(I edited an earlier comment to include this, but it’s a bit buried now, so I wanted to make a new comment.)
I’ve read most of the post and appendix (still not everything). To be a bit more constructive, I want to expand on how I think you could have responded better (and more quickly):
We were sad to hear that two of our former employees had such negative experiences working with us. We were aware of some of their complaints, but others took us by surprise.
We have a different perspective on many of the issues they raise. In particular, we dispute some of the most serious allegations. We’re attaching some evidence here to show that the employees were well-compensated, provided vegan food, and were absolutely not asked to transport illegal substances.
We are also aware that one of the ex-employees has a concerning history of behaviour which we think affects how she perceives her time working with us.
However, we also recognize that we made mistakes. In particular, we put ourselves and others in a risky situation by travelling and living in foreign countries with people who we both didn’t know very well and were employing. We also chose to eschew some standard practices around employment and compensation.
We’ve been reflecting on this, and are committing to make some fundamental changes to how we work. These include:
[Insert meaningful changes here, including perhaps consulting with an outside management consultant to get more perspective and help]
I think (4) and (5) are largely missing, though I do recognize you’re making some good changes and note those about halfway through the appendix document.
While I agree that this would largely have been an effective rebuttal that prevented many people from having the vibes-based reactions they’re having, I think it itself excludes a thing I find rather valuable from this post… namely, that the thing that happened here is one that the community (and indeed most if not all communities) did not handle well and I think are overall unprepared for handling in future circumstances.
Open to hearing ways that point could have been made in a different way, but your post still treats this all as “someone said untrue things about us, here’s the evidence they were untrue and our mistakes,” and I think more mistakes were made beyond just NL or Alice/Chloe.
(I edited an earlier comment to include this, but it’s a bit buried now, so I wanted to make a new comment.)
I’ve read most of the post and appendix (still not everything). To be a bit more constructive, I want to expand on how I think you could have responded better (and more quickly):
I think (4) and (5) are largely missing, though I do recognize you’re making some good changes and note those about halfway through the appendix document.
While I agree that this would largely have been an effective rebuttal that prevented many people from having the vibes-based reactions they’re having, I think it itself excludes a thing I find rather valuable from this post… namely, that the thing that happened here is one that the community (and indeed most if not all communities) did not handle well and I think are overall unprepared for handling in future circumstances.
Open to hearing ways that point could have been made in a different way, but your post still treats this all as “someone said untrue things about us, here’s the evidence they were untrue and our mistakes,” and I think more mistakes were made beyond just NL or Alice/Chloe.