Former Yelp employee Talia Ben-Ora posted an open letter on Friday to Yelp co-founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman and prompted a massive social reaction.
Ben-Ora said that she wasn't earning a livable wage as a customer support worker for the company's Eat24 division.
Yelp is a popular crowd-sourced ratings and reviews website for local businesses around the country.
Eat24 is the food-delivery service under Yelp.
Ben-Ora, who lives in the Bay Area, said in her letter that she gets paid $733.24 bi-weekly, but most of her check goes toward her $1,245 rent, among other costs.
"I haven't bought groceries since I started this job. Not because I'm lazy, but because I got this 10-pound bag of rice before I moved here, and my meals at home consist, by and large, of that," she wrote. "Because I can't afford to buy groceries."
Ben-Ora told The Washington Post Tuesday that she was fired from her job hours after posting the letter.
The response to Ben-Ora's firing and her letter prompted responses from other millennials and non-millennials alike, including freelance writer Stefanie Williams.
Williams criticized Ben-Ora for complaining about only being able to live on rice when she seems to spend her money on other things.
"It sounds like you've hit some real post-Haitian earthquake style hard times, so maybe some advice will help while you drink the incredibly expensive bourbon you posted on your Instagram account and eat that bag of rice, which was the only other thing you could afford," Williams wrote in her letter Saturday.
Williams also criticized Ben-Ora for not working harder for a better paying job in San Francisco, a city known for having a high cost of living.
Williams added that she and Ben-Ora "are worlds apart in the concept of work ethic" and had a problem with her "asking for handouts from strangers while you sit on your ass looking for cushy jobs you are not entitled to while you complain about the establishment, probably from a nice laptop."
Other millennials have decided to write an open letter in response to Ben-Ora open letter, which in turn has led to more open letters responding to open letters.
GQ writer Nicole Silverberg wrote a sarcastic open letter on Tuesday to Ben-Ora and Williams, criticizing them both.
Silverberg first criticized what she thinks is the women's need for attention.
"It seems to me that you (Stefanie) wanted to prove to you (Talia Jane) that you are, somehow, even more of a millennial than Talia Jane and that Talia Jane is 'doing it wrong,'" Silverberg wrote.
"I love this, because I think it's important for women to publicly correct their peers and hone their one-upmanship while ultimately reducing our generation to a series of broad stereotypes, which I will soon do. And that's why I'm really here."
Ben-Ora had a response to critics, particularly Williams, in her second open letter written on Tuesday.
"Call me entitled, but I don't think you should be barred from growing and exploring and taking risks, because your income isn't in proportion with the cost of living in your area."
http://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/702137313372012544
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