feeling argumentative, and I'm not here for that.

Peace to you.

[kcr]

28. Why would I not support her?

I'm argumentative? I'm not the one who asked you if you read the article. You did that to me. Why would someone do that unless they suspected the other person didn't read it? I'm in this thread participating. It's rather insulting to ask.

I would have thought that anyone who has concerns about stagnant wages and our shrinking middle class would support her. Guess not.

[Prism]

10. I'm still floored someone at entry level was paying $1245 in rent

I feel like she's relying on people's stereotypes about the Bay Area's rental market for sympathy.

No one with an entry level job should have ever, ever, ever agreed to $1245 in rent. It was totally unnecessary. There are places in East Bay, very close to BART, that can be had with a roommate or two for $500/month.

When I read that $1245 figure, my sympathy for her personally vanished.

I still support the hell out of a living wage, but a lot of her plight is just super poor decision making and a plain lack of personal responsibility.

$1245/month. Jesus H. I have a nice place that's about $1,000/month three blocks from BART near Berkeley.

I'd love to know the circumstances that led to that one. And I flat out refuse to believe that's the best she could do "30 miles away from S.F."

Bulllllllllshit.

[JI7]

43. a roommate alone would save her a lot of money

which would be more than enough for food for the month .

[trotsky]

12. Ah, such mixed feelings on this!

On the one hand, she makes great points and the fired Yelp worker definitely needs a bit of a reality check.

But on the other, we DO have wage problems in this country. People are not paid what they are worth. The money is funneled to the top, and then sent overseas to be invested. "Quit yer whining and get roommates and multiple jobs" validates the outdated notion (the "American dream&quot that the formula will always work for everyone. It won't. And it's not always because of their personal choices.

[BlueSpot]

22. Yes, there are wage problems in this country

But let's not allow Talia be the spokesperson about it. She's not a good example of someone playing by the rules and getting burned anyway. There are far better examples.

The best bone I can throw her way is to remind myself that she is young and has very little life experience. Hopefully (for her sake), her name will soon be forgotten, she can get some roommates to help pay for that apartment and she can start over. Otherwise, she mostly reminds me of that "affluenza" kid.

[Nevernose]

23. I agree: They're BOTH assholes

The first person is completely unrealistic and kind of whiny and incredibly entitled. But while the response says all that stuff, they're also pilling the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" bullshit.

Two assholes, as far as I'm concerned.

[JI7]

51. yeah, they both suck

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

54. That was my interpretation too. n/y

[madville]

13. This made me reflect where I was at 25

I was an E-5 in the military making about $3,500 a month, had a roommate, doesn't seem like as bad a living now as we thought it was back then (around 2003).

I got an Associates in my technical field after I got out, now make about $30 an hour and live cheap in a rural area. I would be broke trying to live in San Francisco on my current income, trying to do it on 1/3 of that sounds flat out impossible.

[Rex]

19. Wow, that is sad all she cared about was what her classmates were making as if that was life.

What a sad tiny life some live in. I guess some never leave home and their HS buddies are all the world to them their entire life. This letter is funny in that it is full of pride and not one ounce of advice. Typical for those that land a job and never leave, their view of the workforce is always out in bizarro land. I blame them not.

The original note writer could not pay 80% of her income toward housing. Duh...this is an issue? I guess it is less boring than blue & gold...but not by much.

[MrsMatt]

20. At age 25, I was married

and supporting a husband in graduate school (1987-99). We ate fried rice at least 5 nights a week (rice from a 50 lb. bag purchased at the closest Asian grocery store). Rent was $500 per month.

Prior to that (in college), I shared a 2 bedroom house with 3 other women (rent $240/month split four ways), applied for (and was awarded) fuel assistance (which included government cheese).

And I still had to work an off campus job to make ends meet.

Sorry, very little sympathy for her.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

29. Let's take a quick look at how Stephanie solved her problems.

But on that Halloween when I was let go, young and confused and scared, I wandered into a bar where the old Irish bartender was a family friend, hoping he’d give me a drink and some advice about my plight.

So basically, she got a job through a family friend. Lots of folks do that, not knocking it, but it's also not an option for a lot of people. Moved out somewhere where your family doesn't live? Makes it tough to do. Family all dead? Tough to do. Rejected by your family? Tough to do. Family doesn't have friends who can get you hired on the spot? Tough to do.

She used one aspect of privilege available to her, but not to many others to land a job. Then she verbally attacked someone else for not having the 'moxie' to use similar privilege to earn a living wage. Sounds pretty damn Republican.

[JI7]

40. but the job itself wasn't anything special , it was just some bartender,wait staff type thing

[Kang Colby]

35. Let's read both blog posts before jumping to conclusions.

Talia notes that she makes $8 per hour after taxes. If you have an English degree, college debt, and limited experience - why on earth would you choose to live in San Francisco? I don't think the argument should become that people should ***at all costs to society*** be able to live wherever they choose. I would not dare think of moving to San Francisco, because it is far too expensive. Also, she majored in English...what do you expect to happen? She majored in English. Sure it was a fun course of study, but it's not going to pay bank. If these kids wants to make money, look at other career options.

[JI7]

41. maybe because she wanted to work for Yelp or some other company with big/well known name

to show off to others.

[Kang Colby]

42. Maybe so. She should have realized there are big/well known names all over the country.

San Francisco is just too damn expensive. Your theory makes sense though.

[ScreamingMeemie]

46. Her writing also sounds like she was under the impression she would only

be slaving away at entry level for a year. Still a stupid decision, but she took a gamble... I guess.

[Recursion]

50. So, lesson learned: a promise and $8 buys you a latte

She'll know better next time.

[tammywammy]

52. No, she expected to do this only a few months

She was shocked they don't allow transfers for 1 year.

[romanic]

47. Stefanie gave Talia the business.

You wanted to write memes? Darling, you just became one.

[IMG][/IMG]