October 4, 2026
I’m due for a blog.
It’s been a minute, so I figured I’d come on here and talk.
One of the many things my mom’s Alzheimer’s taught me is that having absolutely no filter can be kind of fun.
Now, I generally don’t have much of a filter anyway, but I do choose to be a functioning adult about 85% of the time.
No need to get myself fired.
Or arrested.
Although, honestly, I think I’d do pretty well in jail.
I’d be known as Big Filly and probably run the joint.
Not that I’ve thought about this or anything.
Anyway.
The no-filter thing is staying.
Maybe it was a combination of Mom getting older and the Alzheimer’s stripping away some of those social restraints, but she eventually got to a point where if she thought something, you were probably going to hear it.
And you know what?
There was something kind of freeing about that.
So I’ve made a decision.
I’m going to be a bitch.
A Karen, if you will.
But not the kind of Karen who screams at a sixteen-year-old cashier because her coupon expired.
No.
I’m going to be Karen for the people.
If somebody says something fucked up, I’m calling it out.
If somebody treats somebody badly, I’m saying something.
If a company does something stupid, I’m probably going to tell them.
Respectfully.
Mostly.
This isn’t exactly new behavior for me, but I’m embracing it more.
Life is too fucking short to spend half of it smiling politely while somebody treats you like shit.
So with that said…
Let’s talk about UL.
And yes, I’m naming the company.
Be nice, Filly.
I know I have managers and former coworkers who will probably read this.
Hi.
Welcome to Unfiltered Filomena.
Enjoy the ride.
My Corporate America Era
I started working for UL in 2018 after spending about a decade and a half working in the legal industry.
It was different.
It was fresh.
And honestly, for the most part, it was a decent place to work.
At the time, it seemed like a company that actually cared enough about its employees that I could see myself staying there for a while.
I started off with a great manager.
Then she decided to move on to something else.
And honestly?
Good for her.
I’m always going to support a woman making a move that improves her career.
Women supporting women.
Applause.
Go get your shit.
Unfortunately, her leaving changed things for me.
The person who replaced her and I did not mesh.
At all.
I had actually interviewed for that management position myself and didn’t get it.
Probably for the best because I’m fairly certain one of the requirements for corporate management is being able to smile through bullshit, and I have never been particularly talented at that.
Thank my daddy for that.
If you treat me like shit, I will eventually tell you to fuck off.
Maybe professionally.
Maybe creatively.
But you’ll get the message.
And I definitely don’t have the personality where I automatically defer to somebody just because he’s a man with a title.
That has never been me.
UL, like a lot of large corporations, felt very male dominated in many of the spaces I worked in, regardless of who sat at the very top of the company.
And my experience with that particular management change was miserable enough that I started looking for another position.
Thankfully, I found one.
Same company.
Different department.
I could not wait to get out.
And then, because life likes comedy, the manager I was trying to escape quit on my last day.
The higher-level manager asked me if I wanted to stay.
I declined.
Very professionally.
Which is corporate-speak for: Absolutely fucking not.
Welcome to Your New Job. Good Luck, Bitch.
So I started the new position.
One day in, I got exposed to COVID by someone who had recently traveled from Florida.
This was early enough in the pandemic that nobody really knew what the hell they were doing yet.
I was immediately told to work from home.
Which made sense.
The problem was that the person who was supposed to be training me was the person who had COVID.
You know how I found out I had been exposed?
A fucking email.
An email.
I’m sorry, but that was some bullshit.
Then I was basically left sitting at home with no real idea what I was supposed to be doing.
The manager at the time was incredibly difficult to get ahold of, and I was essentially told to go back over the training I had already received.
Which was approximately five minutes worth of training because I had been there for ONE DAY.
Thankfully, another employee stepped in and helped me get on track.
Bless her.
Because there were basically no useful guides.
No comprehensive training material.
No magical binder labeled, Here Is How You Do Your New Job.
It was basically:
Here you go.
Good luck, bitch.
And that began what I lovingly refer to as my five years of musical management.
I swear to God, I had a new manager every 2.5 minutes.
Some were better than others.
Some were genuinely great.
And some made me thank whatever higher power may or may not exist for giving me the restraint necessary to remain employed.
I will say this though.
The women I worked under?
Generally great experiences.
Thank you, ladies, for knowing what the fuck you were doing.
Eight Years Later
Eventually, I left UL after eight years.
And it wasn’t because the entire experience was terrible.
It wasn’t.
I made some genuinely wonderful friends there.
I worked with people I still care about.
I learned a lot.
And there are things about the company I still value.
But over time, at least from where I was sitting, it felt like UL was moving more and more in the direction that a lot of large corporations eventually go.
More corporate America.
Less people.
More metrics.
More restructuring.
More distance between the decisions being made and the humans actually affected by them.
And that made me sad.
Because I remembered what it felt like when I started.
Eventually I realized I was done.
So I left.
And holy shit, leaving gave me my life back.
I didn’t know it at the time, but leaving that job gave me the chance to spend the last year of my mom’s life with her.
I got to be there.
I got to care for her.
I got to spend time with her that I would not have had in the same way if I were still trying to fit caregiving around a corporate schedule.
I had no idea it would be our last year together.
And knowing what I know now, I am so fucking grateful I left.
Whatever else I can say about that decision, it gave me that.
And nothing will ever make me regret it.
And Now I Work for This Asshole
Me.
I’m the asshole.
On October 8, FRDCreations LLC turns one year old.
One fucking year.
I’m still not completely out of the red yet.
Small business is hard.
Really fucking hard.
But in this first year, across all of my platforms combined, I’ve made more than 300 sales.
Three hundred times somebody looked at something I made, found, curated or created and said:
Yeah. I want that.
That’s kind of fucking incredible.
And every job I’ve had before this one taught me something about the kind of business owner I want to be.
Especially the corporate jobs.
I know what it feels like to be treated like a number.
I know what it feels like when decisions get made somewhere far above you and nobody thinks about how they affect the people underneath them.
I know what good management feels like.
I also know what bad management feels like.
And if FRDCreations grows the way I hope it does, I want to remember all of that.
I don’t want people who someday work with me to feel like cow dung.
I want them to feel valued.
I want them to know they’re human beings first.
I want to build something where people actually matter.
Maybe that sounds idealistic.
Fine.
Let me be idealistic.
It’s my company.
I Hope They’re Proud
I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.
With FRDCreations.
With Own Your Splash.
With my art.
With whatever weird thing my brain comes up with at 2:30 in the morning.
With my life.
I want to grow as a small business owner.
I want to make mistakes and learn from them.
I want to build something that feels like mine.
And I want to live my life as fully as I can.
I’ve lost too much to do anything else.
And wherever my parents are, whatever “wherever” even means, I hope I’ve made them proud.
I’m pretty sure Dad is somewhere snickering his ass off while reading this.
Mom?
Mom is probably pissed that I went there in the first place.
But what can I say?
I got some of her sass too.
Actually…
Probably more than some.
Anyway.
Happy almost one year to FRDCreations.
Corporate Filly is dead.
Long live Karen for the People.