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    Morifarty's ringtoneAnna Merlan
    6/17/15 11:55am

    Saberi says she was first diagnosed with end-stage renal failure in 2013

    She should apply for SS Disbability as she would qualify for immediate Medicare under Title 18 of the Social Security Act.

    It’s rare that I get to use knowledge from the job I am actively shirking in order to comment on this website but miracles do happen.

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      Loose_SealMorifarty's ringtone
      6/17/15 12:03pm

      When I was reading that part, I kept thinking that THIS is why we need a single payer health care system. It is ridiculous to have to rely on your employer for health care to be on a transplant list. I know the Affordable Care Act changes that, but the system is still so complex.

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      Morifarty's ringtoneLoose_Seal
      6/17/15 12:09pm

      And open enrollment is not year long, so if you’re laid off in August you’re not eligible to obtain insurance through the marketplace until January of next year. And you cannot be put on the list to become eligible for a transplant without some type of insurance due to the complications and lifelong medications that are necessary to ensure that your body will not reject the organ, and surgeons don’t want to risk having people die because that looks bad for their numbers as well as bad for the Hospital in which they had admitting privileges.

      Also, there are a lot of people who are still unable to afford insurance through the marketplace even with the subsidies they receive, but are also over the income limits for Medicaid, or are in a state that did not expand the Medicaid program despite Federal assistance because the people in power had a point to make that those same politicians cannot fully comprehend or follow.

      Go America.

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    RegularParrotAnna Merlan
    6/17/15 11:44am

    Who’s up for some ridiculous tan lines? Anyone?

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      SpeciousRegularParrot
      6/17/15 11:48am

      Is that a pentagram on your chest or are you just happy to see your DARK LORD?

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      Erin Gloria RyanRegularParrot
      6/17/15 11:49am

      http://jezebel.com/the-strappy-sw...

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    fashionburnoutAnna Merlan
    6/17/15 11:43am

    I used to work at ModCloth, and this is EXACTLY what happened there, minus a book deal for the founder. Almost word for word.

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      Erin Gloria Ryanfashionburnout
      6/17/15 11:48am

      You should email us.

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      panUNDEADdroid7Erin Gloria Ryan
      6/17/15 12:01pm

      I hope this person does! I wanna hear the scoop. I have heard similar things before, but no one has divulged anything specific.

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    olivianewtonjohnAnna Merlan
    6/17/15 12:02pm

    This kind of thing sucks, but is so common at companies founded by “cult of personality” types who are great at ideas but ignorant about business. It’s all well and good when it’s a few people making something cool get off the ground, but then they get to the stage where they need to have more formal processes in place in order to get the business up to the scale they’ve reached (not to mention be profitable). Growing pains are to be expected.

    I’m sure Amoruso has no interest in dealing with the day to day operations of Nasty Gal—and she’s not the right person to do it either (that’s not where her talents lie). But it does sound like this Waterson person was a bad choice and that the whole thing is imploding all around them because the leadership is too narcissistic (understatement) and their HR team seemingly inept. It’s a shame because the concept/voice and the merch is clearly stirking a chord with young women...

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      Andrew Daisukeolivianewtonjohn
      6/17/15 12:12pm

      Behind every good companies incompetent CEO there are a trove of people more important. Sounds like this company didn't have anyone at the top who was worth a shit.

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      Melvin Melvinsolivianewtonjohn
      6/17/15 12:21pm

      Well said. The Brand only exists to provide profits to it’s shareholders. The Brand needs a figurehead, a guru, to distract/entice the buyers. The Brand does not care about fair labor laws or anything but Quarterly Earnings Reports. The Brand will offshore profits and manufacturing and IT and everything else it can. The Brand will eventually be replaced by a newer version, but the business model will live on forever.

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    HaHaYouFoolAnna Merlan
    6/17/15 12:04pm

    It sets my teeth on edge when people say that a woman like Amoruso is “the feminist for Millennials” because she’s brash and flashy and successful. I do not belittle her success, but let’s be honest here: she’s a person who with lots of hard work, yes, but also lots of help, and lots of luck, rose to the top. Also, bitch can’t write; I am not fooled by the memoir masquerading as casual girl-to-girl talk. If she could write better, she would, but she can’t, so she leaned into the image of the tough, unconventional bitch. Whatever, it works for her, that’s fine, but don’t fucking tell me she speaks for my generation.

    My feminist is Leslie Knope: tougher than the toughest dude in the room, but still kind and compassionate. That’s what a leader should be.

    GIF
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      nacl3456HaHaYouFool
      6/17/15 12:27pm

      You really can’t think of any non-fiction feminists? SMH.

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      HaHaYouFoolnacl3456
      6/17/15 12:37pm

      *eye roll* Of course I can. That doesn’t mean I can’t be inspired by the creations of real life badass feminists like Amy Poehler.

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    emfish55Anna Merlan
    6/17/15 12:45pm

    This doesn’t strike me as a story about feminism or women in the workplace. It’s strikes me mostly as a story about how the venture capital culture of Silicon Valley, which is predicated on very rapid growth, hurts employees.

    It’s okay to grow slowly as a company. Not glacially slow, just slower than VC investors are often comfortable with (because they’ve put up some obscene amount of money and want to see rapid and large returns on it). And if you want to create a company that is built in large part on the loyalty and efforts of the rank and file, then rapid growth is not your friend. You know how you achieve mammoth profits very, very quickly in most cases? By fucking over the people who work there. Either you demand a level of productivity and ROI that makes it hard for employees to have a life outside of work, much less families, or you pay the very bare minimum, or you hire lots of young, inexperienced workers and create a sink or swim culture. Or you do all of those things. The point is, in order for a company to achieve the kind of exponential growth that the prevailing business culture demands, you have to be lean and mean. Really lean and really mean. You don’t make rich people extra rich by treating people with dignity, paying market or above-market wages, and absorbing the costs of things like maternity/paternity leave and disability time off.

    Which is why we really need to start asking ourselves as a culture whether “exponential, rapid growth” should be the standard for every fucking company.

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      IWASDARTHVADER's death star canteenemfish55
      6/17/15 12:54pm

      This. The main takeaway I got from this article was that the reality of venture capitalism collided with the good intentions of the original nasty gal employees and it all ended in a steaming pile of crap.

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      dalilaemfish55
      6/17/15 1:09pm
      GIF
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    fennelbreathAnna Merlan
    6/17/15 11:40am

    “...and how their jobs were taken over by other employees...”

    Can someone kindly explain to me how this part is relevant? When there are layoffs, it usually doesn’t mean that the work no longer needs to be done. It usually means the remaining employees need to pick up the slack...

    ...doesn’t it?

    It seems obvious to me that other (existing) employees would need to take over their jobs.

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      GertrudeFrancesfennelbreath
      6/17/15 11:52am

      I think they’re saying that the jobs were filled by new hires, rather than absorbed by existing employees, which would negate the premise that the layoffs were related to “downsizing.”

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      Calls From the Publicfennelbreath
      6/17/15 11:55am

      From my reading of the story, it seems as though the layoffs were proposed as part of a “restructuring” where work would be differently distributed and, thus, they would not need as many people. When they turned around and filled those positions they got rid of without “restructuring” it probably just seemed liked a slap in the face to long-time employees, and sent out a message to those remaining, like, “watch out, because we can replace YOU with someone younger, cheaper and more naive too”. It sounds like what other companies do to scare employees who are trying to unionize or organize in any other way, and if that’s the case it’s a shitty intimidation tactic. (I could be totally wrong though. That’s just my interpretation of it and I’m only, like, four sips in to my coffee today.)

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    MichaelAnna Merlan
    6/17/15 11:51am

    The story also credited Amoruso with “making feminism cool again.

    She always uses the word “feminist” with disdain though.

    This book is titled #GIRLBOSS. Does that mean it’s a feminist manifesto?

    Amoruso: Oh God. I guess we have to talk about this. #GIRLBOSS is a feminist book, and Nasty Gal is a feminist company in the sense that I encourage you, as a girl, to be whom you want and do what you want. But I’m not here calling us “womyn” and blaming men for any of my struggles along the way.

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      FelisMichael
      6/17/15 11:58am

      Ah, she’s one of those—enjoys all the benefits of feminism, but doesn’t want to acknowledge how it’s helped her.

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      dalilaFelis
      6/17/15 12:06pm

      I’m too feminist for feminism.

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    PurplePleasureAnna Merlan
    6/17/15 11:43am

    I “don’t even go here” but made an account just to say that this is an excellent piece of journalism.

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      Cocopop!PurplePleasure
      6/17/15 1:31pm

      Yes. More of this please!

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    GinAndTonic Got Stuck in the BarneyAnna Merlan
    6/17/15 12:11pm

    “the front desk girl”

    That right there tells me all I need to know.

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      EternalRoseWarriorGinAndTonic Got Stuck in the Barney
      6/17/15 1:58pm

      As a “front desk girl”, this definitely raises a red flag.

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      seatartGinAndTonic Got Stuck in the Barney
      6/17/15 4:30pm

      My dad used to work as a consultant to businesses. He would sit in the CEO’s office and talk about staff and pay rates. His strongest point would be to ask management who the first person someone calling or coming into the business would talk to. “Why, our receptionist, of course” “And this is the lowest paid person in the company?”, he would ask. “Well, she’s the receptionist. He’d then wait for management to grasp his point. Very few got it. This was back in the 70s. Business still hasn’t “gotten it”. You get what you pay for, big business.

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