Clothing brand Girl Tribe Co. ‘asked staffers to work for free and began selling HQ furniture online’ as workers claim $15M company is in big trouble

A clothing brand has faced a backlash after former employees claimed the company asked its staff to work for free and the owners started selling furniture from their headquarters.

The former employees also said they were fired from Girl Tribe Co., a boutique based in North Carolina, because of money problems plaguing the $15 million company.

The anonymous employees added that at least a half-dozen employees at the company’s headquarters were “forced to resign” in three days in late January.

“The text was: ‘You’re on the bus or you get off,'” said an employee. “Essentially, we felt like we wouldn’t have any jobs if we didn’t do this.”

Suspicions began to rise when employees noticed that the store’s owners, Sarah Baucom and Carrie Baker, began selling equipment and stocking furniture on Facebook Marketplace.

Former employees say they noticed the owners were selling store furniture online. A dryer belonging to the store was posted by the owners on Facebook Marketplace (right)

The store started in 2014 when Baucom and Baker started selling T-shirts on Etsy in November 2014. Pictured: The Girl Tribe Co. store in Huntsville, North Carolina

Baucom said Queen City News that the claims are “false information” before she said a PR manager would return to the outlet with a follow-up statement.

As of Monday evening, the company was no longer responding to the outlet. DailyMail.com contacted the clothing brand for comment but did not hear back.

Others noticed something was wrong after the owners asked employees to work at a warehouse sale on Saturdays without getting paid.

After a recent sale, the former employees were paid, but after they were officially fired, they claim.

‘At events like this, a lot of women and girls come up to us and say, “We love everything you stand for; we love this girl who supports girls” and we all stand there, so vulnerable, supporting every moment can burst out crying,” said an ex-employee.

One of the workers was fired in the middle of the event, while others were released in the following days, saying Baucom and Baker called them all in for “difficult conversations.”

Girl Tribe started selling T-shirts on Etsy in November 2014 after Baucom and Baker, two friends from high school, invested $200.

Baucom told Queen City News that the claims are “false information” before saying a PR executive would come back with a follow-up statement that was never given

Some employees also claimed they were promised severance pay or help filling unemployment, but have not heard from either owner about help with those tasks.

Others noticed something was wrong after the owners asked employees to work at a warehouse sale on Saturdays without getting paid. Pictured: One of the Girl Tribe Co. stores in Charlotte

The brand grew to three separate stores: two in Charlotte and one in Huntersville. They also promote their brand in pop-up shops and own a factory where all their clothing is manufactured.

“That was the dream, the pie in the sky,” Baucom said WCNC in April.

“We’re going to have a facility full of women and if we’re going to make a living with graphic T-shirts, we’re going to figure out how to do that from the ground up.”

Some employees also claimed they were promised severance pay or assistance with unemployment compensation, but have not heard from either owner about assistance with these tasks.

The employees also have not received documentation of their dismissal, something they say they have been asking for for weeks.

“We felt like we were being forced to resign because we were told every day that you weren’t promised a job,” said one former employee.

“We all knew the clock was ticking for all of us,” said another.