I sing professionally, and sometimes part of the deal is that artists will do absurd gigs for a buck. In this case, it’s caroling in Dickensian garb. Often with literal jingle bells. And the owner of this operation is a toxic psycho who conflates singing about figgy freaking pudding with headlining at the Met.
Now. A gig is a gig. Professionalism matters. But Heaven help you if you have a family emergency— she’ll fire back a missive about how someone in her family died and she still showed up to sing dressed like some nightmarish Emily Cratchit wannabe. A colleague of mine had a personal crisis and was fired on the spot for cancelling on a gig. (Also: the last thing I’m gonna wanna do is go through several steps to find a sub if I’m in crisis— isn’t this the owner’s job?!)
I finally hit my breaking point: I very deliberately only chose outdoor gigs this past season because I wanted to minimize Covid exposure. My infant was dealing with some pretty precarious medical stuff, but I still needed the money, so I was doing the best I could to keep her safe. I got to a client site and was told that the gig was now indoors, and there were hundreds of people inside. When I texted the boss, I was effectively told to suck it up. She requires photos to verify attendance at all gigs, and when she saw that I wore a mask with my historic clothing, she lost her mind.
And now this email just fired across the prow. Now the question is: Do I pack up the bonnet and just quit now? Or do I play the long game and wait a few months to unleash some real Naught List behavior?