Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 171 posts

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#81

Post by zamalek »

diskcat wrote: post #22
moonshinefe wrote: post #2

I was going to critique her for taking on an unsustainable living situation. But by the end of that post, just wow. Yelp is a large company with a lot of resources, the way they treated this woman is despicable, especially after a family tragedy like that. It's not like they'll be going out of business if she took some time off to be a human being and care for her family. I don't use Yelp as I've heard many other neg…

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…

There are enough "studies" (Buffer, Gabe N, ROWE etc.) that demonstrably prove that treating humans like humans, and not like machines, measurably increases performance over longer time-frames - instead of eking out unproductive work over the paltry 3 days while she worries about her boyfriend.

> Its relation with her is that of business

Her relation to the company is that of employee and not slave.

Henry Ford dreamed up this current work environment where people are treated like machines. There is absolutely and utterly zero science to back up this business methodology. Managing people with fear is nothing more than a morally bankrupt global religion that people unwittingly buy into.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#82

Post by crdoconnor »

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…

>Society does not owe any special treatment to a single mom

One of the measures of a civilised society is how well it looks after its most vulnerable members.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#83

Post by negrit »

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…

This is ridiculous.

  Society does not owe any special treatment to a single mom, not more than any other mom
That's not true, in the US provides aid packages and grants to single mothers.

  Single mother is a choice of an independent woman and if she cant afford it she should probably not make it.
Do you think all single mother chose to me single? Don't you think her previous boyfriend/husband could have dumped her/died/...?

  Instead of being thankful for an employer to have given an opportunity in first place she is ranting against her employer.
May be because said employer is terrible and it's worth sharing so other people would not make the same errors?

  I wont hire such a person.
No worries, she probably has no intention to work for you.

You seriously need to leave your cave and experience the life in a modern society.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#84

Post by diskcat »

raverbashing wrote: post #51
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…

You're right However they can't complain when people realize they're paying to work there Oh yeah people get in accidents and get sick, Yelp should hire only perfect human beings I guess

We all got problems.

Why should Yelp be responsible for her problems?

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#85

Post by jonesb6 »

onion2k wrote: post #46
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…

All those points are irrelevant though - they're not part of the story here. The author isn't asking for a pay rise to make up the difference in what she earns compared to what she pays out, or for help looking after her child. She's not looking for any special treatment. All of those things are a distraction from the real point of the post: She wants an employer who's compassionate enough not to fire her for being h…

If we made a list of every large company that violated a reasonable code of human morality.. the wheel was spun and today's public outrage is at Yelp. This stuff happens all the time. Sure we get outraged at the random story we come across every now and then, but largely we are numb to it.

I just think the most valuable thing we can do to prevent these situations is have deeper discussions on the macro level instead of micro-analyzing single cases that have all sorts of bias and obfuscation.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#86

Post by pliny »

moonshinefe wrote: post #13
b6 wrote: post #7

Yelp didn't make her move, or make her take out high-interest loans, or promise any certain job stability based on performance. It isn't relevant to Yelp that she's a single mother. And on and on and on. So much of what is written here seems to be failure to take responsibility for questionable decisions and irrational expectations.

Isn't that attitude the issue at hand though? Large corporations (this one has north of 3k employees and is pulling in hundreds of millions in revenue) shouldn't be able to treat their employees like replaceable trash instead of human beings to save a few bucks. Ironically, if I had a family tragedy and asked for leave at the small company I work for that makes very few profits, they'd give me the thumbs up instantly…

> Large corporations (this one has north of 3k employees and is pulling in hundreds of millions in revenue)

The statistic 'revenue' is well chosen to support your point, because they also posted a net loss in 2015, and 2013, and 2012 and 2011, all in the order of tens of millions of dollars, so while they have a lot of receipts they don't actually have any spare cash.

Companies, big or small, have some quota of instances where they can engage in charity instead of business (that is, make decisions on the basis of their humanitarian value rather than how much they increase net revenue), sometimes they literally engage in charity outside of the company (sponsoring good causes) and sometimes they engage in charity inside the company.

However, if they exceed their quota, they go bankrupt, and then they are incapable of engaging in any future charity and also everyone who works for them gets fired. Companies who consistently lose money (like Yelp) have a lower quota for charity than companies who consistently post profits.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#87

Post by idunno246 »

pilsetnieks wrote: post #59
PaulRobinson wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yelp: So here's how it's going to play out. We'll start you on $2k/month base, and then after 3 months your target bonuses kick in. You: OK, what could those be? Yelp: Well, if you work hard, you could be looking at 25% of sales you book, and we'd be expecting you to be doing $15k-$30k of sales a month, so let's take the lower end of that, and assume an additional $45k a year bringing you up to near $70k/year. Whilst…

> So here's how it's going to play out. We'll start you on $2k/month base, and then after 3 months your target bonuses kick in Hoodwink enough people and fire them before those 3 months are up, and you've got a sustainable business model there.

theyre actually still probably net negative - it costs money to train someone

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#88

Post by diskcat »

prostoalex wrote: post #60

> I am the single mother who closed 17K in month one and 19K in month two. This needs more context. Is this amount of sales considered incredible, very good, average, below average or significantly below average in Yelp world? It's one thing if the author was a top-notch performer terminated for family circumstances beyond her control, it would be a different story if she was under-performing, perhaps on internal pro…

If she was a top-notch performer Yelp would have bent over backwards to keep her around.

The fact that they didn't would imply that the trouble of keeping her is less than the cost of firing her, which says a lot about the performance of an employee.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#89

Post by crdb »

PaulRobinson wrote: post #30
crdb wrote: post #14

> while being pitched ads for my brand new vocal studio in the South Bay > took out a loan with 300% interest to move to SF to begin training December 1st at Yelp > pays $2500 in rent (I make 2k a month so YES, my family has to help and I am so sorry to burden them), pays $1200 a month in daycare I do not understand. Why would someone take a loan (at a ridiculous interest rate) to move to a situation with higher rent…

For similar reasons people take out tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands in loans to go to college: a promise of a better future, a little bit of risk and debt now for a life-changing career, and a better future for her children. It's quite possible she was sold the position on the basis of "well, in 3-6 months time, we'll reevaluate and get you up the ladder". She may have seen it as a life-changing oppor…

> people take out tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands in loans to go to college

I also do not understand this when there are many cheap or free options [1] in the US, and most private colleges have excellent scholarship programs (i.e. free rides) for those smart enough, but not rich enough to attend (much better than anything in Europe). Especially when the cost of education has skyrocketed and its payoff is so low - hell, I usually ignore the education part of the CV when hiring.

Having the right to live and study in the US, being eligible for these opportunities is a treasure by global standards (even if some European countries have it a bit better). But that's a separate discussion.

> It annoys me that you are focusing on the things she did "wrong" rather than asking whether Yelp is culpable for some of the blame here.

This position you implied for me, but it was not what I was stating. I am attempting to understand the reasons behind the displayed pattern of decision making (and you indeed provided a plausible explanation), not passing any kind of moral judgment.

[1] quick Google: http://www.thebestschools.org/magazine/tuition-free-colleges...

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#90

Post by jonesb6 »

Hey everyone can I just make the point that comments supporting either the mother or Yelp bring value to the discussion especially if they reflect the true opinion of the reader (and likely reflect the opinion of many other readers).
Post reply on HN