For background, I’m a recent college grad working my first full time job in the entertainment industry. It’s in an industry I have a lot of personal passion for/investment in, and my boss is a well respected pioneer in the field. I should be happy…right?
Not quite.
The job is an entry level position on the representation side that frankly anyone over 16 could do, yet is a highly coveted and competitive position. This means that the employer can cut back on normal job benefits: pay, work/life balance, etc. We are not treated well at all.
It’s common for bosses to be outright abusive to these entry level workers. They’ll scream, throw tantrums, etc. One guy supposedly told a worker “you have no excuse to be this [r-word].” One girl told her employee to wear sunglasses so other people couldn’t see her crying.
In this regard, I am ostensibly lucky. My boss is fairly demanding and works me hard, but the fact that I am not outwardly abused is considered a huge lucky break by my coworkers. The bar is below the floor.
Still, the one uniting factor between all entry-level workers is blatant, unrelenting wage theft. As the strikes continue (solidarity forever), rather than cutting back on bloated corporate expenditures or having us work from home to save office costs, we have been unofficially advised to stop logging overtime. This doesn’t mean people don’t WORK overtime mind you; they just aren’t being paid for their labor. At all.
My boss, among others, requently takes advantage of this. Calling and texting on weekends, demanding that I stay late without pay and generally treating my time as if it is his resource to spend.
It’s so bad it’s become an office running joke that we don’t get paid. I’d love to organize a union or further promote solidarity in my co-workers, but I’m a bit nervous efforts will fall flat. The reserve army of labor for a job like this is insane: practically anyone is qualified and literally everyone wants to be in the industry.
There have been fun and exciting moments in my job, to be sure. I’m blessed to even be here, blessed to have financial stability from my family so I can actually pay rent and blessed for the friendship of my coworkers. But there’s no way this is sustainable.
At this rate, I can’t imagine I’ll be in the industry much longer. I think I could do a lot more good as a teacher or in some community role. Plus the children I’d be teaching are more mature than the adults running Hollywood.