A clothing brand has faced backlash after former employees alleged the company asked its staff to work for free and the owners began selling furniture from their headquarters.
The former workers also said they were fired from Girl Tribe Co., a North Carolina-based boutique, because of money problems the $15 million company has faced.
The anonymous employees added that at least half a dozen workers in the company’s corporate office were “forced to resign” in the span of three days in late January.
“The text said ‘either you’re on the bus or you get off the bus,'” one employee said. “We basically felt like we wouldn’t have a job if we didn’t do this.”
Suspicions began to rise when employees noticed that the store’s owners, Sarah Baucom and Carrie Baker, began selling store equipment and furniture on Facebook Marketplace.
Former employees accused their former bosses Carrie Baker (left) and Sarah Baucom (right) of asking them to work without pay and “forcing them to resign” from Girl Tribe Co., a clothing boutique based in the Charlotte, Carolina area. North.
Former employees say they began to notice that the owners were selling shop furniture online. The owners posted a dryer that belonged to the store on Facebook Marketplace (right)
The store began in 2014 when Baucom and Baker began selling t-shirts on Etsy in November 2014. Pictured: The Girl Tribe Co. store located in Huntsville, North Carolina.
Baucom said Queen City News that the claims are “false information” before saying that a public relations manager would return to the outlet with a follow-up statement.
As of Monday night, the company did not respond to the outlet. DailyMail.com contacted the clothing brand for comment but also received no response.
Others began to notice something was wrong after the owners asked employees to work a Saturday warehouse sale without pay.
After a recent sale, the former employees received their money, but were then officially fired from their jobs, they claim.
“At these types of events, many women and girls come up to us and say, ‘We love everything you represent; we love that this girl supports girls” and we all stood there, as if they were so fragile. “I’m about to cry at any moment,” said one former employee.
One of the workers was fired in the middle of the event, while others were fired in the following days because they said Baucom and Baker called each of them for “difficult conversations.”
Girl Tribe began selling T-shirts on Etsy in November 2014 after Baucom and Baker, two high school friends, invested $200.
Baucom told Queen City News that the claims are “false information” before saying a public relations manager would return to the outlet with a follow-up statement that was never given.
Some of the employees also stated that they were promised severance pay or help covering unemployment, but they have not heard from any of the owners about help with those tasks.
Others began to notice something was wrong after the owners asked employees to work a Saturday warehouse sale without pay. Pictured: one of the Girl Tribe Co. stores in Charlotte
The brand grew to three independent retail stores: two in Charlotte and one in Huntersville. They also promote their brand in pop-up shops and own a facility that manufactures all of their clothing.
“That was the dream, the pie in the sky,” Baucom said. WCNC in April.
“We’re going to have a facility full of women and if graphic T-shirts are where we’re going to make money, we’re going to figure out how to do it from scratch.”
Some of the employees also stated that they were promised severance pay or help covering unemployment, but they have not heard from any of the owners about help with those tasks.
The employees have also not received documentation proving their dismissal, something they said they had asked about for weeks.
“We feel like we were forced to resign because we were told day after day that we are not promised a job,” said one former employee.
“We all knew the clock was ticking for all of us,” said another.