Dysfunction, abuse of power, deception. - Anonymous employee Marcella (Bulgaria) Employee Review

As one of America's fastest-growing female founded and led companies, we're shocked and saddened by this review, which we consider intentionally misleading. While everyone experiences workplaces differently, what they write re: our company is literally not what our company is or does. We have escalated our concern to Glassdoor of the extreme factual inaccuracies contained but have been told "Glassdoor does not take sides in factual disputes." In the past 2 years, we have let go two employees for company credit card fraud and abuse of our hybrid working, respectively, and we fear that one of them is anonymously engaged in retaliatory behavior. While we hesitate to validate what we consider a defamatory and fabricated review, we will nevertheless address the comments made here for the avoidance of any doubt. We are a 66 person global company with 62 female employees (94% female workforce). Of our overall workforce, more than half have an average (median) age above 30 years old (including on the U.S. team – totally unlike what is claimed here). The picture painted here of a staff of inexperienced young women being preyed upon is entirely fabricated. Of our management team, 4 out of 5 company leaders in our C-Suite consist of highly empathetic and professionally seasoned female executives educated at universities like Harvard, Emory, Duke, and Parsons. The other is a similarly highly empathetic and professionally seasoned male veteran of the economic development space, educated at Columbia, who created the female empowerment-focused social impact pillar of our company. These are management types who not only step up for their colleagues but take pride in actively supporting and mentoring the company's employees. Moreover, to suggest (as here) that "No women who work at the company make any final decisions" is wholly inaccurate and in fact impossible in one of America's fastest growing companies. It also effectively disparages an incredible management team (across various levels) of tens of women in our company (we take immense pride in being female founded, staffed and led across all of our teams). The comments re: our company environment and the partners with which we work (like influencers) are frankly so awful, extreme and out of line with how Marcella operates that we will not choose to address them. We will simply point out that, if true, they would in no way correlate with a company like ours that actually enjoys best in class metrics regarding employee retention with an average (median) employee tenure of 4+ years in our 7 year-old company (even as we've expanded staffing dramatically during those 7 years). 33 employees have been with Marcella for more than 4 years - more than half of the time that the company has existed and note that the company had only 38 employees four years ago. In fact, rather than its being a "strong ruse," as recognized by national media like Inc. Magazine, NBC and Fortune Magazine, we are a company that orients every aspect of our operations towards advancing women and girls globally, starting with our collegial and respectful internal work environment, as well as having supported over 880,000 school days for underprivileged girls since 2021, minimizing the generation of textile waste with our fashion (in the world's second largest polluting industry) and producing all of our garments and accessories with predominantly female teams to whom we pay dramatically above average wages and benefits, including living wages, free health care, paid overtime, a pension, paid maternity leave, among others. It is wrong to suggest that anyone in our company is "underpaid" in the position they occupy. We view it as a core employer responsibility to regularly monitor and index our wages locally and pay well above local averages for all company positions (including – in the U.S. where this individual claims to be based – not having one U.S. employee at even entry level who makes at a minimum less than 38% above minimum wage and also offering 50% subsidized health and dental insurance and a 50% match 401k program to all U.S. employees). In our company's history, we indeed have never once hired an employee who has not been immediately paid above their previous wage (and, moreover, all wage ranges we might offer in the first place are transparently advertised in our job ads). Furthermore, it is similarly wrong to suggest that anyone in our company is exploited in any way. We celebrate the uplifting efforts of our close-knit 66-person global team and take pride in the company we are, inclusive of honoring and respecting all employment laws and are PROUD to be an equal opportunity employer that values diversity. We do not and would NEVER discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other physical characteristic.