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.

ShesMadeATwatOfMePam

"You know that the people who fall for this are mostly women stuck with few prospects, who want to earn a little bit of money. They are targeted by the mlms, and sold a lie. Doesn't make them daft. In most cases they're desperate."

But the OP's cousin isn't desperate: she's a teacher. I know teaching is tough at the moment but in no conceivable universe would working to hustle pyramid schemes be a better career choice. And sorry but its one thing if you're a bored housewife or someone on hard times but for a teacher to trade a career in for this is utterly daft.

@BurningRose

My friend whose highly qualified has become an avon lady. Each to their own but I don't understand it tbh.

Never knew Avon was an MLM but now you think of it and briefly looking into it, it is!

Teaching is not family friendly at all, and maybe she is desperate to find a way out. I know I was when I left a few years back, and can only think that this year it's been even more stressful.

Perhaps the MLM looks like a way out.
It isn't, though. She'd be much better off tutoring or supply teaching.

Bloody things drive me mad. A local Facebook group was set up in our town last week at the beginning of lockdown 2 with the aim of helping local shops / businesses who have had to shut. It lasted about 2 days before getting clogged up with this nonsense.

@ShesMadeATwatOfMePam

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.

You know that the people who fall for this are mostly women stuck with few prospects, who want to earn a little bit of money. They are targeted by the mlms, and sold a lie. Doesn't make them daft. In most cases they're desperate.

This. I got sucked into Body Shop at Home when DCs were tiny, I was 22. Hadn't worked since before they were born, we were skint and my SIL convinced me it was a good idea (her friend was the area lead). I didn't drive, which made parties difficult, I didn't have that many friends so small pool of people to host for. We got roped into calling people (from some list of previous party attendees) and convincing them to host parties, going to table top sales things to try and recruit hosts and other team members (always had to donate something to the raffle or pay to attend), encouraged ti to buy stock and supplies. I either broke even or made a small loss over the 6 months I did it.

I left because I fell out with the area lead over a post I made on Facebook moaning about their tactics and how it was costing me money.

I'm now vehemently anti MLM, but I was sucked in and I understand how other people fall for it too.

All these stories make such depressing reading.

To be honest I think a lot of teachers are at breaking point with the stress of the job and then Covid on top, and the way they are being portrayed in the media, she is probably looking for a way out, and that is the kind of person these MLM Huns like to recruit. My friend did it when she was desperate to leave her job (not teaching), convinced she would earn a fortune. Fortunately she didn't lose too much. Agree with pp about directing your cousin to the blogs above. I know about 10 BS Huns (all in the same area), and 2 highly educated and professional colleagues have just asked me to join their Tropic Facebook groups

I watch and laugh at the stupid fools who get sucked into MLM's. With so much information available on the internet about how they work, nobody has an excuse for being so stupid.

@ShesMadeATwatOfMePam

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.

You know that the people who fall for this are mostly women stuck with few prospects, who want to earn a little bit of money. They are targeted by the mlms, and sold a lie. Doesn't make them daft. In most cases they're desperate.

Completely agree. MLM businesses are great at doing what actually makes the people at the top money; sucking new people in and taking their money. They play carefully on people's fears and hopes, and they've found a particularly sweet spot by exploiting the fact that society is horrible about working mothers and about women who are financially dependent. They sell a dream that you can have all the benefits of being a SAHM while making the money you made working, and play on guilt about not being 'there for' the kids. Of course it's too good to be true but I think blaming individual women (and it is mostly women) for being 'stupid' to fall for it ignores how directly social messaging has set them up for it.

I'm sure she said she makes 600 a month from it

And I could say I'm Beyonce, doesn't make it true.

These bots are told to exaggerate their claims. Howe are they supposed to recruit if they tell the truth?

They also constantly confuse sales with profit. If you sell £600 of stuff but have spent £590 on renting a table at a fair, providing a prize for the raffle, stationery, catalogues, website fees, buying the product and shipping the product you haven't made £600 have you?

The charitable explanation would be that the hunbots aren't bright enough to understand the difference. The less charitable (and probably the true) explanation is they are deliberately muddying the waters.

[quote Mycatismadeofstringcheese]This video realms about profit in FM world

[/quote] That YouTuber is great. Thanks for sharing.

Teaching is also quite easy to get 'stuck' in financially because it doesn't pay well enough that it's easy/possible for most teachers to build up a nest egg to cushion leaving, starting a business, etc. but it pays well enough that there aren't many options for a qualified, experienced teacher to go to without taking a pay cut. The utterly inflated claims MLM schemes make about what you can make again can seem like the answer to this problem, and so the only way out of a job that really does make a lot of people miserable.

With so much information available on the internet about how they work, nobody has an excuse for being so stupid

A little harsh perhaps, but sadly not wrong - even though recruiters spin the line that negative reviews are from "bitter haters who failed through not making enough effort"

In the end I guess it's just a case of believing something because they want to, and unfortunately it's not until later that they remember the old saying "if something seems too good to be true, it probably is"

These schemes target people who are vulnerable eg your cousin probably feels she doesn't have enough time with her kids

If she asks your opinion i would be honest,but otherwise stand back and be ready to pick up the pieces when it all goes wrong

Not much you can do but tell her frankly about your concerns.
If she is a teacher she will always have that qualification to fall back on but yes sounds like a mistake to me, i would suggest she gives it a try only resign when she is making a good living from it. I have two friends who have been selling body shop for 18 months, it was hard even before covid , they certainly arent earning much let alone equivalent of teaching salary and right now its almost impossible to earn much from it as there are no parties, fairs etc. The constant whatsapp/ fb messages where they desperately try to sell are annoying tbh.

How close are you?

If you're close, I'd be very honest with her - in person. Then send all the links & be there fir her when it goes tits up. If you're not that close I'd just be there for her when it all goes tits up.

The only good thing is that given the current situation she'll be able to get another teaching job when it does all go wrong. (Though it's debatable whether she should).

MLMs are crap, obviously, but perhaps it would be sensible to raise the practicalities with her? Realistically, in normal times, I would assume she'd have to host parties (online zoom parties at the moment, I don't know?). She'd have to do that in the hours when normal people are not working - evenings and weekends. Similarly, she'll have to be engaging with people and doing most of her marketing during these hours too. As a single parent with 3 children, how will she arrange childcare for these evening and weekend hours? And realistically, wouldn't it be better to work daytime hours and enjoy your downtime with your kids? It sounds like signing up for something not a whole lot different from teaching, given the drain on family time and evenings/weekends, but for no guarantee of pay, pension, etc.

A friend on FB has started to sell Body Shop but if I want anything I get it easily when doing myvweekly shop as it has a store in the shopping centre. I like the hemp hand cream but it is quite expensive.
Years ago it was the party sell thing. Still have some of my Tupperware to this day and also some pampered chef stuff. Love my utensil holder that spins nd I would have bought another one but they shut down in the UK. The stuff was expensive and there is more pressure at these type of parties to buy something especially if it's being held in aid of charity. Two other names that come to mind is Norwex (very expensive cleaning products I think the mop and bucket are like £70 plus) I got my Vileda spin mop in Sainsbury reduced to £16 best mop and bucket ever. Also I haven't seen Jamberry nails for a while on FB they also seemed to have died a death.

Please tell her that you think she's making a mistake. If and when she snaps out of it, she will see that you were trying to help her. In the meantime, you might lose her friendship but the seed will be planted and you'll know you did the right thing. When you said about her being on benefits and fighting through to become a teacher, that resonated with me because that's what my own mother did. It would break my heart to see her get sucked in to something like this. I would sooner never talk to her again than pretend I'm supporting her when I think she is making a life destroying mistake.

Say nothing, get popcorn

@Puzzledandpissedoff

What is the point of the body shop at home? Why would someone not just buy from the body shop website?!

They have a script for that too ... apparently Covid's caused supply problems which cause online order delays, but they're given priority and can guarantee you'll get whatever-it-is without months spent waiting

Lol I work in ecommerce and supply chain, I would politely explain why this is simply rubbish.

Apparently, with Body Shop at Home, you make 25% commision.

Say she was on a salary of 25k - about 1.7k take home a month. Is she really going to be able to match that salary -- let alone exceed it? She'd have to sell nearly £7k a month, while also having zero job security, pension, sick pay, maternity pay etc. Does she know enough people to sell over seven grand of toiletries and makeup each month?

Also, I'm self-employed and getting a mortgage is close to impossible. She'll probably have to put the buying a home idea on hold, as you need to have at least two years of accounts to show your income. Plus a much bigger deposit.

I’ve done a bit of expensive guilt purchasing because friends are doing it as something ‘for themselves’ and are really emotionally invested but I don’t want to enable it now.
It’a definitely changed the relevant friendships for the worse.
www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-7837095/The-inspirational-social-media-scams-ruining-womens-lives.html

With Amazon I don't see how or why these business can succeed.

I work in ecommerce and supply chain, I would politely explain why this is simply rubbish

You could try, doadear - I'd probably do the same myself - but the chances of them listening are non existent

@thenightsky

I once had a Head who did Amway, she was a pain about it!

I ended a relationship many years ago as he turned out to be an Amway bot.

Intelligence seems to have very little to do with it. I know a very smart hospital Consultant Psychiatrist who gave up work to do MLM.

Lots of supposedly clever women I know have done Amway etc.

sold London flats, moved to the coast and set up MLMs.

I've looked up the Arbonne one and whaddya know?! She's still doing it, 10 years on, the cult is real. Every other FB quote is that life enhancing rubbish, believe in yourself, yoga etc (I love yoga!). Interestingly enough she's not with her SO of the time whom I met...

What's hilarious is one of her posts says something like "when I see other women looking xxxx (e.g. rubbish) I believe it's because they're not drinking these juices etc!" WTAF?! I know for a fact this woman is a yoga buff, performer (dancer etc).

What's even more hilarious is her slobbering all over the products and some Arbonne mascara which honestly - the Wilkos stuff looks exactly the same, blows it out of the water actually, her whole life looks MLM recruitment hell - vacays to Vegas etc. Ah well - she's happy!