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Antiwork

Boss expects my project team to work during company-wide closure (27 Dec – 3 Jan). I showed up but all of upper management including Boss are overseas on holiday.

So I'm part of a design team that is currently handling an integrated development project with an incredibly nasty client who is adamant about launching by early 2023, hence the having-to-work-even-when-office-is-officially-closed predicament. This client has verbally and mentally abused everyone on my team for the past 6 months and has basically left everyone demoralised, jaded, and overall disinterested about the project. Upper management (2 bosses, 7 directors and seniors) knew beforehand what kind of nightmare client this was, and some senior creative directors even flat out refused to be part of the team if my main boss decided to take them on. Yet he still did, just for the money and whatever “recognition” the project gets for the company. I've had to hard carry the entire fucking team this entire time by doing all of the design executions and pandering to the internal team of seniors (I'm “not allowed” to…


So I'm part of a design team that is currently handling an integrated development project with an incredibly nasty client who is adamant about launching by early 2023, hence the having-to-work-even-when-office-is-officially-closed predicament.

This client has verbally and mentally abused everyone on my team for the past 6 months and has basically left everyone demoralised, jaded, and overall disinterested about the project. Upper management (2 bosses, 7 directors and seniors) knew beforehand what kind of nightmare client this was, and some senior creative directors even flat out refused to be part of the team if my main boss decided to take them on. Yet he still did, just for the money and whatever “recognition” the project gets for the company. I've had to hard carry the entire fucking team this entire time by doing all of the design executions and pandering to the internal team of seniors (I'm “not allowed” to make any creative decisions even though I have more experience than some seniors…they're only seniors because they've stayed in the same company for longer than I have, I'm a relatively new hire) as well as to every whim and fancy of the client. To my fellow designers out there, imagine being forced to churn 60-80 good logos in a day, managing to do so and sending it to client before EOD only for them to email back 5 mins later to do another 60-80 logos “just for variety sake” and they expect it by the same day at 2359hrs. Then multiply it by everyday for the past 6 months. I've voiced this out to 2 of the upper management during a performance review stating this abuse and absurdity, yet all I got was a “it is what it is, dont like it? quit then” kind of reply from them.

Anyway, that's the background. On 19th Dec, my main boss sent a Whatsapp message to the project chat stating the entire team is expected to work “during office closure, from 27 Dec to 3 Jan to get this project sorted and ready for launch early 2023”. Meaning no leaves, no holidays, no time off and everyone is to be on the ball and ready the moment client requests come in, even though the rest of the company gets to fuck off and enjoy their year end. We aren't compensated for the days, either.

I begrudgingly obeyed like an idiot, thinking everyone did too. Soon after on the 23rd, I found out one of the big directors was already halfway on his trip overseas, another already left a day before, and a senior designer had already planned a trip on the 26th as well. Still, I thought I had a duty and even went online on 26th night to check my work email and I saw that the client responded with new design requests. On 27th morning, I did the artwork and sent the presentation deck to the Whatsapp group chat. Lo and behold, my project manager couldn't be bothered to send it only replying an hour later saying “haha im outside tho” and threw it to the fucking director that fucked off on 23rd to deal with it, to which he replied another 2hrs later with “will do later”. its 1045pm now where I'm typing this – a good 12 hrs since I went out of my way to rush and complete the work – my file is just sitting, marinating in my own idiocy in the group chat. Best part, the main boss who told us to work/took on this client didnt even read the message as he himself is on a damned holiday.

Believe me, everyday I want to quit and get out of this mental and emotional torture this company has put me through. But during this time of year, in my part of the world, in my industry, it's damn near impossible to get a job just like that. I've promised myself to not check anymore work emails and mute the group chats till next year, but I just had to get this off my chest.

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