22 newyork| february1–14, 2021
RACHELPEACE,28,Brooklyn,public-relations
specialist,motherof a 4-month-old►theonly personwhoknewI was
pregnant before we started working
remotelywasmy immediatedirector,and
shewassupportiveandwonderful.But
then,at a certainpointinthespring,the
companysuddenlylet go ofourinterna-
tionalcontractors.ThatwaswhenI was
like,Thingsare abouttogetreal.SoI put
inwritingvery quickly, “Hey,I’mpreg-
nant.” Butbeingpregnantdoesn’t saveyou
whentherearemasslayoffs.We werefur-
loughedinAprilandthen laidoff in
August.I wasdueinOctober.
jackie,a newjerseypublicschoolteacher, lost
every streamofincomeshehadinJune.Rentwas
weighingonherwhenthemessage appearedinher
FacebookMessengerin-box:“Hey,hun,” or“Hey,
girl,”or“Hey,babe,” froma high-schoolfriendin-
vitinghertoa virtualFacebook“party”tolearn
aboutZyia,anactivewearbrandandmultilevel-
marketingcompany. TwoZyia“reps”toldattendees
howgreat it wasnotjust toweartheclothesbutto
sellthem.It seemedlike a perfectway togetby.
Asthe pandemichit, MLMbrandspeddlinga
range ofwares,fromessentialoilstosex toys,real-
izedthey hadtheperfectpitchforscoresof womenwhowerelosingwork.Topsellersemphasizedhow
stay-at-homemothers,students,andtheunemployedcould“betheirownCEO”fromtheirphones.
Jackiepurchaseda starterkitwithfivepiecesof activewear and a $100 gift card for $295. Shewould
ge t a 20percentcommissiononanythingshesold;her“uplines,” the two reps who recruited her,would
eachgeta commissiononwhat shebought.Jackiedid well at first. Then she started wakingupto
intenselycheery text messages.“Ifthey saw somethingon your page, they would take a screenshotand
sendit toyouwiththislongvoicememoaboutwhat you did wrong,” she says. “If I hadn’t hitmy goal
yetforthemonth,I wouldgetmessageslike ‘You need to press harder.’”
TheDirectSellingAssociation,a tradeorganization of MLMs, estimates that 74 percentof
th e 16 millionAmericansinvolvedin direct selling are women. The highest among theirranks
haveseamlesslyintegratedtheirmarketing tactics into #girlboss and #momtrepreneurtrends
onInstagram,braggingabout“retiringfrom corporate” at 25 and posing with giant checks,on
privatejets,andpoppingChampagne.According to one study, less than one percent ofMLM
participantsmakea profit.
“Y ouhavewomenthat areclose to suicide because they’re in the middle of a pandemic. Theirfamily
doesn’t have any money, and they’ve spent money they didn’t really have to try and make a difference,”
says Lori, who repped Paparazzi, a jewelry MLM, before quitting in September. She says heruplines
encouraged her to push potential recruits to use their stimulus checks to join the company.
As Jackie sold and bought less, “it got nastier and nastier,” she says. Her dog had gotten sick,and
she was having trouble consolidating her credit-card debt—she had maxed her cards outonZyia
products she bought to host parties and on giveaways for customers. When she opened up aboutfeel-
ing overwhelmed in a group chat with her Zyia team, her uplines scolded her for “being negative.”
Jackie was done. “I don’t want to feel pressured,” she told her uplines, and she blocked them onsocial
media. “They kept being like, ‘Zyia’s a sisterhood,’ ” she says. “It’s not.” ■
My company extended our healthcare
for three months after termination,and
I literally needed it for every singleday
because I ended up having horriblecom-
plications. Now I’m on a planfromthe
marketplace that’s $20 a month,andmy
son is on Medicaid.
I gave myself a maternity leave.I didn’t
want my lack of a job to impactthisearly
time with my son. But those threemonths
areovernow, andI feelthepressure.When
it comes to finances, money is waning.I just
started noodling around for jobsthisweek,
and it is 100 percent overwhelming.I look
for jobs at 2:30 in the morning,whenI’m
awake with my son.h sh pp a dd pp tiSANDRA*, 53, Queens, cleaner andnanny► before the pandemic, I usedtogo in
the mornings to do housekeepingworkin
the city with elderly people, andintheafternoons, I would be a nanny in Brook-
lyn. When the pandemic came, I couldn’t
go to the elderly people because they were
high risk. It was a big change in income.
My elderly people did send me some
money—$50 here or there. Sometimes
I didn’t pay my full rent on time, and
I had to talk to the manager.
I came down with covid-19 in Decem-
ber. I couldn’t work. This sickness—sorry
formy words—isa bitch.It looksfor your
weakness. I thought I was going to die. My
elderly people supported me when I was
sick. They sent me some money for food
or whatever I needed. My babysitter em-
ployer didn’t pay me anything. I thought
she appreciated me. It was really disap-
pointing. I just went back to work and
nothing happened, which was such a sur-
prise for me. She lost her job last week, so
now my hours are shorter.MCHANEL CLARK, 39, Atlanta, retail employee,
mother of an 8-year-old► i’d been working at Macy’s for the
past two years. At first, I was furloughed.
Both my father and father-in-law passed
away due to coronavirus, and my mother
was hospitalized for several months, so
I was taking this pandemic very seriously.
I was in a really bad place when they
called me back to work, but I still went back
because, at the time, my son, who has
autism, was at a special-needs after-school
camp that was very supportive and safe. But
when the schools announced they would be
closing and going 100 percent virtual, I told
my employer I had to take a medical leave,
and they agreed.
After a month, my supervisors gave me
an ultimatum: Come in to work or be let go
and have it considered “job abandonment.”
If you abandon a job, you don’t get unem-
ployment, and you also cannot get hired by
any other affiliate stores.
It was crushing. You work for a company
for two years, and they just do this? We’d
been saving up for so long to become
homeowners—that’s why we moved to
Georgia—but we’ve had to use all our sav-
ings since I left work.
My husband’s working two jobs, and he
can’t really be home with us. It’s very iso-
lating being alone with my son, and he’s ►So it’s been kind of nice to spend some time
with myself. I didn’t want it to happen this
way, but I am grateful that I got the chance
to know myself a bit better. It’s unfortunate
that it took a pandemic, but here we are.
“HE Y, HUN!”nw m n
ob s ss
l v m r
o uBy Bridget Read