Wandering Bud cermaics slash staff; ex-employees crowdfund to cover personal losses
Wandering Bud ceramicists. // Photo by Chase Castor
On Monday, Oct. 7, Wandering Bud—a female-founded ceramic design studio located at 4446 Troost Ave.—laid off five employees without any warning or severance pay.
When the employees came to work expecting to have a meeting discussing the staff’s efficiency, they were notified by their boss and owner Riley Brain that they have been laid off for no specific reasons or issues, according to former employees Ashton Bethel and Kelsey Hines.
Brain disputes these claims, stating that employees were made aware of declining sales and made clear that the reduction of sales was the reason for the layoffs.
Bethel had worked for Wandering Bud for one year, while Hines had worked at the company for four years, both under production assistant positions.
“Today was our last day, and, basically, she would try to find a way for us to get paid for the couple hours we were in today. But that’s all that we were left with,” Bethel says to The Pitch.
“I reviewed our books with our CFO over the weekend, and it was clear that we didn’t have enough money to continue paying our staff past the current pay period, so they will be paid in full for every hour that they have worked, but there is no money left to continue paying them after that,” Brain says to The Pitch.
Along with the two production assistants, they say that a social media employee and a shipping employee were also laid off prior to their own dismissal.
Brain says that she was aware that the company was declining and that September was their worst month of the year, but says she was optimistic about keeping all employees around before a Sunday meeting with the company’s CFO.
“I have been aware of declining sales, but I was not aware that the financial situation was as urgent,” Brain says. “I thought that we had time to potentially correct where we were, and after reviewing the books with our CFO this weekend, it became clear that the only force forward as a small business was to unfortunately lay off employees.”
The employees mentioned that they were aware that the business was not doing well this year, but Brain showed no signs of ending their employment with the company.
Brain disputes these claims, stating that she made the employees aware that, if sales did not improve, Wandering Bud would potentially close.
“The previous week, we had a meeting where she mentioned that we were potentially not doing as well, and she was not going to give us raises this year,” Hines says to The Pitch. “She blamed the business for not doing well on production. She said that we were not making enough, even though we were—We had boxes of product in the back, and so it’s really just her kind of pointing the blame on the production team.”
Brain states that she never blamed the business’s failures on the production team.
“Last week, she had mentioned in the meeting when she told us we couldn’t have our annual raises, which is a dollar, she said, ‘Well, if I were to give you a dollar raise, the business would go under.’ So then we have questions of, ‘If this is this big of a problem, why are we just now hearing about it?” Bethel says.
This afternoon, Wandering Bud posted a response video from Brain on Instagram. In the video, Brain states, “Always, before this, a couple months of slow sales always rebounds, and it’s just not rebounding. We run quite a lean operation here, and our staff is the only meaningful expense we have to cut back on. And that sucks, but I can’t change math.”
View this post on Instagram
One employee named “Molly”—who is mentioned in the post—is now the only remaining employee under Brain.
Prior to the end of their employment, Bethel and Hines say that they enjoyed working under Brain at Wandering Bud.
“We loved it every day, and we weren’t paid enough, but we stayed anyway. And so, for her to do this today was just a real stab in the back,” Hines says.
“We all stayed because we loved what we did, and we mainly stayed because of the people we work with, at least very much on the production side,” Bethel says.
“Employees were paid far above minimum wage and had bonus opportunities upon meeting production goals,” Brain says. “The pay rate was above what production assistants make at similar businesses in KC.”
Bethel and Hines claim that they have “boxes and boxes of products” left behind for holiday launches, such as the upcoming Halloween drop.
“They have been paid for every single hour that they have worked,” Brain says. “Any time that they spent working on a fall collection they had been paid for.”
View this post on Instagram
Small businesses going under is nothing new to the city, but dumping employees without warning or any type of structured plan in place for financial stability is not being received lightly by the former staff and Instagram users who have commented on the post.
“I was just disgusted,” Bethel says. “It did not feel genuine. It felt very manipulative.”
“We were not going to say anything about how she treated us just because we didn’t want to affect Molly,” Hines says. “However, after we saw her on Instagram, not saying anything about us or anything to support us during a really difficult situation, it just felt like she was crying online for views and engagement.”
“No small business owner ever wants to find themselves in this position,” Brain says. “It’s not a decision that I made lightly, it’s not a decision that I wanted to make. But, as I said in the video, I can’t change math. The money is not there to continue employing them.”
The aftermath of the day has left Bethel, Hines, and their fellow employees at a loss for words and out of a job. In hopes of remaining financially afloat during this difficult situation, the former Wandering Bud staff has set up a GoFundMe with a goal of $15,000.
“We don’t know what’s next in our future, but, at the very least, just having that to get us through the fallout of all this,” Bethel says.
“At least, just to be able to pay for a bill so we can find another job,” Hines says.
If you would like to support Hines, Bethel, and the other affected employees, visit their GoFundMe page.
