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Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

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Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#131

Post by b6 »

rootlocus wrote: post #122
b6 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When my father died last year I'm sorry. :( > I was immediately offered (without me even asking for) up to two weeks payed leave. That was really good of them. My hope is that the author (and everyone) will choose to work for a company that would be as good to her as yours was to you. But a job is just an offer. The employer can't ensure that the offer makes sense for any individual's situation. I personally think…

> I look for whether or not they were deceptive or failed to hold up their end of the deal. Does that even matter? The way her manager treated her was utter crap and that reflects badly upon the whole company. Her article is a subjective accounting of what happened, and I truly believe most of it is true. Having an accurate, objective picture of the situation is impossible.

> The way her manager treated her was utter crap and that reflects badly upon the whole company.

Was the way her manager treated her a violation of their agreement? If it was, we should condemn Yelp, or at least that manager. If on the other hand Yelp was acting in accordance with the agreement, why are you talking as if your values should be important in an agreement you aren't a party to?

I guess it comes down to, do you think adults should be able to make deals as they see fit? Or just ones you think are nice?

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#132

Post by darkr »

ktRolster wrote: post #128
darkr wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's $2k basic before commission (as sales salaries are often largely composed of commission), and that fact wasn't disclosed in this post?

So, she was selling $19k worth of stuff, and claimed she was doing a good job (let's assume she's correct). Her income was $2k. So that means ~10% of Yelp's revenue is going to salespeople. Is that normal? Do salespeople normally take 10% of every sale?

I meant her alleged base income was $2k _before_ commission.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#133

Post by Overtonwindow »

raverbashing wrote: post #119
sgift wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"used up all her sick days" ... the whole idea that sick days are something you can run out of is so .. wrong.

Well, to be honest some countries don't have unjustified sick days, you can take unlimited ones, but with a doctor's note, otherwise it's taken out of your pay

I think a key difference here is paid sick leave versus unpaid sick leave. I think companies should allow more unpaid sick leave, but if we allow unlimited paid sick leave, no one would ever go to work.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#134

Post by BWStearns »

diskcat wrote: post #88
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.

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

There is no 10x or 100x phone web-ad sales person. It's slightly more differentiable than bricklaying. You might be impressively and noticeably better than everyone else, but your greatest asset is being non-differentiable: show up on time, follow your script, go home. When you start costing more expensive people's time your marginal advantage isn't enough to save you.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#135

Post by radu_floricica »

I haven't seen this mentioned in comments before: we really need the other guy's POV in this. The most common scenarios in which you'd fire somebody for failing to show up at work is if:

- you want to fire them anyways and are just looking for an excuse

- there are recurring issues and this is just the last drop in a bucket - in which case the firing incident could very well be relatively trivial

> I am the single mother who was the top of my class in training for you Jeremy

It does not make financial sense for a company to fire a top employee for missing a day, evil or not.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#136

Post by sre_ops »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #133
raverbashing wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to be honest some countries don't have unjustified sick days, you can take unlimited ones, but with a doctor's note, otherwise it's taken out of your pay

I think a key difference here is paid sick leave versus unpaid sick leave. I think companies should allow more unpaid sick leave, but if we allow unlimited paid sick leave, no one would ever go to work.

Yeah, because not having people who were supposed to be doing a job because they are holding the seat "warm" totally solves all the problems.

I'm sure customers love hearing those excuses.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#137

Post by bonzini »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #133
raverbashing wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to be honest some countries don't have unjustified sick days, you can take unlimited ones, but with a doctor's note, otherwise it's taken out of your pay

I think a key difference here is paid sick leave versus unpaid sick leave. I think companies should allow more unpaid sick leave, but if we allow unlimited paid sick leave, no one would ever go to work.

It's almost like that through all of Europe (possibly with a limit like 8 months in the last 12). You need a doctor's note however.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#139

Post by stevetrewick »

gambiting wrote: post #98
ktRolster wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In the UK, Wonga.com charges 1500% interest on payday loans. If you take it for longer than few days you are insane https://wonga.com/

In the UK payday loan interest rates are listed in terms of APR (anualised interest) because regulations stipulate it. A payday loan is a short term loan so the effective interest rate is lower. Still high - that's how the time value of money works, try getting a short term bridging loan from a retail bank (actually almost impossible, hence Wonga et al) - but not 1000%. Always provided that you pay it back on time, of course. It's true that taking one out without the ability or intent to pay it back within the window is irrational but people in dire straits are often subject to hyperbolic discounting effects.

Re: Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me

#140

Post by Intermernet »

diskcat wrote: post #80
gaur wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firing someone for taking three days off to handle a family emergency is not reasonable. Your opinion of whether the emergency was caused by risky behavior is irrelevant.

Firing somebody for not working is clearly sensible. Your opinion of whether Yelp's action is reasonable is irrelevant.

To completely ignore the tone of your post, and reply to the topic at hand, it isn't "clearly sensible". Even if your only motives are driven by profits, it takes a lot of money to retrain a replacement. Add to that the motivational benefits of providing an employee with support during a time of need, which will statistically provide greater productivity in the future, and it's usually better in the long term for a company to support employees in need.

I'm frankly disgusted that anyone would look at this from a purely profit driven viewpoint, especially as this viewpoint is short-sighted and mistaken.

Treat your employees well and they will usually treat you well.

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