I worked last year for a very short time as a graphic designer for a marketing agency and in the interview, my boss had said that her previous designer had been a long time partner of hers and was able to know what she was thinking and how she wanted to have things designed, etc. She said that she’d hoped I would be able to do the same in time (should have been my first red flag), but she liked my design style and wanted me to work with her and was excited about me getting started.
I started the next day and was put in the attic on the other side of the building and given the bare basics on something that needed to be done with no direction or purpose or goal of the project I was working on. I spent time on a few designs and she took them and sent them to client and never got feedback. Assumed it was fine, she said great, and gave me the next thing, similar (lack of) instructions and directions, etc, so I continued working on it. Went on like this for a week or two and then she wanted me to work on social media through canva for several clients, did that, it was fine.
Soon after, I guess they didn’t like me sitting so far away from everyone else, so they took me away from my desk in the attic, moved me down with everyone else, and put me in the kitchen area in the middle of everyone else’s offices at a counter where I had to put my arms at shoulder height to work…it was extremely uncomfortable. They really just wanted to see how I was working, but they never said that. It was very irritating.
A few weeks later she gave me a video project (never part of the job description) through her account manager who wanted me to put subtitles on a few videos. So I started on that and clarified with the AM which videos and what needed to be done. Come the next week after that, she asked me how much time I had done work for each client and when I told her she never told me to keep time per client, I hadn’t been keeping time per client, just my overall hours, she told me to make an estimate. When I did, most of the time was on the subtitles, and by this time, I had moved and was doing remote work for her, mostly the video and would soon be doing another project for her that she’d discussed with me before I left.
After telling her how much time I’d spent on the video (all contact over email), she told me that 1. This was too much time to spend on a project like this and it needed to be verified with the client beforehand, 2. It wasn’t supposed to be subtitles, it was supposed to be a transcript, and 3. If I’m ever unsure about something I need to ask about it to make sure I’m doing it correctly. At this point, I was livid. She hadn’t asked me to keep time for specific clients until I was well into the work and had no ability to accurately estimate the time I’d spent on so many different projects for all the different clients. She also had had her AM tell me what was supposed to be done and I did exactly what I was asked to do and did it as fast as I could. Rather than allowing me to charge and bill her for client services as I normally would (flat rates for specific services) she demanded that I keep certain hours and work in the office (didn’t realize that I was my own boss as a 1099 and couldn’t have demands placed on me as she’d done to this point). So she ended up “over-billing” the client, no idea what she told him, though I’m certain she threw me under the bus, paid me and I pretty much never heard from her again. Couldn’t have come too soon.
Anyways, lesson learned here and was by far the worst working experience I’d ever had. The amount of distrust and disrespect I’d faced was bar none. No apparent issues they had with me were ever discussed. It was an extremely passive aggressive environment and boss that I had. Just left me with an icky feeling.