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Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

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Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#61

Post by ktRolster »

nrinaudo wrote: post #36
jkot wrote: post #9

I am not excusing Yelp, but in most countries this is fire-able offense. In EU my friends were in similar situation and they had to go to work. She got half-day off on very short notice..

I don't know about the rest of EU, but I currently work in France and I'd be shocked if someone were fired because they took half a day off with little to no notice for serious health or family reasons. If anything, the company would be sued in a heartbeat and almost guaranteed to lose. I worked in the UK for a few years, and have had to take days off with no notice - to attend a funeral, say - and no one even though…

It's hard to know what happened without hearing both sides of the story.

In this case, what we can guess it looked like from her manager's point of view was: she kept taking days off, with excuses that didn't seem to make sense (can't find car keys), and now she wants to take three more days off.

Without trying to blame anyone, I feel bad for her and hope her boyfriend recovers.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#62

Post by ktRolster »

johnloeber wrote: post #15

Not to distract from the content of the piece, but she took a 300% loan? THREE HUNDRED PERCENT? Could she have gotten a better loan? I'm under the impression that most banks offer loans at more reasonable rates. Also, how is Yelp able to retain salespeople in the Bay Area if they pay only $2k/month? The salary is clearly under the cost of living. On topic: please don't let all the particularities of this case distrac…

Wow, I checked it out, I didn't realize it but payday loans can be up to 400%: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/askcfpb/1567/what-payday-loan...

Brutal.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#64

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

timthorn wrote: post #49
SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on what job in the UK. In the office IT jobs that most HN readers have, you'd get the time off without questions, and likely a sympathy card from the team too. As a packer on a zero-hours contract in an Amazon shipping warehouse? I don't know for sure but my gut feeling is "hell no, you'd be let go!"

Oh, I agree that the enthusiasm with which the time off is offered will vary, but the legal right is fairly clear: https://www.gov.uk/time-off-for-dependants/your-rights

Sure. Though the Zero-hours contract is the modern loophole that's being enthusiastically exploited: A person on a zero-hours contract may not technically actually be an employee. And even if they are, the employer can just threaten to withhold paying work, since no work is guaranteed.

https://fullfact.org/economy/facts-about-zero-hour-contracts...

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#65

Post by nrinaudo »

mnml_ wrote: post #54
nrinaudo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about the rest of EU, but I currently work in France and I'd be shocked if someone were fired because they took half a day off with little to no notice for serious health or family reasons. If anything, the company would be sued in a heartbeat and almost guaranteed to lose. I worked in the UK for a few years, and have had to take days off with no notice - to attend a funeral, say - and no one even though…

I live in France, in most companies you don't get to finish your trial period if you are out of the office. However for a low pay job like this one, you don't get a 3x2 mnth trial.

I was under the impression that her trial period, or the american equivalent if there's such a thing, was long since finished. If that assumption is incorrect, I agree that taking sudden unpaid leave during one's trial period is dangerous.

That being said, it's happened in my company and we most definitely didn't fire the person for that. I can see how it could happen, but I don't think it's a sure thing by any stretch of the imagination.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#66

Post by koder2016 »

johnloeber wrote: post #15

Not to distract from the content of the piece, but she took a 300% loan? THREE HUNDRED PERCENT? Could she have gotten a better loan? I'm under the impression that most banks offer loans at more reasonable rates. Also, how is Yelp able to retain salespeople in the Bay Area if they pay only $2k/month? The salary is clearly under the cost of living. On topic: please don't let all the particularities of this case distrac…

There is a lifetime of bad choices there, why be surprised at that one?

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#68

Post by onion2k »

tanv_nadkarni wrote: post #40
diskcat wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well Yelp didn't vote for her to be a single mom, or for her BF to go on a risky outdoor activity to get injured, or for her to take a loan @ 300% interest (lol wat?). For some reason people seem to think they deserve special treatment for the choices that they made that didn't turn out so well. Yelp is a company. Its relation with her is that of business, service in exchange for currency on agreed upon work conditio…

Exactly my thoughts. Also I don't understand the "single mom" part. Society does not owe any special treatment to a single mom, not more than any other mom. Single mother is a choice of an independent woman and if she cant afford it she should probably not make it. Instead of being thankful for an employer to have given an opportunity in first place she is ranting against her employer, this is going to make it diffic…

Single mother is a choice of an independent woman and if she cant afford it she should probably not make it.

The father of her child might have died, or left 10 years after the baby was born, etc. Saying she shouldn't have made this choice is completely idiotic. It's highly unlikely she chose her situation.

I wont hire such a person.

You will, because you have to. Deep down everyone is this person. We will all take time off to look after our families and prioritise things above our jobs if they're important to us. An employer has to understand this, especially when you get to the size of Yelp and you're employing call centre sales staff.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#69

Post by ktRolster »

tanv_nadkarni wrote: post #47
PaulRobinson wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Attitudes like this are why trade unions fought for employment laws. I'm absolutely disgusted by the number of people here saying it's her fault that whilst sat in an ICU she was terminated.

It is not the case that people at Yelp find it great joy in firing people. When a person did not turn up for work for three days some HR manager gleefully typed out a termination later and hifived all his co-workers. I don't think that is the case. Hiring someone costs money and so does termination. Unless I know the Yelp's side of the story I wouldn't buy her version. It is possible that she failed to inform her sup…

  > It is possible that she has a long history of staying absent from work.
She did. She'd only been working there from December, used up all her sick-days while still in training, and missed even more days in the following months. One time she missed work because she couldn't find her car keys. It sounds like her manager got fed up and that was the end of it.

Being a single parent is hard.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#70

Post by stedaniels »

PaulRobinson wrote: post #32
sputr wrote: post #27

Ok, so how they treat their employees sucks. Now comes the famous but . Why did she take a job she could not afford - from what I understand she's making a monthly loss of $700 + groceries, gas, etc. Why move to SF, to take a sales job you can't afford? More importantly, a job you knew would be making you an unsustainable loss before you even took it! With a kid in tow this just seems irresponsible. Now you can talk…

In that case nobody should ever go to college ever. If you don't think you can get into a top school, another way to find a way up the ladder is to find a position at a top start-up you believe will lead somewhere better. $1k/month for a year whilst building experience is a cheap way to get yourself into a position that might pay $100k/year if you work hard, especially compared to college. Stop blaming her. Look at h…

Not sure why you're being downvoted. In my mind also, her early risk of a low salary is equally equatable to the up front investment of college/university.
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