Yelper says she was fired for staying with injured boyfriend in ICU instead of working
Another week, another open letter on Medium written by a recently fired, low-level Yelp employee detailing mistreatment and a disturbing lack of empathy from Yelp managers. Jaymee Senigaglia, who was an associate account executive (read: telemarketer) from December until very recently, wrote that despite proving herself early and often as an able salesperson and employee, Yelp managers prevented her from leaving work early to care for her son, who had bronchitis, as well as told her she would be fired if she chose to stay in the ICU with her boyfriend, who had been injured mountain biking. She ended up staying.
"I am the single mother who had Yelp's back because I thought they had mine," Senigaglia wrote (bolding hers). "I am the single mother who was the top of my class in training for you Jeremy and absolutely did not let you down but the way you treat parents as an employer is a little confusing."
"I'm educated. I am capable. I am not looking for hand outs. I do not rely on the state to care for my son," Senigaglia wrote. "My family needed me and you fired me Yelp. And while you use our lunch breaks for company wide meetings to keep spreading anti-extortion campaigns, let's not forget everyone:
#YelpCares"
Nearly two weeks ago, a 25-year-old Yelp employee named Talia Ben-Ora wrote an open letter to CEO Jeremy Stoppelman detailing her struggle to make ends meet in San Francisco as a customer-service rep:
I haven't bought groceries since I started this job. Not because I'm lazy, but because I got this ten pound bag of rice before I moved here and my meals at home (including the one I'm having as I write this) consist, by and large, of that. Because 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. But we're not allowed to take any of that home because it's for at-work eating. Of which I do a lot. Because 80 percent of my income goes to paying my rent. Isn't that ironic? Your employee for your food delivery app that you spent $300 million to buy can't afford to buy food. That's gotta be a little ironic, right?
She was fired the same day. On Twitter, Stoppelman wrote that he was "focused" on the issue of lowering San Francisco's soaring housing costs, and said he was not "personally involved" in her firing. Another woman, 29-year-old Stephanie Williams, wrote her own open letter criticizing Ben-Ora for, I guess, being a whiny millennial; Senigaglia has, so far, in the twelve hours since her letter was posted, avoided the same kind of "your bad job is your own fault." Though I'm sure those responses are coming! Can't wait.
Yelp did not reply to a request for comment.
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