Briley Kenney's Portfolio

Before we get deep, let me just say, if you don’t want to read this, then don’t. I’m a writer. I write. That’s what I do. Everywhere. Anywhere. Wherever I can. That’s what I’m doing right here and right now.

I was fired in December, 2024. For bullshit. Three days before Christmas. Three. Right before I was due to take off on an approved paid leave trip to visit family. After working weeks, nonstop, almost night and day with a terribly staffed team. And I do mean horribly staffed. But they tossed me. After asking several times for support. After making it clear, I was getting burnt out and needed a break.

Oh, and just a couple months before, I had been “promoted” and given a raise, when no one else was getting that. Between hiring freezes and refusals to promote or offer merit increases, I still got a decent bump, for a couple of months, anyway. At the least, that shows I’m not completely full of shit and was making a difference somewhere.

Also, I had been promised, several times, over the course of years, that I was going to be taking on a bigger role. I realize now it was all lies to get me to work hard. I can honestly say I did more work than probably an entire editorial team combined during my stint. As staff dwindled and resources became more scarce, I stepped up, like an idiot. I rolled up my sleeves and got dirty in the mud, dirtier than I should have.

Really, I should have known better. The writing was on the wall. They treated many, many people the same way, like garbage, just as they had done to me. When I tell you these are morally corrupt people, I’m barely scratching the surface. There aren’t any words to describe the real truth there. They have many enemies at this point and if you talk to anyone with similar history, it’s highly likely you’ll hear a nearly identical story. I rarely say this out loud but they are some real pieces of shit.

When giving it everything means nothing

I took on so many projects — too many. I learned so many new tasks and apps and did so many projects that were outside my purview. I never half-assed anything. I edited photos. I designed sponsored bits, logos, and worked directly with brands to craft beautiful prose. Met with clients on video calls to bring many of those teetering campaigns home. I went against my own beliefs at times, supporting campaigns for the good of the business. I pursued new topics, worked on new types of content, dealt with changing management and changing but messy strategies. I wrote, revised, edited, reshaped, repurposed. I supported everyone around me every chance I could. I rarely said no and even helped a lot of others do work, work that they should already know how to do mind you, but never once made anyone feel lesser or like they owed me.

I stayed up late many nights. Worked after “business hours” with no overtime. Sacrificed my free time and time with my family. Incrementally helped the business in ways they still probably don’t even know about. And for what? For people that smell their own farts in their downtime?

Shortly after giving me the boot, and I do mean shortly, they laid off a ton of people across various teams. Sure, I probably would have been laid off, too, but because I was “fired” beforehand, things worked out differently for me. I watched all of them go to bat for each other. People I helped in many, many ways throughout the years. People I supported. Not a single one went to bat for me.

Come to think of it, it was a lot like when I still worked there. Where so many others would quietly claim credit for things I did or helped with, or simply take full credit without mentioning where their support came from.

I’m a humble man, a humble co-worker and I more often choose love and support over hate. But there, in that environment, you get steamrolled. Hell, in any business environment you get steamrolled. These people are corrupt on every level.

I sent a lot of these people things, gifts, and asked nothing in return. Shared my hobbies. Things I love. Cigars. Humidors. Supplies. I shared review offers and helped others get the opportunity to try free gear. I secured interviews with celebrities. Helped others try to spark their passions. I gave so much. I still, to this day, would give the shirt off my back to someone who needed it.

Back here in the real world, things have slowed down a lot. I’ve had a few interviews since then. I don’t interview well. I’m a fucking writer, not a talker. I’ve had a few application updates and callbacks, quite a few rejections, but mostly just silence. Which is fine. Instead, I’m quietly building and doing my own thing.

There’s no moral to this story

I don’t really have a big goal for writing this, I just want to get it out. I felt like I’ve been quiet about a lot of it for some time and I’ve watched a lot of things happen, both in the industry and places I’ve previously worked. So much of it is asinine.

Looking for work is excruciating. Selling and marketing yourself is only interesting for a select few people, usually those dorks from sales, and even then, it only works if you lie about almost everything.

Do I say I was fired? Do I say I was laid off, because really, I was the leading ne’er-do-well of that batch. Do I tell them I was a fool and worked to the bone while so many others sat around doing nothing? While new people and new leaders came in and contributed nothing? Do I say that I worked with a lot of other teams as support and basically helped them stay afloat? Do I say I was really the one responsible for this or that, behind the scenes? That I worked campaigns worth hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars and pushed them across the real finish line that mattered, the actual content creation part? Do I tell them the only reason so-and-so knows how to do this or that is because of me? That the only reason a certain person or a certain team made goals was because of me?

Nah. Probably not even worth it at any point, let alone now.

I don’t know the answers to any of these questions, to be honest. And I don’t know that I ever will. Even though I continue to apply daily, I’ve given up hope. It’s not just the industry I’m in that’s rotten, it’s the whole fucking system.

Screw it. I’ll do it myself and I’ll do it differently than anyone else would. Maybe I’ll fail. Maybe it will go nowhere. But I’d rather take that risk than deal with the rest of this bullshit.

I’m sure all of this sounds ungrateful or sounds like whinging. It’s more about sharing the tale than anything else. To have something published that I can look back on and say, that was it, that was the moment right there — the turning point for me. Hopefully, it will be for the better.