Getting that first job out of school is a momentous experience. In that moment, many of us feel like we’re finally on our way to real adulthood. But in reality we’re also still kids whose brains aren’t fully developed. This may be a hollow comfort looking back at bad decisions years later, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
A Florida woman recently shared the relatable tale of taking and remaining at a job that she regrets. Tampa resident Amelia (@amelia.millie00) says she worked at a WingHouse during her senior year of high school. One day, a table of people in tailored suits got seated in her section. With some flattery, a business card, and the promise of a job after graduation, Amelia says that they essentially tricked her into working for a “pyramid scheme.”
The alleged pyramid scheme: Frontier Communications.
In a TikTok about the job, Amelia says she called the recruiter a week before graduation and went in for an interview.
“I don’t ask any questions about what the job is, what the job entails, anything. They just keep telling me that I’m going to be marketing,” she says.
Amelia recalls showing up for work in her own “fancy tailored suit.” They had a meeting, she says, during which she learned a bunch of acronyms. Afterwards, she got her uniform: black pants and a red shirt. That’s when she says she learned she was working for Frontier, a cable and internet company.
“We start getting into people’s cars, and I’m like what the f— is going on,” she says. “It’s door-to-door sales.”
“I know what you’re thinking. You obviously quit after that,” Amelia adds. “No I didn’t. my dumba— stuck with it.”
From High School To The ‘Hood’
Amelia says that the managers put the 5’0″ white teen “smack dab in the hood” to sell cable and internet door to door.
The experience she describes was harrowing.
“I got locked inside someone’s house one time. I got guns pulled on me. Luckily the majority of the time I was safe because people knew me as the cable lady. They fed me. They’d give me water,” Amelia says.
“No matter how many times I told them I was afraid for my life, they kept me in there,” Amelia later recounts. “I guess I have no sense of self-preservation. I didn’t f—— quit.”
She did well enough that she was promoted. Then she says the team went to Texas for a conference. While they were there, she learned that actually they were going to stay for a while and sell Frontier, Amelia says.
“Let me tell you, that f—— sucked,” she says. At one point, Amelia claims they had a competition with a local Frontier office.
“Whoever loses gets slapped in the face with a f—— squid,” she says. “I got slapped in the face with a f—— squid.” As she speaks, she shows a photo of herself with a mark on the side of her face where the squid presumably hit her.
They finally went home, where she says her manager vanished for weeks, leaving them to wing it.
By then, Amelia had enough. When the manager returned, she quit to go sell cars.
“She looks at me dead in the face, and she goes, ‘You’re gonna go from sales where you have hot leads to cold leads? Really?'” Amelia says incredulously. “Like b—- are you delusional? You give me zip codes, and you give me house numbers.”
What’s A Pyramid Scheme?
A pyramid scheme is a job in which the only way to make a living wage typically entails recruiting others to work under you, then taking a cut of whatever they sell. These businesses are often also known as multilevel marketing, or MLM.
These types of companies cast a wide recruiting net and typically end up ensnaring workers through deception. Anyone can get caught up in a pyramid scheme, though frequently those who do are young, inexperienced, desperate, and/or uninformed about MLMs.
Amelia alleges that Frontier paid their salespeople $30 or $40 per sale and that their managers also got a percentage. If true, this is how pyramid schemes basically work. Then again, it’s also how many sales positions are structured.
But she does also say that she didn’t get paid what she was due, which is a hallmark of many pyramid schemes.
Frontier Communications did not respond to BroBible’s inquiry sent via Facebook direct message.
People who commented on Amelia’s post were torn. Some say pyramid scheme; others say it’s just a sales job.
“That is not a pyramid scheme. That’s exactly how sales works. The salesmen get a commission, their manager makes money based on the sales and the boss makes the majority of the money. All sales are this way,” a skeptic wrote.
Another countered, “The same thing happened to me. I was like, ‘OMG MARKETING?! YAY!!’ And my dad was like, ‘Yeah. Find something else for work. PLEASE.’”
Years later, Amelia still can’t believe she did all that.
“It’s like a fever dream,” she says.
Amelia didn’t respond to a direct message sent via TikTok.
@amelia.millie00 Top 10 worst things I’ve ever put myself through for sure 🤣 door to door sales should be illegal LMAO #doortodoorsales #frontier #verizon #wifi #pyramidscheme