Post by Some Funny Name on Oct 19, 2012 9:05:32 GMT -5
I worked for her. She is a raging psycopath and a horrible, horrible person. You would not believe the stories i could tell you. Crazy ass horrible bitch. All the moms i know dont even let their kids buy that shit. LFs hq are here so its pretty well known around town how she and her company are.
I worked for her. She is a raging psycopath and a horrible, horrible person. You would not believe the stories i could tell you. Crazy ass horrible bitch. All the moms i know dont even let their kids buy that shit. LFs hq are here so its pretty well known around town how she and her company are.
OMG. Really? I kinda wondered after watching the interview on the Urban Outfitters site where she wouldn't let them show her face. She seems, um, quirky.
Post by Some Funny Name on Oct 21, 2012 11:57:12 GMT -5
****Do not read this post if you want your childhood Lisa Frank memories to remain intact****
LF's husband, James Green, was once a lowly artist at LFI. Shortly after he started screwing LF, he became CEO and President of the company. They later had two children, boys named Hunter and Forrest Green. (I shit you not.) They also later had a nasty and expensive public divorce that has nearly destroyed the company. Hunter was about 4-5 when I worked there, and they were expecting Forrest when I quit. In-house counsel had been booted from his corner office, which was to be turned into a nursery in preparation. Hunter wore suits and $400 shoes. He was fond of barging into the higher-ups offices and demanding to know what they wer doing at any given time and �firing� them. I felt really sorry for that kid. He was horribly behaved, given to massive tantrums in the middle of the office, and his parents never paid him any attention whatsoever.
LFI is notorious around town for treating people horribly. They pay well but they OWN you and demand 100% absolute, unquestioning loyalty. The turnover was around 300%. I personally heard LF scream at sales managers and threaten their lives if they fucked up a presentation. Every sales manager that left had to sue to get their final checks and commissions. The one employee who had been there for any length of time (7 years), had a nervous breakdown every single year and had to be hospitalized. You weren't allowed to look either of them in the eye in passing or even look at them. People who worked directly with James couldn't wear heels. He said it was because they couldn't walk fast enough to keep up with him. In reality, he has short man syndrome and didn't like working with women taller than him.
The runners, though, had the worst job in the place. After I'd moved on, I hired one as my assistant. She told me that James regularly sent her with an unmarked box or a paper bag to meet someone at a gas station or parking lot. She was supposed to exchange her package for theirs and not look inside. (There were a lot of rumors and a couple of incidents about their cocaine use, so we can guess what was inside.) He also had her buy his Viagra and his porn. They had to fetch lunch every day for James and Lisa, and serve it to them on special red plates kept in the lunch room. They got screamed at if the restaurant fucked it up, and sometimes even had the plates thrown at them. It was also their job to pick up the dog shit that Lisa's ancient dogs left all over the office. All for the kingly sum of $9/hour.
One of my bff's at the time worked there, too. She worked very closely with James. When she got pregnant, the company's VP heavily pressured her to have an abortion, telling her that her future was bright there but not if she was tied down by kids. The VP even made the appointment for my friend to have the abortion. My friend didn't want to and, thankfully, backed out at the last minute, but her days were numbered there. She was told as much, and that her having her son was a huge betrayal of the trust and time they'd put into her. They were already pushing her out when she quit after they demanded that she forge and back-date dozens of I-9s for illegal immigrants that were working in the warehouse. They had been tipped off that a surprise audit was forthcoming and were in a real bind. This same friend was also heavily pressured to steal competitor proto-types from a very large, famous retailer's demo store during a sales visit.
They are notorious for stiffing everyone. They didn't pay the contractors who built their headquarters here. They went through private pilots like crazy because they simply never paid them. When I worked there, their entire accounting department consisted of temps flown in weekly from CA and put up in hotels during the work week. They'd already stiffed all the temp agencies in town and couldn't find enough private individuals to staff the department because of the horrible working conditions.
When LFI was building their NY offices, they sent a crew from here to �supervise� the work of the local union contractors doing the building. Their real purpose was to sneak back on to the job site and work at night to save Lisa and James money on the construction. I personally heard two different phone calls where those guys called in and said that they had been caught on-site and warned by the union guys to get the fuck out of dodge. They were literally afraid for their lives because they were told that they'd be swimming in concrete boots in the river if they were caught there again. Lisa told them that they wouldn't have jobs if they came back before construction was done. All but one quit and left. They had to find their own way back home. The one who stayed got caught a 3rd time on-site and was arrested for trespassing. James and Lisa refused his calls, said they didn't know who he was, and didn't even bail him out.
James and Lisa have a house town here. They wanted to greatly expand it, which pissed off their neighbors because their plans did not fit into the zoning laws of the area. They fought and fought and couldn't get the approval to proceed. Finally, their neighbor's house mysteriously burned to the ground one night. James and Lisa bought the property and proceeded with their building plans. I dont' KNOW that they had anything to do with it but, given their reputations, it was assumed by everyone in town that they did.
There is more. So, so much more. This is just what comes to mind immediately, and I worked there for less than a year. This is why no mom I know will buy that shit for their kids. It appears that the bad business practices and the nasty divorce have taken their toll, though. They now lease most of their HQ here to other companies because they are down to a handful of staff and on the verge of going out of business.
Ha ha! I had not seen that before, but it is so spot-on. She did dress crazy, too--kind of like she was wearing ALL of her designs at once. Everyone was coming to work in costume on Halloween when I was there. I was new and joked that I was going to dress up like LF for Halloween. My boss pulled me aside and said, "You seem to be laboring under the impression that LF has a sense of humor. She does not."
Post by Some Funny Name on Oct 21, 2012 13:15:26 GMT -5
Oh, and here's the link to the Urban Outfitters interview. Ugh, to hear that voice again after all these years. LOL that she won't show her face to maintain privacy. More like, her reputation precedes her and she doesn't want to be recognized around town! She even says it in the interview, "I'm crazy! I'm a lunatic." Yes. Yes, you are. It always made me sad to see the fan mail because she is such a horrible, horrible person and she never gave a shit at all about any of it.