The Princess Diaries Part 3: Abdication

I spent a month of my summer vacation in Cappadocia. There are many entries on my list of places to go in Turkey, yet I consistently return to my favorite village, Uçhisar. This was a working vacation; I once again went to work at the fancy cave hotel, this time to edit websites, write letters and help the manager correspond in English. While my experiences there have been extraordinary (Sports Illustrated shot its next Swimsuit Edition at the hotel and other Cappadocian sites this summer. I don’t really care for such exploitation of women, but I did rub elbows with some well-known photographers, make-up and hair people and editors who are quite nice) I will no longer work at the hotel.

For some time now, I have had an inner conflict about the place as a business. Usually, I was treated well, (although my time wasn’t always respected due to some weird power plays) partially because I’m American but also because the work I do, for essentially nothing, would otherwise be very expensive. However, I have problems with the way in which the employees are treated. The working world in Turkey is a very different one than that in the US. Certainly, there are jobs in the US which are notorious for poor owner-management-employee relations. I can cite many examples from my past “career” in retail management as evidence. Yet here there is a different kind of hierarchy that is tolerated in the culture, and work can be very hard to find. Although it is none of my business, I find it very difficult to watch fellow personnel insulted, humiliated and otherwise abused in ways which I think are extreme even for this business and country.

In addition to my discomfort about the disrespect extended to the employees, I also had a moral issue with some of the texts I was editing. Without going into the details, I felt at odds helping sell the business as something it isn’t. Don’t get me wrong: it’s an incredibly beautiful hotel with exquisite antiques and textiles and an incomparable view. I don’t feel comfortable going into the details on this public a forum. Suffice it to say that I am not motivated to make money out of selling fiction (unless of course I write a novel someday…), and I do not care to work for people who routinely lie.

Maybe I’m too much of an idealist, but I had decided that this would be my last working vacation the first week into my month long stay. I left the hotel office a week early due to a conflict with the owner about taking some of the Sports Illustrated people shopping in Uçhisar because they asked me to, despite the fact that I had his “permission” which he later denied, and later denied even giving. It’s not how to do business he says. The goal is not to make the customer happy unless the proceeds go into the owner’s pockets through heavy commissions. I was so angry I cried. I hate that I do that. It’s a horrible cycle. Anger comes out my eyes, I get mad that I’m emotional, and the compounded anger raises eye ward again. When I said that I would be finished the following week, that I could not work here anymore, the owner told me I could leave now. And I shut my computer, told him I would be out of the lodging the next day and left. His last words to me, shouted from the office were, "And I don't want to hear this story from anyone in the village!" He has no idea that there were additional reasons for leaving, nor will he.

I regret that I left so quickly that I couldn’t say goodbye to my friends in reception, the restaurant, the kitchen and in housekeeping.

I still have 98% of my work on my computer, ready to be delivered to the appropriate person in the Istanbul office. I could take the high road and deliver it, but I doubt it would be used.

Luckily, I have friends who welcomed me and the bunnies. More about that in a following post.