Caroline Pover Sucks
Japan can be a lonely place for foreign women sometimes.
Wouldn't it be great if there was some supportive organization where frustrated foreign women could go for support?
I know of one organization that you should definitely stay away from. It's called Being A Broad, and it's run by Caroline Pover. Reasons to steer clear include the following:
- She doesn't pay or severely under pays her employees
- She thinks she's above labor laws and doesn't pay overtime, doesn't honor severance pay, and has lots of illegal clauses in her employment contracts
- She claims to have "connections" at the immigration department and at the police department, and also claims to have influence over all of the professional foreign community in Tokyo. All of these things are not true, but that doesn't stop her from using these so-called "connections" to threaten her employees with.
- She outright lies about the distribution and readership of the Weekender* magazine. If you care to check on this, ask her for actual proof of readership and distribution. She won't be able to provide it.
- She's a shameless self promoter. She's connected her name to certain tragedies that have hit foreign women living in Japan, getting publicity and possibly profits in the process.
- She uses her publications to get free things. Free meals, free vacations, free products. In fact on more than one occasion she has caused problems with other foreign-run businesses when she was not given free access to their services.
- Her "Broad Minded Business" (Japan's foremost job and career network for women -- her words) claims to reach an extensive network of highly qualified women. It doesn't. And they haven't had a new listing on their site in six months. And the guy who works on it doesn't get paid.
- Here are some ventures she's been involved with that have gone down in flames.
Go Girls. This was a private English tutor service specifically for women wanting to study from female teachers. The investors had to walk away after she demanded more and more money.
Being A Broad the magazine. She lied to advertisers about the quality, distribution, and online availability of the content, didn't pay the first editor and barely had a qualified staff working on it, and it didn't last.
The Number One Shimbun magazine. When she failed to make any money off of publishing the magazine (because she fired all her staff and pushed her existing staff too far), she went crazy on the owners of the magazine until they decided to cut their losses (and their ties to her) for good.
Being A Broad the book. This was her original claim to fame. It's a thick resource book for foreign women living in Japan, but she couldn't find a publisher for it and had to publish it herself. She claims it's a best seller, but again, ask her for proof and numbers and she won't be able to provide any. Actually it was the best selling English language book in the Tower Records foreign books section in Shibuya for one week I think. And it was never updated. She tried to get an intern to update it for no pay, but that didn't work out.
etc.
Some peeps saying what they think of her here (skip to the comments section at the bottom).
There's more, but I'm tired. You get the point.
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Comments
the weekender does suck ass, a lot of the comments bagging it (at the bottom of the article) were pretty spot on. I couldn't help but wonder though "jade", did she kick your dog or something?
FYI: She also took over the publication of the Tokyo Weekender after its founder died. They got rid of some really cool staff writers like an old time named "Charlie Jake" who wrote restaurant reviews. This is the "About Us" section of the website:
About UsESTABLISHED IN 1970 by Corky Alexander, Tokyo Weekender was the first free publication in Japan's capital! Not long after Corky passed away, members of Weekender staff and Corky's family asked local self-published author and entrepreneur, Caroline Pover, to continue the publication. Since Caroline's rebranding in 2004, the magazine has retained its appeal to the Tokyo corporate expatriates and long-time residents, while broadening its audience to include those who aspire to be in such positions. Now celebrating its 37th anniversary, Weekender is considered to be an editorial-driven, high quality, family and lifestyle magazine for Japan's international community.
Did you include a warning in your email? Reading the q&a might make him nauseous.
I am not a fan of her either. I also worked with her many years ago before she wrote her '' indispensible book' and found her quite self-serving but always preaching to be selfless. She uses various platforms to increase her self-worth and value, not really to help others but to validate her own worthiness. She uses people to get what she wants, will beg for help, and when help is given will not even say thank you. Several years back, she had trouble securing a visa, probably an investor visa-- and used those in her path to help get it--no not got appropirately thanked.
Please divulge more details about witchy ways at work.
As for more details, there are so many. I'm sure you have a few. One thing I remember her doing was getting very upset after a man she fired found another job in Japan. Of course he was perfectly within his rights to do so, but she felt it was her right to not have him in the same country. So she had someone call his current employer with a list of reasons why he should be fired (as you know, she still can't speak Japanese, otherwise she would have made the call herself). This list included things like "he has a problem with female managers, he is an alcoholic," and some other things that I can't remember now, and none of them were really true, and it was a huge violation of trust on her part. I think she brought this list to immigration as well, hoping to have his visa revoked.
(She also fired someone who lived in the same housing complex as this man, because he lived in the same housing complex as this man. Not really proper grounds for termination, it's got to be illegal.)
Now obviously she just came across as a crazy boss and this man did NOT lose his current job or visa. But it was not a pleasant experience for anyone to have to go through. Which is probably why nobody talks about their awful experiences with her, and why she can continue acting the way she does.
I know I am putting myself out there for a Caroline attack by talking about my experiences with her. And she has already tried to contact my family (after a flurry of activity to this very page from her and her "friends"). But there is nothing she can do. When it comes down to it, she is powerless.
And at the end of the day, who cares? She'll keep doing her thing. I'll be honest about her when the opportunity arises, but my world has nothing to do with her insular bubble.
and 500,000yen? that's pretty rough.
It is very difficult to comprehend how Caroline Pover can keep trying to con people and get away with it. She probably thinks that her lies and delusions fool people. Well they don't. She and her cohorts took the Weekender down. Way down.
I've had a long relationship with BC Media, the new owners. After what Pover and her broads did to the Weekender publication, it will take time and a lot of hard work to get it back up there where it was before Pover got involved. I'm sure the people at BC Media can do it. But again, it will be very hard.
I find it extremely difficult to understand why they need the nut case Pover as a publishing consultant. It's just a waste of money. Her only qualified expertise in any field is ruining people and their lives.
I hear her international school book is a big joke. She used it to sell ads to make money. What does she know about a real family? She has no interest or knowledge in children. All she is writing this book for is to make money. How can you write a book about a subject that you have absolutely no experience in?
She likes to portray herself as a Mother Theresa type trying to help out others. Actually she is the one who needs help. She is not playing with a full deck. In reality she only knows how to hurt others. The thing that pisses me off is she knows she is hurting others, yet does not care about it. All she does is go on and on.
Believe me when I say I have met my share of people who try to get away with things. Yet I have found her to be one of the most disliked, FU**ED-UP, cold, calculating, and dangerous broads around. Yet she is up there always trying to screw people over. She has no sense of the words loyalty or trust, she will bullshit her way through anything to make sure that her own image does not get tarnished. But then again with a face like hers, that tarnished image would only be an improvement.
A few comments from members of the "Get Rid of Caroline Pover Club" at Legends recently:
- She lost the Weekender. Now the founder, Cork Alexander, can stop turning over in his grave
- She sold ads for nothing or gave them away, undercutting the efforts of other English publications
- Much of the editorial was made up of lackluster columns about advertisers' products
- She lied about the numbers printed and distributed
- Those who know her knew the rotten things she did to so many people would catch up with her
We could go on and on. Just a warning for you, for your own sake stay clear of this broad. She really is as low class as anyone could get. It makes me sick even looking at her picture in the Weekender.
I was appalled to read that she is publishing a book on international schools. Please do not waste your hard earned money on that book or any other publication that she peddles. First of all, I think she gets an allergic rash at the thought of children, and loathes the idea of having children herself. Someone in such a hypocritical position is not an authority on international schools and is only cashing in on improving her quickly devaluaing image in the foreign community. Do not buy a book about schools from a woman who can't stand to have children!
Glad I could amuse you though. Share some stories if you want! Just for our further amusement ('-^*)/
She definitely is a shameless self promoter and loves to prey on the weak - foreigners who are new to Japan like I was when I interned with her several years back. The way she used to boss us around and not pay us was just disgusting and she always forced us to report false figures to people outside of the company.
I would love to take down her fabricated entrepreneurial profile and to expose her for what she really is, a lying, self-centred, fat and rather ugly piece of work!
I can say pretty definitively that she has no grasp of Japanese law and makes facts up to justify a lot of illegal things.