Tonight I sit hear and ponder how? What to do now? While my stomachaches and
sadness overwhelms me with the knowledge and experience I have gained in just
3-4 weeks.
Here in the SF Bay Area we are the strong and the
brave, the ones who have fought the corporations for equal pay. The women who march and stand up proud, the
women who want equality and support each other anyway we can or know how. We are the movers and shakers, the women who
lean-in and speak up when something is wrong in our communities. We are
mothers, daughters, sister, or friends, co-workers, bosses, and the
possibilities never end.
I am a mom, I work from home, I
have always been a contractor, and I guess this suits me well. I would know the difference since I haven’t
worked at a large corporation. I guess after
you have three kids and worked sporadically to take care of them working for a
corporation becomes a far distant dream, or maybe I have never really tried to
work for one. Who knows? I work hard from home, complete more work in
five hours then most do in a week. It is
easy when you don’t have meetings all day.
I don’t make much money, but its mine.
Its what I do, and I am proud to
have my little world. I was born in San
Francisco, and I am one of the few who can actually say I am a native to the
Bay Area.
One of my last experiences
working from home was found on eLance with a job posted titled “Master Project
Manager San Jose, CA”. It outlined a
somewhat typical Project manager outline with milestones, deliverables and five
stages. It did not have a ton of
information, just some guy named Glen in San Jose. I do project management among many other
things so why not… I gave it a go and
applied for the job. They called me back, right away and told me how wonderful
they are, (The Company) and that I was a great fit. I went through the interview possess and then
my first sign to run was exposed. When I
told them my rates go from $50. Per hour or more. They said, “we cant do that, we can only pay
for $15. Per hour and no more.” I
thought about the new startup, their message and thought “wow”, I would be
honored to help women in tech and support something teaching more women how to
startup their own firm. I thought how
exciting it would be to help other women in Silicon Valley. So I went against everything I told myself I
would never do, I took less money for more work instead of getting paid fairly
for the quality work I produce. I took
the weekend to review some of their documents, and sent them eight mockups of
professional templates to use. I
explained to them that in traditional project management this is what I thought
could work, to provide an outline, or structure to start with and help
organize.
I met with the founder in
person Ari Horie of Women’s Startup Lab; at first I thought she was like most
CEO/Founders of startups I had worked with.
Doing a million things at once trying to control the Chaos and
explaining the big picture she created.
As the day moved forward my first clue appeared when she started to tell
me that her employees quit again, and they come and go all the time. She
explained that most employees quit after
a few months because no one understands her, everyone is in it for themselves
and they cant work as hard as she does or people should want nothing more than
to be apart of what she is doing and stop asking for money. I nodded and smiled, then I said quit
sincerely and kind, “well most founders/CEO as you know experience growing
pains and it is usually during that time they hire the right people to take
over.” I explained how most the time
people in her position have to decide, “do they want control or want to
succeed?” The smart CEO hires people to do what they cannot in the
company. I asked her what she thought
she was good at and what she thought she would need from me. She told me she wasn’t a good CEO, she was in
marketing for years and not good for leading a company, she was not good at
managing staff, that she was difficult to work with, and wanted to have fun or
raise money and things. I was not
surprised by her story and agreed, that if people or staff are leaving every
other month then it was either management or money. SO I asked her again, do you want to be King
or succeed? I said I could help but
wanted to see how things go, and would be happy to share my experience of organizing
new companies by creating structure, rules, policies, and routines. She reviewed a few excel spreadsheets with me she had obtained
from the last group of employees that worked for a month or two at WSLAB. It had over eight tabs/sheets with people’s
notes of what they think the WSLab program is, their terms, their language and
what they think the curriculum outline of the program at WSLAB should be. It was like looking at a child’s Christmas
list of ideas. Each one had some notes
similar to the others but all of them were views from different prospective of
the program they teach. I understood
what it was and asked her “what do you need”?
She told me her ideas, about calling people in the program impactors and
founders, then sponsors, and facilities.
There are 5-6 different titles with in the impactor’s category, then her
stages for the program. I said this is
not a “typical” project management organizational method, there are not
millstones, deliverables, or curriculum outlines for anything, this was more
complicated and I would need to talk to the people who had been apart of the
program before to understand the whole thing.
I asked her who the curriculum manager was or who led the programs, she
shrugged and said we don’t have anyone, people either volunteer or can’t handle
working her and leave, therefor nothing was complete. She said, “They did not
have any plans or organization, they just threw it together a few weeks before
the program and hoped for the best.” I paused again and said puzzling, you have
been working this way for over two years?
She said well “I do everything, maybe you can be my chief of staff or
CEO or something?” I thought it was odd
she didn’t know me, even though I was flattered I wasn’t sure this much chaos
was worth the $15 per hour. As I thought
some more that day about a strategy to help, I had more questions “why are
people paying $10-$20,000 for a last minute unorganized class in Silicon
Valley? It just didn’t make sense? Maybe
I can help, maybe there is more than what I can see right now, so I moved
forward with my work.
She said great take your time,
talk to everyone. I asked her to review
my employment contract, and she said that those go to Glen, for review. I sent our agreement to Glen and spent the
next few days reorganizing, completing documents and tasks for everyone, while
I answered questions from 5am to sometimes 2 am in the morning. Everyone was talking to me and Ari told them
she was thrilled to have me help organize, and create policies, I was the
operations person she had dreamed of to help her with the structure of the
program they teach.
As I spoke to everyone working
there at the time, two that had been there since the beginning, David and Glen
did not respond right away to anything.
They took all week and did not reply to emails, or calls til the end of
the week. SO I moved forward and did
what I could with out them. I kept
hearing feedback form the staff, about how they were new to WSLAb, maybe a month old, and that I was just another
person she brought in to try out like the rest that had cycled through. They express that ARI was extremely
confusing, she sent them 20 text an hour, changed people, staff, directions,
and demanded it be done immediately.
I spoke to David and Glen by
the end of the week they had similar stories about inconsistencies and turn over
with staff, they said managing people was not Ari’s strong suit even thought
she was very charming. I asked them both
what they wanted, and they said, “A budget would be nice to start”? I laughed and thought they were kidding. Then they said “no seriously, we would like a
budget, she controls everything and nobody know how much money we need.” I dug a little deep and found they were in
fact corporate status in Delaware with only one board member. I thought that’s strange no co-founder, no
friends, why would a new startup trying to get funding (so they say) not have a
board or something more?
Moving forward as the days flew
by, I was answering emails and text messages day and night, or expect to work
through the weekend. I am accustomed
to working all the time, I like the 24/7 job, because it allows me to work when
needed in order to pick kids of from school and do those mother of three chores
around my work day. I had sent over
fifteen completed professional documents or templates with new processes, and
quickly developing the program management (HAC DOC) into something recognizable
and workable for the employees. I sent
daily updates with progress they said that they were amazed to see. I spent hours on the phone, Skype Calls, and
was wearing multiple hats like startups need.
I again asked for my employment contract and Glen said he was only
part-time and needed to review it still.
I gave them the benefit of the doubt and kept working.
Ari asked me to meet her again
in person on a Saturday morning, she was an hour late and then had me stay five
hours to redo the main spreadsheet completely differently than she approved and
told me to do at the beginning of the week.
Its my job to keep moving forward and interpret what she wants the program
to be, but at this point more signs were appearing. You know when your gut tells you “hey stupid
why didn’t you run the first time”. But
I wanted the message to be true I wanted to help other women in Silicon Valley
and Ari made it sound so good. I talked
to Ari again about the expressed issues from the staff and confusion they
had. I talked with her about one person in
Marketing “K” who was screaming at others demanding that project get done or
they would deal with her wrath. I asked
Ari “why is she calling me and working on the same project or sheet you gave me
the day before to complete?” Why is she so
forceful and mean to everyone? There is
a better way to communicate in my world, even under stress. Ari said it was her fault probably; she had
put pressure and that particular marketing employee. She said she wasn’t going to keep her very
long and knew she was wrong for the company vision. She said she is just trying
to get what she can from her before she leaves.
I looked at her again and said “really? Isn’t there is a better way of
doing things?”
The next week started out
strange, the one marketing employee was at it again, calling me screaming and
freaking out all the time sending URGENT emails, etc. I decided I had enough and sent an email to
Ari, Glen and David, asking what was going on, the commands she was giving us
all were the opposite to what we were previously told, that I wanted clarity
because everyone was hearing different instructions from different people. Ari, texted me at midnight (her usual
routine), but I waited till mooring to answer her call.
I spoke with her around 6am
when the text messages started again, and told what was going on and ask again
what she actually needed to be done.. She
gave me different direction again and said that person “K” in marketing is
going away hopefully, just wait a few more days until I can get more work from
her. She begged me to stay and then sent
me an email about how I was the most special, amazing person and she needed me
on her team.
Again I ignored my gut and tiny
voice screaming, “get out run while you can”, and instead I continued to work
day and night producing more work, and organizing everything. They had a crazy Google drive with half completed
documents from so many people in and out of the company. They had employees wanting to use different
channels of communication, email, chimp mail, slacker, pipe drive, ASANA, and
more. It was a nightmare to organize and
work with, but I did it and kept going.
It was like Farrell cats running everywhere screaming some days. I could not understand why people would do
this for over two years. Ari refused to
change and kept exposing more of her habits to me.
A few examples would be….. When
Ari does not get her way and you ask for money she tells the staff bad things
and bashes you immediately. Or if you do
not turn a project around in an hour even though your new and been there only a
day, she will call everyone and tell them you cant do your job and she needs
you to do the project and push the other employees to get it done. It was like a cruel game of gossip and
manipulation. Pinning employees against
each other for immediate gratification while she screamed the sky is falling on
her way. She bashed her staff in front
of many executives and people. She
blamed them all for not being organized and said everyone was against her and
no one understood how difficult it was to be her. I looked at her and one day while she was
frantic complaining about staff and said politely “Well when the same problem keeps happening,
maybe it is time to look in the mirror”.
She was now preparing for her
trip to Japan and acting more panicky than usual. She texted me at 7am Thursday morning before
she left and begged me to come into the office in Menlo Park for a team
meeting. I told her I could not and had
my 1 year old at home with me but would be happy to dial in for the
conference. She said “no I need you hear
before I leave to go over everything, just bring your baby, please,
please”! I gave in again and drove over
an hour in traffic with baby to meet her and glen so we could talk before she
left. I got upstairs and she said great
you’re here I am about to leave, let me introduce you to my special friend
“P”. I said great but I thought this was
a team meeting? She said I need to have
lunch with a important guy and “P” will lead the team to make sure you do
everything I need. She then said she had
another marketing person coming on to replace another employee who was leaving
soon, or as soon as she had everything she needs.
I sat in the conference room
for an hour until Glen and “P” finally came in, I went over the work I had done
and presented everything. They were
happy and then “P” said to me the reason she was here was because Ari is
unhappy with everyone for not doing more in the last week. I laughed and said are you serious? There are four people running the chaos of
her demands, Japan X program and trying to put together the California program
while we answer her calls and text day and night. IF something isn’t getting done in time maybe
she should retain her employees, and not have so many coming and going. I told her that constantly having new people
all the time is what hurts productivity; along with the fact she takes everyone
off task to do someone else’s job when she is unhappy. I looked the new manager and Glen in the face
and told them my observations of the staff at WSLAB and Ari’s communication
over the last three weeks.
She continually is
bashing and bad mouthing the employees. (We do talked to each
other and are not blind) In addition due to the urgency and
immediate needs caused by high turnover she becomes frantic and starts calling
all the employees telling them that the other staff member cannot get it done,
then demanding they execute the same task immediately with force. This is
a behavior many like to refer to as being an “alarmist” or creating false panic
by constantly yelling, “fire”. I have text and emails from5am to 12:00am
and others receive them around the clock. She demands our time and then
refuses to pay people for their time? This does not seem to be honest, or
professional.
I watched her become abusive to
those around her making unreasonable demands and disrespecting
boundaries. This is NOT what being successful women in Silicon Valley
should be or mean. AND to let you know this is just not my opinion,
present and past employees that the reason they left or want to leave is due to
her behavior also expressed it to me. Manipulating and
pinning the employees against each other, is only causing harm to people and
delaying productivity.
When I was done explaining all
this and waited for a response. Glen who
had been there from the beginning said “yes Ari, does that all the time”, and
your right it is why people leave. The
other people in the office shrugged and said, “that’s just how it is with her,
and some people leave when they don’t want to deal with her anymore.”
I picked up my tired baby and
said, “well do you have everything you need form me, because its been four hours.” They agreed and let me leave. Before I left, I asked Glen for my employment
agreement, I said “it’s been almost three weeks.” He said “yes I will do it soon,” and then
said they now can only commit to paying me for part-time. I was shocked and tired, so I left, and as soon
as I got in the car I saw Ari. She asked
why I was leaving? I told her what Glen,
and “P” I could go and the baby needs
her nap.
She was upset and said, “Well that’s not what
I asked Glen to do!” She said “it not your fault “E” your working hard and
getting more done than anyone here, it is him and he needs to go, he is slow,
we just need to get as much information out of him as we can and get rid of him
too.” I said okay, because what else
could I do? I drove home and of course
my phone, email and everything was going off with WSLAB stuff again.
At this point Ari was leaving
and silence was upon us all for ten hours.
I woke up to text, email, and more.
She had been busy on the plane and because she was not in California she
was sounding like she was freaking out on people, asking them to respond within
five minutes of her emails, and ordering them around through multiple emails,
texts, and more. Telling me to manage
people and ensure execution, while telling the same to someone else.
It was now 4th of
July weekend and Glen said he would relax while she was gone. I kept working and pushed through the weekend
to finish complicated spreadsheets with links to timelines in different
formats, while asking for clarity on Ari’s scribbled down notes. Ari kept pushing and finally we all
broke. I sent in my notice of intent to
quit with all my work, documents and notes.
I made sure the ASAN board was organized my files were neat; I had been
sending daily updates with 3-4 completed documents until July 5th
when I quit.
I called Glen on Monday and
asked if he had received my notice and invoice for payment he said Ari would
only pay me for 20 hours for one week. I
was tired and said whatever just pay me so I can leave. He said he needed to find the PayPal account
information and talk to Ari. I soon
found out why people really don’t stay, they don’t get paid and when
asked to do work for free they
feel tired from all Ari’s emails, and texting demanding things.
I then received an email from
Ari, stating that she would consider my payment after I did the following work,
blah, blah, blah and get back to me. She
was trying to get more work out of me. I
said politely I already organized my work and in fact I sent it every night and
put it on the DropBox, Google, Drive and ASANA board. I told her I would like my payment please and
that I wished her well with everything.
She persisted and changed her
demands asking for more work trying to compliment me and then started making
statements like “don’t you want your clients to know you have done good work”
or something? I finally just said the
law is the law, I have done everything you asked and more, you never complained
about my work before and in fact praised me.
I told her once more “An
employee who gives prior notice or not of his or her intention to quit, must be
paid 72 hours after their notice all of his or her wages, including accrued
vacation, at the time of quitting. Labor Code Section 202. Employers are not allowed to place any
conditions on their payment according to the “The Fair Labor Standards Act of
1938, or FLSA, mandates that employers pay employees' wages for hours worked.
There are no conditions under which an employer is allowed to withhold payment
of wages, and employers who refuse to pay employees for their hours risk
sanctions by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, the federal
agency that enforces the FLSA.” I was
already settling for a third of what she owed me and wanted to move on with my
life. Ari again did her usual asking me
to complete more work. I forwarded the
emails to her attorney and never heard back so I filed a wage claim with the
Department of Labor.
Ari, continues to send heart
wrenching emails, one saying she is
sorry then asking me for more work, complimenting me, and then still not paying
me? She does not know I have seen the
emails she sent to other employees after I quit, saying thing like, “I knew she
would leave”. I am just waiting for my
settlement hearing with the Dept. of Labor.
I can’t, no I refuse to get sucked into more work again and every email
her tone changes, so I no longer respond.
I started talking to more of
the employees who are current employees and some past employees that week. A few facts come to light and it all made
sense suddenly. Apparently Ari has been
doing this to people for years. She
convinces them to work, never signs an employment agreement and then refuses to
pay them. Or pays them just a little so
they keep working. When they quit she
tells everyone they were not any good anyway and she wanted them to leave. The employees still working for her now are telling
me how more people is leaving. Her friend
“P” she brought in to manage everyone, quit after a week because Ari refused to
pay her consulting retainer and sign an agreement. She hadn’t paid another employee yet the last
month and other people are still trying to holdon hoping and she might pay them
or pay them something before they leave.
As I have gone down the list of
old employees I have found one other persons they currently owe over $2500. to
and many more who gave up and left after she refused to pay them. All the employees for the last year have had
the same or similar experiences I had working with her. They all are told how wonderful the program
is, and then find out Ari is collecting $20,000 per applicant and not paying
the employees, or asking them to work for free after a week? As I spoke to more people that had worked
for WSLAB over the last two years, I discovered there had been corporate
sponsors, or instructors, employees and more.
Everyone’s observations was the same about Ari, they said “she is not an example of what women
in Silicon Valley should be”. I then
asked them all “why didn’t you do something or report the issues or speak up?” They said it was not worth the hassle, and
they just wanted to move on from the crazy chaos she creates. Some said they were afraid to speak up and
say something. Others worked out of
state and did not think they could do anything?
It all started making sense but
in a bad way. She created an environment
where no one wanted to stay and be apart of her team. Who would stay when you don’t pay people for
the time they work or follow the rules like reporting payroll taxes and stuff. They said that they figured out the scam and left
very quickly. I was told by a few that they
had emails still with her asking Glen for $6000. or more to go clothes
shopping, that she had a new car lease every month. That they never claimed employee taxes. Some
would say she had filed for the status of Foreign Corporation, and talks about
finding people to invest, but a few possible investors were questioning her
citizenship and not given real copies of the taxes returns for the company so
they left.
My stomach is sick my head hurts
after this week, as I heard stories similar to mine, and all people could say
is “I DO NOT WANT THIS WOMEN REPRESENTING
WOMEN in SILICON VALLEY.” So they left
and were not surprised she was doing the same thing to me.
I asked the old and current
employees to share their stories publicly, to give me the emails and evidence
they collected from ARI’s office and I would help them expose the unethical
situation. Most are afraid, or from
other States, apparently WSLab uses eLance to get free work from people outside
of California so they wont complain when they don’t get paid what they were
promised or something. Then there were a
few that were paid enough to stay a bit longer and help her through the program
for a few weeks or days. Then there were
people who left right away when she told them they had to work for free or
leave.
I look threw the news media and
see so many interviews, so many positive articles saying she is the women to
watch in Silicon Valley and I am confused with the more I dig and talk to past
employees. She has never owned a tech
company, she did not work for over eight years and there is no supporting
evidence that her past companies ever existed.
She collects $10-$20,000 per
applicant to through together some program without any plan or structure. Where is the money? Does anyone know? Why aren’t people getting paid? Why is everyone leaving after two weeks to a
month, and why is she the only board member?
WHY am I the person asking these questions?
Pleas don’t misunderstand, I am
sorry she had a rough time growing up. I heard the stories, about her poor
upbringing. But… What women hasn’t had is rough in this world? We have all been raped or know someone we
love who has been raped. Someone we love
has beaten us, or we know some one close to us who has. We were molested as a
child, or know someone we love who has been molested as a child. We have been mistreated or watched someone
else be mistreated. I was a single mom,
going through college alone and beaten by a man and worse has happened to me. Oh, well?
It is not how you fall, it is how you get up and move on. It is what you do with your tragedy to turn
it in to greatness. Mothers, are the
emotional force and WE the women are the strength of the world. I believe in the Message Women’s Startup Lab
is trying to show and teach, but I cannot support operating a company this
way.
SO here it is my story, I have
a voice so I am going to say it our loud.
I’m a women in the Bay Area/
Silicon Valley and I do not want her representing me!!!!!!
I DO NOT want fame or fortune you
can put your name on this letter and publish it yourself. I like my world and nothing good will come
from this story, its sad this has happened to anyone and me. I am just speaking up and writing about my truth
and story.
I am sure I will be judged and my decision to
share this experience will prevent me from ever having a job again. Because, that is corporate life, and I am
just a mom, a hard working mom, with a few degrees, who wanted to share what
other people were afraid to say.
I do hope someone reads this and says “wow,
thank you, I am not alone in this world today.” I hope others are inspired I spoke up and
come forward with their story of WSLAB.
Because, people should be paid for their work, employees should feel
safe when they are in such a small environment as a startup. People should practice what they preach, and
like I said before….
“I’m a women in the Bay Area/
Silicon Valley and I do not want her representing me.”
