I've had a week of lots of yelling, upsets, and crying.
I like to write uppedy posts... I like to have fun things, a lot of postivity. Thats the kind of person I am, I love being positive and spreading the love. Let's face it... I'm a damn hippy.
Today however, I FUCKING WANT TO SCREAM!
I got fired, very unjustly from my last job... Which I loved.
I will spoiler a personal blog here, about the whole incident. Written the day I went in to pick up my paycheck, and talk to my boss.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
I got fired for the first time ever today. From the Costume Portrait shop... I loved that job. Seriously... I'm teetering on the edge of quiting the one at the school, and this job was keeping me happy and sane.
I have to say, I'm pretty upset with myself...
I gave a card to a client at work, because she was talking about getting married, and i said I loved weddings, we talked about how hard they are, getting everything ready, and she asked why I loved weddings. I said I was a photographer, and she asked for my card. I gave her one... The end. They contacted me about it, and said they looked at my website and were very interested. I didn't talk about them booking me at work, I didn't push anything... I just gave her my card like she asked, and we talked about the fact they could use the photo's they were currently having done as engagement photo's.
My work didnt do wedding photography, didn't do anything out of the studio in the mall! I had thought about it for a second when she asked for my card and said they didn't have one, but I didnt think they'd be upset because it's not something they're interested in at all. it wasn't like I was taking anything from them, I wouldn't have ever done that. I usually do my best to upsell packages and get people really excited... perhaps I should have asked Ms Emi. I think that would have been the right thing to do, I wish I had.
The couple left extremely happy, they had a wonderful time, loved everything about their visit... They had got beautiful portraits done, and had potentially solved another daunting wedding issue - finbding a photographer who you like. When my boss found out, she fired me. She says it's not right to solicite. I would agree, if I had been outright soliciting. I didnt say "Hey your getting married, I'm a wedding photographer, hire me"... we had just been talking. I talk with a lot of clients, I'm helping them lace up and do their bodices and things. You talk... It happens. She was fabulos, and we were hitting it off great and getting along wonderfully. Talking just happens.
So here I am, having canceled my christmas plans for this job, having messed everything up with my family getting together because they decided not to when I wasn't coming home... Missed the right time to book my flight, now it would be outrageously expensive... and yet I wont be working. My job with the kindergarten is done for those two weeks at christmas, and I'll have no income for those two weeks (its unpaid forced holiday...)
Couldn't she have just said "hey, I'm not comfortable with you mentioning your a photographer?" I would find ways to talk with clients around that, it wouldn't have been an issue. I would have said sure! I love that job... I would have been absolutely alright with that. It's in their rights to fire me, absolutely... I just wish it could have been avoided. I seriously thought that job was the bee's knee's.and that I feel like something weird happened, because I absolutely thought I had the coolest bosses on the planet, relaxed and good humored.
I feel like I did something wrong, but that's because I suffer from bad anxiety when things like this happens. I get guilt trips for things I shouldn't feel guilty for, and I have this horrible weight in my stomach like I ate a big, giant rock. I can't eat, it makes me sick...and I wont be able to sleep until I mentally work out how i feel and sort through how I'm going to get by...
I've never been fired, and I feel aweful about it.
Yesterday, after having believed I had everything with Employment INsurance sorted out... I found out it wasn't. I've been waiting since the end of June to get my EI benefits, waiting to get paid for the two and a half months I was out of work before I found a new job. I've paid into EI for years, I've never used it. I'm not a druggie, I've never been on welfare, I'm not just trying to 'tap' the system. I genuinely deserved it, I stay employed all the time because i hate being without a job. It gets aimless.
When I first applied my case for randomly selected to be sent away for an Insurability ruling on my hours, to decide if my employment was insurable. The ruling came back in my favor, FIVE MONTHS LATER... However, they also said I cant collect EI because although my hours were insurable, they believe i was employed during July and August?! I was recieving Health and dental benefits, which i didn't use at all during that time... I wasn't aware of them. It's built into my union that even though they laid me off on June 19th, i continue to recieve benefits until the end of the summer. So apparently even though I wasn't making any real money, they think I was employed?
FUCKING BULLSHIT! I can not eat these benefits, I can not pay my rent, my utilities, or buy anything I might need.... So how in the HELL does that count as employed?!
