Freedom to Practice My Religion or Forced Into Slavery? The Supreme Court Decides

Arguements in a monumental Supreme Court case are being held today that will affect my business. You see, I have no problem serving people across cultural and religious beliefs-as long as the job I am asked to do will not interfere with my own personal beliefs. That means I won't edit or write anything in support of Buddhism, Islam, or evolution. Despite the fact as a trained writer I can write, and write well, from any of those view points. The media and obviously those on the other side of the court case like to say I am discriminating by refusing to write certain things--but I don't refuse to work for anyone because of their beliefs. I refuse jobs.

The fact that it is the job I am refusing and not the person should be evident in that I also work as a dresser on the wardrobe crew for Broadway musicals that come through town. As a dresser, I consider myself a personal servant, of sorts, to the actors. Although I would never write an autobiography for anyone that glorifies their diverse religious beliefs and lifestyles, I would not think twice about reaching my hand into that same person's sweaty sock and turning it the right-side out to make it easier for him or her to put on the next time they need it.

A long time ago, this nation went to war. It went to war because it wanted to get rid of slavery. In a similar case where an employer attempted to force an employee to do something the employee did not want to do, the state of Indiana's Supreme Court ruled that forcing someone to do something against his or her beliefs is a form of slavery because you are forcing them to work for you. It was ruled that the employer could not force an employee to do anything. In other words, you can walk out and leave your job any time an employer asks you to do something you disagree with- why can't I have that same right? If you work in a restaurant that decides to become a strip bar, you cannot be compelled to continue working there if you don't want to do it.

As humans, we all have the right to pick our occupations. I can write blog posts, but as an independent business owner, I choose not to do it. Am I discriminating against bloggers? No. In the midst of all the media hype, please keep in mind this is not about discrimination, but about whether or not any free person can be forced to perform any job they are capable of doing.

Anyone who knows me knows that I will not accept any job that goes against my ethics. Period. I will continue to refuse jobs regardless of what the Supreme Court says because I have a higher Supreme Justice who is looking down on me. The importance of this case is that if the Supreme Court does not stand behind the baker, it will raise the insurance costs for writers and other independent business owners since they will be able to be sued for any project they refuse on "discrimination" grounds. It will bog down the legal system creating a myriad of similar cases. It will reinstate a form of slavery where writers and business operators can be compelled to perform any task they are capable of doing. A decision against the baker would also have me working out a plan to retire from freelancing as soon as possible. On the other hand, if the Supreme Court sides with the baker, I will be able to breathe easy knowing that I can continue to practice my religious beliefs free of persecution.

Writing quizzes. Part 2

So, after a month of writing quizzes, we had to enter them in to the quiz generator ourself, which made me discover I am working for a checkered employer because of all the advertising. However, entering the quizzes also took more time without extra pay.

Now, the whole idea (I guess) was to enter the quizzes directly and thus save time. But, this is bad on a number of levels. First, you don't have a record of your quiz. It is all saved on the employer's server. Although my work is solely the property of my employer, I need my records for several reasons. I must be able to see what I have already done so that if I need to create similar content, I don't accidentally write something that is the same. I also want proof that I have, in fact, written the work so that the employer can't say I didn't. If I have a time dated Word doc on my computer with the content, I can prove it was mine. I also want records so that if the employer accidentally deletes content, it is easy for me to return it to them (this has happened to me- over a year after finishing a project an employer contacted me to say the documents I sent had been deleted and did I happen to still have a copy of them). Finally, some legal things could come up. If I have to go to court, I want records of what I have done.

Now, in the case of my employer, they wanted us to edit our quizzes with Grammarly. I might be able to download the app into my browser, but I prefer cutting and pasting. It is easier than learning how to use a new tool that may or may not save me time (and that may or may not cost me time by slowing down my browser).

In addition, the website saving process is not all that stable. I did initially try just entering the quizzes, but not only was this bulky, but also I ended up losing at least one quiz and having to start again from scratch. Even a year later, saving is still quirky. It is never worth it to lose work. Saving and backing up is always important. External, small, jump/thumb/flash drives are very nice. Periodically saving important files to CD or other hard storage device (or even printing it out if you have enough room) is also good.

The bottom line was that not only did the employers make the jobs more time consuming (by about 20 minutes to 1 hour) but also they created problems with maintaining a copy. Even if I did not want a copy, it took longer to open and close each question, create new questions, and navigate in the quiz maker. I was disgruntled, but mainly I just chose fewer quizzes and did more outside work. But, quiz work was regular so I kept with it.

Note to employers: If you change the job and make it more difficult, please increase the pay. I am sure my employers lost many good freelancers because of this. I can also tell by the current batch of freelancers that many of them are okay, but definitely not the best.

Writing quizzes. Part I

Most of my freelance work for over a year now has been writing those stupid online Facebook quizzes. Although sometimes it can be enjoyable, in general, I hate it. Now, I could write personality quizzes, but I refuse to stoop to writing "What kind of pizza are you?" I would not be able to respect myself in the morning if I did. I like to think my knowledge quizzes are educational, challenging, and fun, but I must admit my employer (whom will remain anonymous) is new and not the greatest.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to share my experiences. When I first started writing, it was relatively easy. I would write the quiz in a Word document and submit it to my employer. I was paid well per quiz, there was a list of hundreds of topics to choose from, and I could ask obscure questions that made writing the quizzes easier (but taking them very difficult). My only complaint was that most of the quizzes were based on old television shows that could be difficult to find. (And since I am probably one of the few complaining eternal optimists that are in existence for me to find little to complain about says a lot.)

Within a month, there was a change. No additional pay was offered, but we were required to enter the quizzes into the generator ourselves. This was distasteful to me on several levels. First, I found out who I was working for and they had a checkered past- mostly fraught with building websites that contained an overabundance of advertising. But unlike Sporcle (where the quizzes are created by users and not paid for but excessive advertising still exists), they at least paid the content creators for their work. Don't get me wrong, I like Sporcle and have a free account on it, and I will some day create quizzes for them (when I don't feel it will be a conflict of interest), but they have a ton of ads now (as opposed to when I first started taking quizzes there) and the people making the quizzes don't get paid to the best of my knowledge. A little targeted advertising, okay, a ton-bad form in my opinion. 

Anyway, I am working for a quiz website that has a horrible amount of advertising on it. So much that it can interfere with your ability to take the quiz. Why do marketers think this is helpful? It is easy to find in our online society today, but it is not going to improve your sales. First, I think most people are exposed to so much advertising that they are becoming numb to it. Second, most of the advertising is driving by cookies that tell you where I have been. That means if I just bought a Peppa pig playset, I am going to be seeing a ton of ads for one. How silly is that? Do I really need more than one Peppa Pig playsets? No. And I most certainly am not going to encourage my daughter to have more than one either. Lesson: if you are building a website to advertise your book or your whatever, don't overdo it. I think statistically, you should do about 10% of self-promotion and the rest should be interesting, useful content.