I work at a “family business” sort of place. I started working here as an illustrator after I met my partner and it is their family. It seems like I have always butted heads with my boyfriends cousin who is just a down right idiot. He’s homophobic, racist, and is offensive to everyone he meets but doesn’t consider himself offensive because nobody tells him he is being offensive. Nobody says anything because he is one of the owners of the business and instead of dealing with it they leave the workplace without notice because it’s easier than dealing with him. This is the main reason the company can’t keep employees and more responsibilities keep getting put on other people that are salary employees. In this companies eyes salary means you work every free second you have.
Which brings me to the title of the story. The family took a vacation which included my partners cousin, my partner and I. We were mostly able to keep our distance as he makes stupid remarks and we didn’t want to deal with it. We were gone a couple days and were set to be back in office on a specific day of the week. Our drive is a bit of a long one so we left the day before we were expected back. While in the car I received a text telling me that I needed to get all the work done I missed while I was in the car on the way back. Not done the day I was set to be back, literally in the car.
This kind of thing happens all the time and I’m really sick of it and want to leave. My mental health has taken a huge nosedive and I find myself angry the second I see an email, message, or even hear the sound of him. My partner has known this but there isn’t much they can do since they also works at the company. I really don’t know what I can tell them at this point. I just feel trapped and miserable. This has turned into a bit of a rant so I’m sorry about that and I’m not really sure where I was going with all this. I don’t want to pull my partner away from the rest of their family but their cousin has become unbearable. How would you handle a situation like this?