Dilemma

After 8 1/2 years in the business, at the same salon ('cuz I love it there), I was fired. Now, before you get your undies in a bunch, let me explain. A certain biologically-related client of mine is good friends with a couple of my other clients. BR-client has been friends with N for over 10 years, and L for about 4 years. Both of those ladies have been coming to me for less than two years. BR-client and I had what some refer to as a "come to Jesus" talk (although, honestly, it had nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with personal & professional boundaries), away from my salon. I *thought* we finished this discussion on the same page...

I was wrong. The following day, BR-client & L went to a specialty camp on the coast. When BR-client & L got back, I got a phone call from L. She told me that she needed to cancel her appt (which was scheduled two days after that day), and her other two we had on the books. I asked about rescheduling and she said, "No. I need to find another nail tech. I value kindness above all, and I feel you weren't kind to" BR-client. This threw me completely for a loop; I've never been fired like that before. I don't know about you, but I value HONESTY above all, & I was nothing but honest with BR-client in The Talk.

While I'm irritated that I lost a client due to nothing regarding my professional life, I'm more irritated that BR-client's ranting about my "mistreatment" of her (playing the victim as she has for as long as I can remember) was the reasoning. So, now, I take another difficult step. I must tell BR-client (although I'm positive she already is aware) that L fired me, and that her personal feelings toward me, when *I* thought we were fine, have now affected my professional life. I came close to telling her that I will no longer do her nails. I cannot, and *WILL NOT*, have my professional life affected by someone's incorrect, and one-sided, opinion of something that is (honestly) none of their business... and has nothing to do with how well I do her nails.

But, then, I had an epiphone. It would only be fair, and professional, to give BR-client warning of her impending firing. So, I decided that I would email her what happened between L & me, my feelings about the subject, and insist that in the future, her personal feelings toward me not affect my professional life. If they do once more, I *will* fire her. I do not need that kind of stress in my life... especially my business.