What a rollercoaster of a story. The irony of being fired from a writing job for writing is indeed something to reflect upon. Keep on writing, sometimes the most unexpected events lead to the most memorable stories. BTW I found you through the recommendation from @afteryearswithjeandavis
It certainly WAS a rollercoaster! But one I never regretted riding lol. Thank you for reading Winston, and many more thanks to Jean for the recommendation. She is so kind.
Great story Kristi! As someone who has been self employed for a LONG time there is no way to overemphasize the importance of a written contract that backs up the verbal agreement, including penalty clauses for non-performance.
I'll be writing about this at some point in my substack. There are worse places than Jamaica to be fired, and what happened to you s**ks. Keep at it!
Oh my, I guess you could have helped her and she simply needed someone to blame! Nice image, Kristi. Awesome that I could inspire you. I jut launched my "Medium Week" on my Substack. It's all about Medium Medium and Medium haha.
My featured image is from Adobe Firefly but it's not crisp. Talk soon, Kristina
Good point Kristina! A self centered guilty person would think it is about her when there is nothing there to identify her. On the other hand, she knew the villa where Kristi's story was coming from and could have taken it personally. Who knows? At least she paid part of the project fee!
Wow. Summarily firing you and deleting all your work from a shared folder without even contacting you first to discuss her objections -- methinks your blogging about the real lives of staff in Jamaica served as a mirror for her, and she REALLY didn't like her reflection in it. So she shattered the mirror by firing you. As you say, her loss.
Wow! You definitely won in the end!!! I have stayed in a staffed villa in Jamaica, one of the best vacays ever!!! We went with extended family it was better to have the cousins, and grandmothers, and great grandmothers together vs at one of the resorts. I’m always very mindful and overly deferential when the staff is brown or black like me ( which they are in 99% of most situations, like this) overly tipping and gracious because people are people and I know I happen to be in a position of privilege at the moment, but that may not always be the case.
Isn't villa life awesome? I was so blessed to have the opportunity to work with many of them in my years as a travel writer. Hands down, it's the staff that make it incredible.
I wish everyone was more aware of how they treat service industry workers.
Yes, as a guest villa life is awesome. It made me want one when I got home. 😂 You really feel wealthy having a ‘staff’ to grocery shop and cook and you return to clean folded laundry on your bed! A little peek into how the 1% live. 😏
Yes it's a lifestyle choice for sure! I was sooooo fortunate to be able to live that way many times as a travel writer. The perks of my job were incredible and so was the staff at every single villa I reviewed.
Either that or maybe she knew she'd fail so she stopped before even starting? Hard to say! I actually think it was a dumb move on her part because I had a LOT of influence on Jamaica travelers back in the day and I could have helped her SO much. But she probably also knew that I could have hindered her (if I wanted to) as well!
I'm just fortunate that the writing contacts I signed for my work so far have been transparent, and that I have people in my family who can explain the stuff I don't understand to me.
Thanks! Encouragement from you is high praise - now, as soon as I've cleared the neglected garden, gone to physical therapy, walked and fed and cleaned up after the dogs, tried to get in some Medium writing and then some Medium reading- you know the drill?
It never fails to surprise me how people with different opinions would interpret what I write. Most of my work is on faith, or somehow faith comes up. It usually includes a good dose of humor, much needed. I had an article published in a Christian publication and could not believe the diverse opinions in the responses! I've been advised to write an article on that. I wonder what reactions that would have.
But your story makes me think of the old saying 'If the shoe fits..."
Ida, I think that would be a great article to write. Lord knows, with our experience on Medium and the trolling that can happen there, I bet your story would be highly relevant in the writer's world.
YES!!! I felt sooooo vindicated that she never launched. I even went back online after YEARS to Google her name and see if anything Jamaica related was attached to her 😁
She didn't say anything specific but I do think she saw the article as disparaging toward the vacation villa industry. I argued with her for a minute over that because #1, it was my website, not linked to her in any way. And #2, if she had opened her damn eyes wider she'd have seen I was actually promoting the villa style of travel.
What an interesting case of immaturity. Perhaps should could have contacted you in person to ask about your thoughts and experience but us humans don't seem to do that when we are triggered.
I would love to read that piece about the staff, it sounds awesome.
I would have to go through a lot of tech junk to get that article. I sold my blog domain last year and have 10 years worth of content backed up on a WordPress zip file. I'd need to create a mock site to have somewhere to upload the files. Maybe I'll think about that down the road!
Oh wow, Jean!! I mean, I would expect shadiness from ANY other job EXCEPT a church! That's deplorable behavior but sadly, we see it all too often in churches. They're like financial institutions.
I'm so sorry you wasted your time there when you could have spent more time with your husband. And SO sorry you've lost him. Hugs!
I can't think of a better place to get fired! That must have been an amazing trip! Raise the pina colada up and cheers to freedom!
It definitely was pretty awesome. But nowhere near the best of my 36 trips to the island!
What a rollercoaster of a story. The irony of being fired from a writing job for writing is indeed something to reflect upon. Keep on writing, sometimes the most unexpected events lead to the most memorable stories. BTW I found you through the recommendation from @afteryearswithjeandavis
It certainly WAS a rollercoaster! But one I never regretted riding lol. Thank you for reading Winston, and many more thanks to Jean for the recommendation. She is so kind.
Great story Kristi! As someone who has been self employed for a LONG time there is no way to overemphasize the importance of a written contract that backs up the verbal agreement, including penalty clauses for non-performance.
I'll be writing about this at some point in my substack. There are worse places than Jamaica to be fired, and what happened to you s**ks. Keep at it!
Thank you for reading Ed! You're right, there are way worse places to get fired 😁
I like the name of your publication - BizDoctor. I'll come check you out and learn all about contracts!
Oh my, I guess you could have helped her and she simply needed someone to blame! Nice image, Kristi. Awesome that I could inspire you. I jut launched my "Medium Week" on my Substack. It's all about Medium Medium and Medium haha.
My featured image is from Adobe Firefly but it's not crisp. Talk soon, Kristina
Good point Kristina! A self centered guilty person would think it is about her when there is nothing there to identify her. On the other hand, she knew the villa where Kristi's story was coming from and could have taken it personally. Who knows? At least she paid part of the project fee!
I believe it's because we had agreed on my being paid weekly lol. If that wasn't in place I suspect she would have ditched out on paying me at all.
I'll come check out your Medium week. Thanks again!
Sure :D
Wow. Summarily firing you and deleting all your work from a shared folder without even contacting you first to discuss her objections -- methinks your blogging about the real lives of staff in Jamaica served as a mirror for her, and she REALLY didn't like her reflection in it. So she shattered the mirror by firing you. As you say, her loss.
Wow! You definitely won in the end!!! I have stayed in a staffed villa in Jamaica, one of the best vacays ever!!! We went with extended family it was better to have the cousins, and grandmothers, and great grandmothers together vs at one of the resorts. I’m always very mindful and overly deferential when the staff is brown or black like me ( which they are in 99% of most situations, like this) overly tipping and gracious because people are people and I know I happen to be in a position of privilege at the moment, but that may not always be the case.
Isn't villa life awesome? I was so blessed to have the opportunity to work with many of them in my years as a travel writer. Hands down, it's the staff that make it incredible.
I wish everyone was more aware of how they treat service industry workers.
Yes, as a guest villa life is awesome. It made me want one when I got home. 😂 You really feel wealthy having a ‘staff’ to grocery shop and cook and you return to clean folded laundry on your bed! A little peek into how the 1% live. 😏
Yes it's a lifestyle choice for sure! I was sooooo fortunate to be able to live that way many times as a travel writer. The perks of my job were incredible and so was the staff at every single villa I reviewed.
Either that or maybe she knew she'd fail so she stopped before even starting? Hard to say! I actually think it was a dumb move on her part because I had a LOT of influence on Jamaica travelers back in the day and I could have helped her SO much. But she probably also knew that I could have hindered her (if I wanted to) as well!
I subscribe to your theory: her venture was already in trouble — and thanks to you, she had somebody to blame! Oh, well . . .
I'm just fortunate that the writing contacts I signed for my work so far have been transparent, and that I have people in my family who can explain the stuff I don't understand to me.
Ahh yes, that's a bonus not everyone gets!
Thanks! Encouragement from you is high praise - now, as soon as I've cleared the neglected garden, gone to physical therapy, walked and fed and cleaned up after the dogs, tried to get in some Medium writing and then some Medium reading- you know the drill?
Hahaha I do know it...all too well!
Give your doggos a treat from me!
Woof!
It never fails to surprise me how people with different opinions would interpret what I write. Most of my work is on faith, or somehow faith comes up. It usually includes a good dose of humor, much needed. I had an article published in a Christian publication and could not believe the diverse opinions in the responses! I've been advised to write an article on that. I wonder what reactions that would have.
But your story makes me think of the old saying 'If the shoe fits..."
Take care, stay safe ad write away.
Ida, I think that would be a great article to write. Lord knows, with our experience on Medium and the trolling that can happen there, I bet your story would be highly relevant in the writer's world.
For someone who was in real estate, she had an interesting lack of communication skills.
Did you feel a bit of schadenfreude when you realized that she was a #FAIL? It sounds like you did. 😁
YES!!! I felt sooooo vindicated that she never launched. I even went back online after YEARS to Google her name and see if anything Jamaica related was attached to her 😁
Good for you. She was responsible for her own demise, not you. Maybe she moved to China...
Great article entertaining and informative.
Did you ever get a sense about what specifically was so 'inappropriate'. She was definitely triggered.
She didn't say anything specific but I do think she saw the article as disparaging toward the vacation villa industry. I argued with her for a minute over that because #1, it was my website, not linked to her in any way. And #2, if she had opened her damn eyes wider she'd have seen I was actually promoting the villa style of travel.
😂
What an interesting case of immaturity. Perhaps should could have contacted you in person to ask about your thoughts and experience but us humans don't seem to do that when we are triggered.
I would love to read that piece about the staff, it sounds awesome.
I would have to go through a lot of tech junk to get that article. I sold my blog domain last year and have 10 years worth of content backed up on a WordPress zip file. I'd need to create a mock site to have somewhere to upload the files. Maybe I'll think about that down the road!
I agree that does sound like a good article.
Oh wow, Jean!! I mean, I would expect shadiness from ANY other job EXCEPT a church! That's deplorable behavior but sadly, we see it all too often in churches. They're like financial institutions.
I'm so sorry you wasted your time there when you could have spent more time with your husband. And SO sorry you've lost him. Hugs!
Yeah I hear you. That's one of the risks I guess all writers/bloggers take!
Awwwww Jean, that's the sweetest thing I've heard all day! I'm so grateful for comments like yours! It really motivates me to keep this up 😊