The Irony of Being Let Go for Writing a Review of a Review Company
April 28, 2016 11:32 AM Subscribe
Back in Februrary, Talia Jane went 'viral', thanks to a bit she wrote concerning poor pay at Yelp. She was fired from Yelp that same day (previously). Now, Lauren Smiley at Backchannel.com takes a closer look at Talia Jane.
I had read the Cracked piece but didn't put two and two together until the article pointed it out. Glad to see she's hanging in there and it will be interesting to see how she does in NYC.
posted by tommasz at 11:49 AM on April 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by tommasz at 11:49 AM on April 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I thought this was really interesting. She's dealt with some shit, but managed not to let it drown her.
There's definitely some darkness to explore in what it's like to work somewhere that puts out celebrity videos featuring your CEO's fab lifestyle when you're hungry because you're living on rice.
posted by emjaybee at 11:51 AM on April 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
There's definitely some darkness to explore in what it's like to work somewhere that puts out celebrity videos featuring your CEO's fab lifestyle when you're hungry because you're living on rice.
posted by emjaybee at 11:51 AM on April 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
I hope everything works out well for her in New York.
posted by zachlipton at 11:54 AM on April 28, 2016
posted by zachlipton at 11:54 AM on April 28, 2016
The murder plot stuff was frankly amazing. Good luck to her.
posted by marienbad at 11:55 AM on April 28, 2016
posted by marienbad at 11:55 AM on April 28, 2016
She created a filter in her email inbox for “entitled” so she could cull the negative messages out and delete them.
Okay, that's hilarious.
posted by brookedel at 12:14 PM on April 28, 2016 [29 favorites]
Okay, that's hilarious.
posted by brookedel at 12:14 PM on April 28, 2016 [29 favorites]
That murder plot was not where I expected the article to go, but amazing all the same!
posted by corb at 12:54 PM on April 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by corb at 12:54 PM on April 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
high fives, rock on Lady Murderface.
posted by Annika Cicada at 1:00 PM on April 28, 2016
posted by Annika Cicada at 1:00 PM on April 28, 2016
I'm happy to see a more complete story around Talia and glad she's moving to NY - hopefully I can catch her standup act.
posted by grumpybear69 at 1:09 PM on April 28, 2016
posted by grumpybear69 at 1:09 PM on April 28, 2016
"“It was like the rug got pulled out from under me, and as it got pulled out, it was like I realized I’m a really good tap dancer,” "
posted by rebent at 1:24 PM on April 28, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by rebent at 1:24 PM on April 28, 2016 [6 favorites]
Huh. I had read that Cracked piece a while back, but never connected it when the Yelp story happened. Glad she's doing okay, though she is of course moving to the one area in the country where wages and rent are possibly even more out of sync :P
posted by tavella at 1:38 PM on April 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by tavella at 1:38 PM on April 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
This is really good reporting, I really like it. I had a good friend of mine get to the final round of the Yelp customer service reviews, and was so grateful that he didn't get it, and instead got another job with a much lower cost of living. I remember having a 1/3 of a $700-$1000 stipend I had for an internship (forgot the actual number) being taken up by BART due to commuting.
Silicon Valley tech is literally a citadel, where the privileged few whine, wine, and dine within the fortresses, while all plebians and serfs commute from the outer fringes. It's disgusting, and it's intentional. They just want to see how much workers can take before they die quietly from the lack of wages. I firmly believe one of the best skills, even beyond coding (hah!) that one can do now is learn how to organize and voice systematic issues strongly, like what Talia did here.
posted by yueliang at 2:32 PM on April 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
Silicon Valley tech is literally a citadel, where the privileged few whine, wine, and dine within the fortresses, while all plebians and serfs commute from the outer fringes. It's disgusting, and it's intentional. They just want to see how much workers can take before they die quietly from the lack of wages. I firmly believe one of the best skills, even beyond coding (hah!) that one can do now is learn how to organize and voice systematic issues strongly, like what Talia did here.
posted by yueliang at 2:32 PM on April 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
Find me all those SHE IS ACTUALLY RICH truthers now. I mean I have to admit I wasn't that sympathetic before because of the whole "I should be writing" aspect of her rant. I regret that now knowing that she had a track record of professional writing.
She's had a tough crazy life. I hope someone with deep pockets gives her a book deal.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:27 PM on April 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
She's had a tough crazy life. I hope someone with deep pockets gives her a book deal.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:27 PM on April 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
Wow, I am also surprised she was the author of that Cracked story. "Hey, wait a minute, didn't I read that?"
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:56 PM on April 28, 2016
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:56 PM on April 28, 2016
Potomac Avenue: "Find me all those SHE IS ACTUALLY RICH truthers now."
Yeah, I think my favorite bit was the juxtaposition of the troll email saying she should have started at a community college and then transferred to a state school, and the part where she actually did do that.
posted by capricorn at 6:04 PM on April 28, 2016 [10 favorites]
Yeah, I think my favorite bit was the juxtaposition of the troll email saying she should have started at a community college and then transferred to a state school, and the part where she actually did do that.
posted by capricorn at 6:04 PM on April 28, 2016 [10 favorites]
I don't know how you can read that and not come out of it hoping she has all kinds of success. Lovely to read a piece and come out liking the writer and the subject.
posted by Cuke at 6:23 PM on April 28, 2016
posted by Cuke at 6:23 PM on April 28, 2016
She's showing a lot of resilience. I wouldn't bet against her finding success.
posted by dw at 6:40 PM on April 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by dw at 6:40 PM on April 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
I have to admit I wasn't that sympathetic before because of the whole "I should be writing" aspect of her rant.
Yeah I had that and she won me over in the end (as well as reading a lot of the comments on here). The other empathy stumbling block for me was the fact that I'd settle for just about any lifestyle if I could be 26 years old again - don't underestimate how many of the olds instinctively feel the same way.
posted by colie at 11:31 PM on April 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yeah I had that and she won me over in the end (as well as reading a lot of the comments on here). The other empathy stumbling block for me was the fact that I'd settle for just about any lifestyle if I could be 26 years old again - don't underestimate how many of the olds instinctively feel the same way.
posted by colie at 11:31 PM on April 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
What an awful experience to go through as a child, and to tell the world about. I like her sense of humour though all that and I really wish her the best.
In the end though, her own individual story no matter how dramatic should not have mattered so much in the first place, because the issue she was talking about is so much bigger than her. She could have had an uneventful untroubled murder-free childhood, and a safe "privileged" background and enough money and enough support and a stable family, it doesn’t matter in the end. It still would be insane that anyone has to spend that much of their relatively meagre income on rent and transport, with no foreseeable options of improvement, consoling yourself that at least you have it better than the homeless, in one of the wealthiest cities with the highest concentration of ridiculously profitable businesses in the world etc. etc. That’s what’s more shocking than the backstory about witness protection and murders. It’s an extreme symptom of what’s happening in other cities across the world and it won’t get better by itself, it’s systemic, its political, it shouldn’t be reduced to a matter of individual situations and backgrounds eliciting more or less sympathy.
What I liked in that letter is there was that awareness, even while talking about it from such a personal point of view - and of course that gave people the excuse to latch on to the personal details to find fault and avoid looking at that bigger picture, which in a way makes the problem even more evident. I like what she says about that in her piece on Fusion.
In the end though, her own individual story no matter how dramatic should not have mattered so much in the first place, because the issue she was talking about is so much bigger than her. She could have had an uneventful untroubled murder-free childhood, and a safe "privileged" background and enough money and enough support and a stable family, it doesn’t matter in the end. It still would be insane that anyone has to spend that much of their relatively meagre income on rent and transport, with no foreseeable options of improvement, consoling yourself that at least you have it better than the homeless, in one of the wealthiest cities with the highest concentration of ridiculously profitable businesses in the world etc. etc. That’s what’s more shocking than the backstory about witness protection and murders. It’s an extreme symptom of what’s happening in other cities across the world and it won’t get better by itself, it’s systemic, its political, it shouldn’t be reduced to a matter of individual situations and backgrounds eliciting more or less sympathy.
What I liked in that letter is there was that awareness, even while talking about it from such a personal point of view - and of course that gave people the excuse to latch on to the personal details to find fault and avoid looking at that bigger picture, which in a way makes the problem even more evident. I like what she says about that in her piece on Fusion.
But I get it. It’s scary to admit that there’s a problem. It’s scary to realize we’re responsible for fixing that problem. But even scarier is how many of us, instead of putting out the fire, would rather turn our backs to the growing inferno and walk backwards into the flames, wondering aloud why it’s getting so hot and mocking those who catch on fire before we do.posted by bitteschoen at 1:55 AM on April 29, 2016 [5 favorites]
Turn around. Fill out a ballot. Use your voice to douse the flames. It won’t be easy, but we’re facing an inevitability. And it only gets worse the more we pretend it isn’t there.
Find me all those SHE IS ACTUALLY RICH truthers now.
See, my biggest issue with that one then and now is that there is actually no sympathetic person. Either you have enough money and you're lying, or you don't have money and you have things you shouldn't have.
I actually saw BOTH demonstrated simultaneously in the original post, and have seen both demonstrated on myself at the same time. You can literally get "well how do you have no money if you have that possession/housing/etc" and "well why do you have that thing if you have no money hmm? why would you get that?" about the exact same object.
It's always nice to see those people get a sock or some crow stuffed in it, but the greater problem of people doing it never seems to be addressed. And there was an awful lot of it, or the devils advocate-y fence sitting "skeptics" here as well.
So pretty much, it's one thing to change your mind, and this is no one directed specifically at you(!), but to everyone who did it... maybe have a good long introspective think on the crapper as to why you took it in there in the first place?
posted by emptythought at 1:23 PM on April 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
See, my biggest issue with that one then and now is that there is actually no sympathetic person. Either you have enough money and you're lying, or you don't have money and you have things you shouldn't have.
I actually saw BOTH demonstrated simultaneously in the original post, and have seen both demonstrated on myself at the same time. You can literally get "well how do you have no money if you have that possession/housing/etc" and "well why do you have that thing if you have no money hmm? why would you get that?" about the exact same object.
It's always nice to see those people get a sock or some crow stuffed in it, but the greater problem of people doing it never seems to be addressed. And there was an awful lot of it, or the devils advocate-y fence sitting "skeptics" here as well.
So pretty much, it's one thing to change your mind, and this is no one directed specifically at you(!), but to everyone who did it... maybe have a good long introspective think on the crapper as to why you took it in there in the first place?
posted by emptythought at 1:23 PM on April 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
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posted by hippybear at 11:45 AM on April 28, 2016 [1 favorite]