getting fired after requesting a fair wage is wild

literally nine minutes after, at that

Text of termination letter under text that reads, “Bitch, you’re fired”

H2C founder, Jasper, shares their most recent micro (macro??) aggressive work story…

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A few weeks ago, I was fired nine minutes after requesting my coworkers and I receive a fair and livable wage.

Disclaimer: I am stating both factual occurrences (which can be proven) along with my opinions of how my perception of these occurrences affected me mentally and emotionally. The exact details of this former role will not be named.

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A little background

Some of you might know part of the inspiration for starting H2C is due to the currently declining media industry and it’s new and creative ways it exploits writers and creatives due to much fewer roles. Media and publishing aren’t the only industry struggling right now, and Black and brown folks, specifically, have dealt with discrimination and microaggressions in the work place since forever.

So in November of 2023, on the cusp of considering a career switch, I stumbled on a an editorial role that paid a fraction of what I was used to. Typically I’d not even given a job like this a second glance. Its job description was questionable, and its lack of a following after nearly a decade of existence gave me pause. Why don’t nobody fuck w/this place? I wondered.

I have been privileged enough in my career to be picky in the past. I didn’t have that luxury anymore. So to avoid further financial struggle, I took it.

I was initially hired under the title Digital Content Editor but after jumping right into leading print production for this bimonthly magazine as a one-person ”editorial team”—a thing the offer letter stated would not occur until at least three months in—I requested a title change to Managing Editor. My boss agreed, and so I shared a new contract/offer letter with a tiny pay increase of two dollars, which was never agreed to.

Then began a year-long push for a fair and livable wage that fit my role. On top of that, I and my co-workers experienced disrespect and harassment frequently. I even mentioned it in an employee survey our boss gave us midway through my employment.

Then towards the final few months there, I learned in a group chat in a thing called Basecamp (in which my boss was included), that my other two co-workers were also struggling financially.

This is wild, because my other two co-workers had been there for years requesting this same thing. But I should have know—my boss literally made one of my co-workers work the week of her mother’s passing. And she had been her mother’s caretaker! She legit had to leave midday to go make funeral pamphlets. Just to give you an idea of what we were working with.

This conversation about pay was also just shortly after one co-worker quit due to this low-pay and hostile work environment we’d all experienced. So besides the fact that we all were being underpaid, we also knew that our boss should have had a full salary available in case he wanted to claim that raises were “not in the budget.”

Especially since we we’d split the former co-workers role among the few of us as our boss had made no public efforts to hire someone to take their place.

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Screenshots ahead…

Fast forward to a group discussion in our weekly meeting about all of us receiving a fair wage. Though our boss seemed aggravated by this discussion he finally claimed he’d give us more information about the budget a couple weeks from that meeting.

So the couple weeks roll around and he says nothing, so I bring it up instead by noting he said there should be an update. I mentioned several examples of how my wage seemed unfair, including how he never even updated my pay to match my new title—which he claimed was not the case.

He then told me this is something we hadn’t discussed. Meanwhile, I’ve made sure to have written proof from jump, so I forwarded him every single correspondence regarding this subject in real time. Despite having sent him this information, he told me to send him a new proposal for my role. This is something I’d literally just forward him, so I simply told him I’d done it.

Fast forward one week later. He asked me, again, to send that new proposal for my role. I reminded him I’d already sent it. He claimed that my last proposal was unclear, which I believe is false. I was extremely clear and detailed in my previous role description including my pay rate increase request, and we’d literally discussed my document in a 1:1 meeting months ago.

Still, he said again he’d like to know what I assumed my role and tasks should be. I reiterated that the only reason I brought up my role is to exemplify how unfairly I’d been paid.

To be clear, I was receiving a pay rate that was nearly half of the lower average rate of managing editors in my area. On top of that, I was making under the expressed livable wage in my area based on a detailed MIT study. So yes, I was quite clearly recieving an a unfair and unlivable wage.

I went on to bring our private conversation to the group chat, expressing that since we’d begun this conversation on wages as a group that we continue it as a group. Of course I did this for not just solidarity with my coworkers but to protect myself, as my old boss often got a temper with me in private.

The final thing I said before my ex boss (which I was able to screenshot before he logged me out of all the company devices) was this:

Text reads: This discussion is about being paid a fair and living wage. That is my focus for not just me but all of your employees. Three people that work for your are struggling financially to pay our bills. My focus is on each of us getting a living wage so I would like to direct all energy there.

Nine minutes later he sent me a termination letter to my personal email claiming he was looking for the magazine to go a different direction in 2025. No specifics were given as to why I received a termination letter now, of all times. I’d also never received any warning of possible termination prior to this, though I should note my city is located in an at-will state:

Text reads: After much careful consideration, I have decided to take [redacted] in a different direction for 2025. As a result, we will no longer need your services, effective immediately. We are grateful for your contributions and dedication to the magazine. Your efforts have played an important role in our journey, and we truly appreciate everything you've done. Thank you once again for your time with us. Please return your computer equipment by October 25, 2024.

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It’s important to note I worked for an LGBT-centered magazine. I am a Black trans person. It believe it is severely transphobic to not give a Black trans person a living wage. No “queer” publication can claim equality or equity when their underpaying their queer staff.

Beyond that, I believe that the strife and turmoil along with underpayment I’ve experienced in the one year I’d been in this role has made me mentally and physically ill. I’ve had to begin taking medication again, return to therapy, and earlier in the year was diagnosed with TMJ.

I’m not saying I was fired because I requested a fair wage. But I can say that I received a termination letter under 10 minutes after my fair wage request. So. Take that as you will.

I can only say so much because you best believe I’m taking legal action. If any of y’all have legal advice please feel free to hit me up.

Considering a part two for some specific instances of antiBlackness and discrimination I experienced during my time in the role.

Thank y’all for reading. More to come…

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How to support Jasper

• SEND JASPER A TIP. Venmo: $blkpansy

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