So, a year back a friend of my GF offered her a job working with her for her dad, who's one of the most successful movie and tv producers in our country. It was a lot of work and the pay wasn't all that great (in fact it was beneath industry standards), but she accepted because it was an inn into the industry and she had no job at the time.
The deal they made was for 3 months worth of work paid $20k each month (at the time it was like 200 dollars). They worked their assess off, and the guy was incredibly disorganized and demanding, my GF tried to covertly complain to her friend but she would excuse her father saying things like “it's a starting position, we are being paid more than enough, and if we work hard we'll have great jobs!” (of course, her friend is rich, so she doesn't care). They were working eleven hour shifts six days a week, because they wanted to impress the production company, meanwhile I was on the side uselessly repeating how they shouldn't do more than what they were asked. They finished three months worth of work in two months and a half, and they were paid… $40k, two moths worth of work. I urged her to complain but, again, she listened to her friend and said nothing. Cut to half a year later: my GF's got a job as the head editor in a TV show and she's doing great economically. Her former boss text's her asking if she's interested in continuing some of the work she did six months back. Her show was in hiatus, so she has the time and we had a big vacation coming, we could've used the money, so she says she'd like to talk about it, the guy says 'ok.' and never replies again.
Four months later: My GF receives an E-Mail from her former boss saying “I need this done in three weeks, after you finish I will give you more work.” She doesn't know what to do, the show's back on and she's got a bunch of work but she keeps thinking that if there's a pay rise, she may take it, and there may be, after all she'd be now doing a two person job, since her friend isn't working there anymore. But this time she listens to me.
She ignores the E-mail until a week later when the guy writes back, asking why she hasn't replied yet, she has now two weeks to finish the job. So she replies, very cordially, something along the lines of 'Sorry, the previous E-mail got lost in the spam folder. Before I agree to this job I need to know what's your planned schedule and wage, as I am swamped with work right now.' The guy replies: “Same plan as before, after all, we agreed on three months work and you only worked for three. Same pay as before too.” We couldn't believe the balls on this guy, in the previous year my country's inflation was 50%, and that pay was beneath the standards from the beginning. Madness.
The best part tho, is that my GF could do the requested work faster and better than anyone, since it was building on her previous work for them. So she writes back. “I'm sorry, but I have a lot of work right now, and that wage doesn't make it worth it for me, I can recommend someone if you please.”
I would also like to add that my GF's family is very rightwing, and throughout this entire process they were also telling her all about how she “owed” this man to accept the job and how far hard work would take her, and I'm very proud of her finally realizing how big of a load of bullshit that is.
After my GF sent that E-mail her friend wrote to her saying “what you are doing to my dad is evil and ungrateful” and things like that, and her friend's father wrote an email offering $25k instead of 20. Without me even knowing she replied: “Inflation this last year was 50%, I would be on my own doing a two person job, so at minimum you should be offering me $60k. But I've got a big workload, and $20k wasn't fair even a year ago, so I'm thinking something along the lines of $90k, after all, I'm an established editor now. If that doesn't sound good to you, again, I can recommend someone, and I'll send you the premiere files you need for this work too.”
The guy cussed her off in the next E-mail and that was it. Three days later he wrote back, saying they had a week to finish the work and they needed her, they would pay her what she asked for. She said “To do that work in a week, that would be $100k” the guy replied with a simple “Fine.” She then opened the premiere file, changed a single thing and started exporting, it took her like thirty minutes. A week later she turned it in.
I'm so fucking jealous she was able to live that, my boss is a bitch (I will probably make a second post soon) so it was cathartic living this through her, but man I wish I could experience it myself.