Yelp CEO Responds to Employee Fired After She Wrote a Post About Her Low Pay

A Yelp employee who wrote a blistering post online about her low pay was fired, and has even got her ex-CEO responding on Twitter.

A customer-service rep named Talia Jane, who worked for the company's food delivery arm Eat24, wrote an open letter to Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelmann on Friday explaining how she could not afford to pay groceries, had stopped using her heater, spent 80 percent of her income on paying rent in San Francisco, and was "balancing all sorts of debt and trying to pave a life for myself that doesn't involve crying in the bathtub every week."

"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 added.

Even as she posted her letter online, however, Jane seemed to understand that the repercussions of her post could involve her job.

Her premonitions proved correct, as shortly after, she was let go by Yelp for what she terms as a violation of their internal "terms of conduct."

The incident drew a series of responses from Stoppelmann, who addressed her concerns by acknowledging the high cost of living in San Francisco, while rebuffing any allegations he was the one who fired Jane.

A Yelp spokesperson told Fortune that the company would not comment on personnel matters. However, the spokesperson did echo both Jane and Stoppelmann's comments on the standard of living in San Francisco. "We agree with her remarks about the high costs of living in San Francisco, which is why we announced in December that we are expanding our Eat24 customer support team into our Phoenix office where will pay the same wage."