When your’e making all that hullaboo and claiming to be the “Fuck you pay me QUEEN”, what inhibitions do you have in writing the name of agencies who do that? What stops you from making your case legit? How will those hundreds of artists know which agencies to stay away from? And no, don’t give that bullshit benefit of doubt argument that you don’t do so because you think the agency will learn from you rant. A murderer is always a murderer. If not you, they’ll find someone else. Without solid information your posts are just rants. Which is fine because you’ll proceed be again writing MAH BLOG MAH LIFE FUCKK YOUUU
( Disclaimer : this is one of those comments, where regardless of what I respond with, I’m the asshole. My response is more for my benefit than anything else. And of course this column needs to go on – until all unprofessionalism is wiped from the planet. )
“Claiming to be the…” Ummm. It’s like an article you know, an expression in the article too. To convey my frustration and determination with the situation. There is no “formal” Fuck-You-Pay-Me-Queen title – no matter how much I wish there was. Even if there was one, I know a bunch of other women who are way more qualified for the title than I am.
“…inhibitions…” They aren’t inhibitions, it’s professionalism. Naming the agency could potentially lead to a particular individual’s dressing down. Some “one” sent me the email. Regardless of whether they were following their boss’ orders or simply following rotten organizational culture, that one individual will have to bear the brunt of online shaming. I’ve made the mistake of naming the agency once, many years ago. Luckily, the individual’s boss was smart enough to understand that they needed better processes – that firing or dressing down one individual was not going to solve the systemic problem. The client did end up firing the agency though. I’m not sure how I feel about that. The idea of this column is not to vilify one particular agency or client, but to possibly educate ( how arrogant of me ) and definitely to entertain. Naming the agency does not “make my case legit”, whatever the hell that means.
“How will those hundreds of artists know which agencies to stay away from?” How the fuck do I know and why the fuck do I care? Why do I have the responsibility of this? I don’t. I do what I do to the best of my ability. If someone finds something of use in my “rants”, that’s wonderful. If they don’t, they move on. Like they say, “Theka thodi utha rakha hai maine.” Assuming that the agency / email writer is actually reading this column, in itself, is arrogant. Assuming they’re also “learning” is, insane. That would be an agency that I would be happy to work with – there are few of those. Rare. Changing organizational culture takes way more than reading a column like this. Organization-wide change in culture takes years to implement, especially when it’s a business model dependent on insane time pressures from the client-side. While I laugh at and make fun of the emails and their contents, my rants are not aimed at the people sending those emails. At least not usually. Comparing them to “murderers” is a bit much.
As far as I’m concerned, you are right about the “rant” part. I’ve never denied it. This is my one platform where I can rant without worrying about polluting the timeline of people who follow me on social networks like Twitter or Facebook. The only people visiting the blog are people who want to – of their own volition. Social network timelines are much less “in-control” in this sense. So yeah, “my blog, my rules”. For the most part. That you are right about. If you are concerned about a particular issue enough to leave comments like the above, I’d much rather you wrote about it on your own blog and left a link to the same in a comment. You get a link back from my blog and I might actually read it with a modicum of respect. Because writing on your own blog means “work”. The lack of which is the exact same thing I rant about when I write this column. If the organization / agency / individual had put in just that extra bit of work, their email would not have ended up in this column.
“…solid information…” This is anecdotal story-telling. My opinion about someone’s poorly-worded email. Hardly “solid” or “informational”. Never claimed it to be otherwise. Each week, prior to publishing this column, I wonder if I should just shut it down. I’m not a fan of the negativity it can sometimes generate. I’ve been “advised” that I should “focus” and not waste my time “ranting”. Of course, as you – dear commentor – and I have both confirmed, these are rants. I like them. They help me vent online, so that I may focus more offline. So here we are!
Start your own blog.
More anecdotes and stories in the #WTFNaina series. ( These are all inspired by true stories. Some written emails, some from face-to-face meetings. They have all been piling up for years now and I’ve decided to put them to use! )
