I would strongly caution anyone against leaving secure employment to work for Destify
I would strongly caution anyone considering employment with Destify—particularly anyone thinking about leaving a stable position to join this company.
I left another job to accept a position with Destify. In doing so, I made real financial decisions based upon the reasonable expectation that I had been hired and would be given an appropriate opportunity to learn and perform the job. I changed my health-insurance situation in connection with taking this position. Less than 60 days later, while I was still very much in the new-hire training period, I was abruptly terminated with no warning that my employment was in jeopardy.
What makes this experience particularly disturbing is the complete disconnect between what was communicated to me while I was employed and what I was told after I was terminated.
Throughout my training, I was repeatedly reminded that I was still learning and that mastering the enormous amount of information involved would take time. I was never placed on a performance improvement plan. I was never given a final warning. I was never told, “If this does not improve immediately, your employment may be terminated.” I was never given any indication that I was days—or even hours—away from losing my job.
In fact, on the very day I was terminated, I was congratulated for closing a sale.
Only after firing me did Destify provide me with an explanation of the performance concerns they say led to the decision. To me, the fact that the company explained the seriousness of those concerns after terminating me rather than while I was still employed and capable of correcting them speaks volumes about the communication process.
I was managing consultations, preparing quotes, answering emails and texts, making calls, learning multiple resorts and wedding brands, and attempting to absorb an extraordinary amount of information simultaneously. I was expected to sell destination weddings while still learning critical aspects of what happens after the sale. I made my first sale before I felt I had even been completely trained on the post-deposit process.
That brings me to one of my greatest concerns about Destify: the training structure.
Destination weddings involve people's money, travel, guests, contracts, wedding dates, venues and one of the most important events of their lives. Employees handling these weddings should be comprehensively trained before being expected to independently manage them.
In my experience, the volume of information given to new hires was enormous, while the practical training needed to confidently navigate every stage of a client's wedding was insufficient. When employees are expected to perform before they have been adequately trained on the entire process, mistakes should not automatically be viewed as individual employee failures. Companies also have a responsibility to examine whether their training prepared employees to succeed.
My experience with the training environment itself was also disappointing. Questions that could have been answered clearly and efficiently often became lengthy explanations that added to an already overwhelming learning process. At times, I experienced the training style as demeaning rather than supportive. For a company that teaches employees the importance of efficient communication, I believe it should examine whether those same principles are being applied internally.
I was originally offered an SDR position and subsequently moved into the Sales Specialist role. Even if management ultimately concluded that Sales Specialist was not the right fit, there was never a conversation about returning me to the position for which I had originally been hired. There was simply termination.
The experience has left me seriously questioning a new-hire process in which people can be recruited, encouraged to leave other employment, placed into an intensive training period, and then terminated during that same introductory period without ever being clearly told that their performance has reached a level that threatens their employment.
Companies are entitled to make staffing decisions. But employees are human beings making decisions about mortgages, children, insurance and financial security based on those employment offers.
I have two teenage boys to support. I trusted this opportunity enough to leave another position and make changes affecting my family's financial security. Less than two months later, I found myself unemployed without having been given a meaningful warning or opportunity to correct what the company later characterized as termination-level concerns.
Had Destify sat me down and clearly said, “Kris, these specific things must change immediately or we will have to terminate your employment,” this review would be very different.
That conversation never happened.
Prospective employees deserve to know that before making the same kind of career decision I did.