Going to try and keep this short. I've posted to this sub time and time again about my shitty job, and have deleted quite a few posts for fear of my employers finding them.
A bit of background first (feel free to skip this, it's supplemental info) – I work at a very small marketing agency and I am their only graphic designer. I work under an art director whose only job is to direct me, and she does a pretty terrible job of it, as I self-manage and take charge of nearly all projects/priorities/deadlines. I often have to keep her in the loop of what's going on when it should be the opposite. From my POV, she does quite literally nothing and is very slow to approve stuff. When she does happen to contribute to a project, it's usually as minimal as “hey move that block of text up a bit and then I'll send it off.” Very rarely, she'll go into the design file and contribute original concepts. 90% of the work that goes out to clients is my doing. This manager also shamelessly takes credit for a lot of stuff I produce. E.g. Posting project images to her personal instagram, saying how proud she is of herself. Given the sheer amount of work and value I contribute, I recently asked for a raise (from $53k to 70), and my manager laughed in my face before rejecting it completely on the sole basis of my age. No negotiation, no admission that I indeed do everything for her. Essentially just “you're too young to be making that.”
Bottom line – from being overworked and undermined to having my work completely stripped of my rightful credit, I'm nearly past my limit. Unfortunately for me, the job market currently sucks ass for designers (likely other fields too, but can't speak to that). I'm trying to leave, but it's hard. No advice wanted on that front, unless you're interested in hiring me lol. PM me if so.
Today, I got curious and searched for my manager's portfolio online. Lo and behold, she is displaying a TON of work that I made alone with barely any collaboration. Stuff that I have on my own portfolio, because I know it's mine. I don't have anything up on my site that my manager (or anyone else, for that matter) had a significant hand in creating, because it's unethical and would make me feel icky! Besides, what if some hiring manager down the road sees my portfolio and then goes to my current company website, finds our art director, searches her, and then sees the same shit on her site?
I also did some digging on my manager's other portfolio sections. Turns out she also stole 2 branding projects and proclaims both as her own work. I recognized these images and brand boards immediately because I've worked with the assets in them. They were sent to us a while ago from a separate design agency on behalf of 2 clients, with the sole purpose of assisting us in creating branded work like social graphics and print collateral for said clients. To clarify, our company opened a scope with these clients for specific design needs while the other agency established the branding for the clients + us to use. But my manager has none of that collateral on her site, and instead chose to display the brand identities that she did not create or have ANY hand in whatsoever. It's someone else's work, from a totally different agency! Surely this is illegal?
Knowing this, I am trying to navigate a path forward. I'm absolutely appalled and not okay with what she's doing. Part of me wants to anonymously tip off that other agency. But part of me knows that could backfire on me. Another part of me wants to just confront this head-on with my manager and stick to only speaking about the stealing of my own work.
Does anyone have advice for how to deal with these talentless leech???