My cousin is about to give up her career as a teacher to join a pyramid scheme

[OurHouseInTheMiddle]

AIBU to tell her that she is insane? I cannot cope with her Facebook posts anymore either! She has honestly become brainwashed.

@OurHouseInTheMiddle

Honestly, I'm just so sad for her. She is a single mum to 3 kids and was on benefits. She put herself through uni and turned her and her children's lives around. She was hoping to buy her council property next year. I was so proud of her and can't believe she's fallen for this crap.

Honestly, I'd probably tell her that. Tell her how MLMs deliberately target women like her, that it's misogynistic bull that most women lose money to, break even if they're lucky. Anyone who says they made real money from it are either barefaced liars trying to recruit or the wankers at the top stealing from vulnerable women at the bottom. This isn't the time to 'be kind', she could well end up back on benefits, or even in serious debt.

Read the Ellebeau blog yourself to see how bad it gets. I did, and I now warn anyone I come across thinking of joining an MLM even if they stop talking to me over it.

Why not in the first instance try to talk her into at least doing this alongside her teaching job, rather than throwing in the teaching altogether?

In an ideal world she wouldn't touch it at all but you might have more success with a softer approach if she has had her head turned.

My cousin is a batshit anti-vaxxer, leader of the tinfoil hat brigade and an "ambassador" for three different MLMs. I feel deeply sorry for her three children. She also offers very expensive reiki massage sessions after she "qualified" through a deal on Groupon

One of my friends does body shop. She has been doing it for years and has about 200 down lines or something like that. I imagine the market is very saturated in her town. I like body shop so I do buy things now again, but she has a full time job and this as a side line so either posts months later or more recently not at all. I cant help think that it's all very close to imploding now. It's all about growth and recruitment so whatever it started as, it's become a MLM

Honestly, the brainwashing is very well researched and effective. That is why MLM schemes are so prevalent and so many people do fall for them.

I hate body shop now not the same as it was in the 90s. It's so expensive for its products and I just don't see the value. Think I noticed the change when it was sold

I have someone on my FB who was the very best academically in our year at school. Straight A student.

She's in a well-paid, professional job but still posts regualrly about how Bodyshop pays for X and Y, and how she's recruiting for her team.

Just shows you can be book-smart, pass loads of exams, and still be thick as shit and unable to spot a scam when it slaps you in the face.

I've never associated Body Shop at home with MLMs funny enough.

There is no way on this earth that she will earn more money (and have more time for the kids) by selling Body Shop stuff and persuading others to do it, than she would teaching. She should factor in her pension and sickness benefits rather than just look at the annual salary, too.

The sarcastic b* in me thinks they are after her savings (& redundancy money for all the other poor sods!)

God it's awful. A colleague has just given up her PA role in my firm to become a Scentsy consultant. On their website you have to sell £1,000 for £165 'potential' income. She was earning 40k. I have no idea what's gone on in her mind.

A least Scentsy are relatively transparent on their shit income potential.

Some of their techniques are disgusting. An old work colleague did one and they lent our Mercedes cars to people for a day, encouraged them to take loads of pictures with in different locations and the post them over time to convince people this was their car and they had got it though working for the MLM.

@DickBastardly

She can't be that clever enough to teach anyway if she has fallen for this. Who in their right mind would except for desperate or vulnerable or very stupid or naive people?

She's probably desperate to leave a profession that's been denigrated during the Covid crisis. At my OH's school at least six have resigned and are planning to do something else completely different because they are sick of the stress.

At least if OP's cousin changes her mind there will be plenty of vacancies she can apply for!

@LagunaBubbles

I've never associated Body Shop at home with MLMs funny enough.

I wouldn't shop in the Body Shop nowadays because of this MLM shit. Even if it is a separate business, they are scumbags for using their name to give it legitimacy.

OP, are you in the same area as your cousin? Perhaps you could show her just how many BS reps are out there. Our local Facebook page has a weekly thread where people can promote their business and it's full of them. Or you can search on Facebook marketplace for body shop and find a load. Maybe she will realise the market is saturated.

Possibly she wanted to leave teaching as she may be worried about the amount of time she has to spend with her children? Maybe suggest she could work for a supply agency instead. She can pick hours then and still earn well.

@Ohalrightthen

The snarky bitch in me says that if she's daft enough to fall for that bollocks then she absolutely shouldn't be responsible for educating children.

But that doesn't really help you. I'd find info online and do your best to dissuade her.

Absolutely.

How did she get a degree?

I’m a beauty blogger, and I was once sent samples from an MLM hun. Used them, they were shit, so in the bin they went. A short while later the MLM hun asked for them back so she could send to other ‘customers’ if I didn’t like them. (not envy)

I feel gutted hearing this, a very close friend is the same, she had a wonderful little business that was really taking off and doing well with wonderful products and lines. Now she's added bodyshop and scentsy crap to it and every post on her site is now bodyshop this and that - people don't want to buy this stuff and the whole business has been blighted by it. The lovely website, gorgeous products mow all 2nd to bodyshop, scented candles and goth MLM shit.
I just cannot talk to her about it any more it's so awful.

Can’t believe someone’s left a £40k pa job for an mlm

I used to attend the parties, buy the minimum out of pity for friends, no more. In the last couple of years one mum has been rabbiting about some aloe vera thing, put her on hide. More recently another mum has been rabbiting about something called tropical? put her in hide too. I am not enabling these awful companies any longer.

It's a cult and acolytes are basically told that everybody they know, friends, family, former work colleagues, that random person you met down the pub are now their 'customers'

I live in a village with around 800 residents. There are at least 3 different Body Shop reps who post on the village community Facebook page, plus now we’ve got 2 more Avon reps. How they can’t see the market saturation I don’t know.

While this must be really hard to watch I feel like it's best to let her learn this lesson for herself.

Ask her what the pension scheme is like - and how it compares to a teacher's pension.

If you can, remind her that she has already 'made it'. She is in a secure position. She needs to get accustomed to that and to gradually reaping the benefits of that position. To drop her long-established 'struggling and desperate' mindset.

Could you suggest she talks it through with a senior colleague? Or a career advisor, or union rep?

As for the extra time with her kids - nope. Endless team meetings, having to make new contacts, pestering existing contacts, hosting parties etc, plus every moment is a business opportunity or some such nonsense. I have a friend doing it and she cant relax at all, only reads inspirational books, listens to marketing podcasts while driving, eyes up everyone she sees as a potential recruit or customer. She works full time and now her evenings and weekends are spent working too but for a much lower hourly rate than her job (if she actually makes any money, I can't bear to ask her about it).