'Business-As-Mission:' A Look At How Grace City Church Gets Money From Members
And a look inside the "toxic," "sexist" and "cult-like" work culture of businesses owned by GCC elder Jeff Weber and his wife Becky
Aaliyah Hansen is a single mother of two, and for years she had been happy with her job as a barista at Java Dog Espresso in the Wenatchee Valley.
That ended soon after Jeff Weber and his family bought the business.
Hansen, a Latina and one of the only people of color on their staff said the Webers complained about the immodesty of her dress – although other women on staff who weren’t as curvy as she would wear similar clothes and not face reproach. She also said there were times Jeff would stand too close behind her and she was unsettled by his lack of respect for her personal space.
She and other former employees report erratic management, dishonesty, duplicity bullying, and general ineptitude among the new owners and their new employees.
Many of those new hires attend the same church as the Webers, Grace City Church in Wenatchee, and have “the type of character we’re looking for” Hansen quoted from a text Jeff’s wife Becky sent.
Hansen, former Java Dog manager Brittany Babst and another former manager who asked to be called Tiffany said in an interview that employees were required to attend staff meetings and “trainings” that were sometimes scheduled last minute and they were never paid for that time.
If they could not attend the impromptu mandatory meetings they were scolded. For Hansen, and most single parents, finding childcare at the drop of a hat isn’t easy. She said she communicated that to leadership but said it fell on deaf ears.
The day she was fired she was out to lunch and Jeff called on Becky’s cell phone. She picked up and he told her: “Today was your last day at Java Dog.”
She said she was confused and surprised at the abrupt nature of her termination.
“It still to me just blew me away because I’m like: ‘I haven’t gotten written up. I haven’t had a warning. Just out of the blue,” she said. “I have two little people that rely on me.”