I promised Tony I'd try to get over this. It has been irking me tremendously for a few months. In fact, I finally hid these "friends" so that I don't see their posts anymore. But, I had to get this off my chest. And maybe after this, I can move on. Until the next "friend" starts up a new business.
You see, it all started with my sweet friend who now sells jewelry. Whereas we used to talk every week about our kids, workouts, and other things in our lives, the day she started selling jewelry things changed. She didn't really have as much time to chat anymore. She was busy setting up home parties. And I was busy declining the invitations to attend them. Because I don't really wear much jewelry. And the year she started selling it, we didn't exactly have a lot of cash lying around to spend on "frivolous" extras. Unfortunately for me, many of my other friends love jewelry. So, her focus turned to them, and our friendship began to fizzle out. Her FB posts rarely included pictures of her cute kids after this. They were all ads for her next jewelry party. Or ads for what new lines were coming out that season. Thank goodness now, she's so freaking good at selling that stuff, she hardly needs to advertise on FB anymore. Just a couple times a season, I guess, or at least that's all I see. So, I still try to pretend like we are friends, or at least past friends. And if I'm lucky, I might see a picture of her family once in a while.
But lately, more an more "friends" have jumped on the bandwagon. I think the worst offenders are the women who sell Rodan & Fields. They post what I consider to be the most offensive ads of all: pictures of normal-looking women's "Before" faces and clearly photoshopped "After" shots to prove that we all NEED to be using these skin care products. Because OBVIOUSLY, we're all ugly with our freckles, little wrinkles, and smile lines. Oh sorry, I didn't get the memo that I was so ugly. But, you just posted a picture of what could easily be MY face, and told me that I needed to sink hundreds of dollars into products to FIX myself. Thanks a lot, ladies. Friendship over! Or so I thought...
Imagine my surprise, when one of R&F's newest sales ladies (a former co-worker of mine) sends me a super-friendly message about how I have the perfect personality to join her R&F team and MAKE TONS OF MONEY! Yes, that's the other thing that pisses me off. These women are constantly posting about their PAY DAY and how they are making money beyond their wildest dreams. In any other business, that would be considered rude. No? I mean, I'm pretty sure Tony's clients would be put off if he was posting about his paycheck every month. But these women seem to think it's OK. Never mind the fact that the women who I see doing it are the very same women I know to parade themselves as these super-religious Christians who abide by God's every word. Guess their bible left out the part about being humble and avoiding vanity. I digress... So yes, I got this message asking me to join an R&F sales team. From a friend, right? Apparently she missed a few cues in our friendship. It seems she didn't notice that I rarely wear makeup to cover up or eve enhance my natural self. And she didn't notice that I take no great pleasure in keeping up with the latest and greatest fashions. And the only times I really get pushy with other people are when I am advocating for something related to education, music, or some principle or policy I think would affect the greater good. Sorry, but over-priced skin care doesn't fit into those categories. I'm no sales lady. Nor am I much of a socialite. I'd never make the first sale. And I don't want to. Because I don't want to lose the few friends I do have by insulting their natural state of being and taking their money.
And then there's the most recent one... a woman who I met through other friends, and whose daughter has played with mine. I was excited for her when I saw her post about how she was inspired to "get healthy' and drop the baby weight she never lost after her last kid. Go her! Awesome! But then, she kept posting about it. And the posts were sort of cryptic. She'd allude to some program she was using that was "cleansing" her body. Really? You know that's a bunch of crap, right? I mean, she has kidneys and a liver. Then, she started getting folks curious to ask what she was doing (because the messages were so cryptic), and her response was "I'll PM you!", meaning... I'll send you a private message asking you to start buying the same products. Because, if I convince you and one other person to buy them, I'll get mine for free. And they cost $300/month, so that would be awesome if you could spend your money, so I won't have to rob my family of their grocery money. And maybe I'll even become a seller, and you can buy them from me, so I can make money off of your gullibility! Kill me now!
I thought maybe I was the only one getting fed up with this stuff. But then, I started seeing articles & commentary popping up saying the same things I'm saying here. It's like they were reading my mind! And so, sadly, we are no longer friends.
But, I want to let you down gently, ladies. So, instead of dropping you immediately from my friends list, I've hidden all of your posts. I will no longer comment on the few pictures of your family that you post. And after many months, I'll probably drop you. Because I just don't need that junk in my life. I need real friends who want to talk to me to see how my day was, not to sell me crap I don't need. It'll be awkward when I see you in person, because I won't really know what to say. And I'm afraid I might say the truth (I've been known to be "direct"). But, I guess it won't really matter, because apparently we never were really friends.
2 comments:
Wow, I could not agree more! The funny thing is that just this morning I received a Facebook message from someone I haven't heard from in years. It was to "see how I was doing" and to let me know about the amazing Rodan + Fields skin care products she has begun to sell. 😒
You've clearly got good genes.
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