Hello and hope you find this amusing
I was hired last month as a merchandise photographer. We'll leave it at that. I have about two years experience in this role from other companies, so I am pretty comfortable in the space I was working apart from the usual “new job” anxiety/excitement.
Company seemed nice enough. They are expanding to a new market in my state, which is how I found the position. Training was extensive, and all necessary equipment provided.
Then I get to the first client I'll be working for. Keep in mind, I am employed by the photography “agency” that contracts my work out to various retailers. This place is a mess. I am photographing vehicles in a lot the size of FIVE FOOTBALL FIELDS (6+ acres)! Finding these vehicles is an absolute migraine, and go figure my pay is tied to productivity (per photo set) rather than an hourly rate. This is wonderful when a client has their shit together, at this place I clocked $8/hour (under minimum) my first couple days working without breaks essentially spending more time hunting for vehicles than shooting photos.
This entire time I've been shadowed by another rep who traveled thousands of miles to help set up this new expansion route. The SOP of the company was to use an Excel spreadsheet for each clients' instructions and workflow. For this messy client, the instructions were almost completely wrong.
On Friday, I was told to give my No Photo Report (lists all vehicles needing photos) to the general manager when completed so that he could locate any cars that had issues or were missing keys. I went to give him the sheet and he wasn't there, so I went on my way for the day shooting the rest of the vehicles that I did locate. This client is supposed to take up half my day, Friday was a full day spent on-site fixing their shit show. I had planned to give the NPR to the manager at end of day. My shadow is still here, supposedly guiding me along…..doesn't say anything and we keep working till close.
I go to give the manager the NPR and get my invoice signed and the head honcho district manager sitting next to him starts SCREAMING at me.
“I TOLD YOU TO GIVE THAT TO THE MANAGER IMMEDIATELY AFTER YOU GOT KEYS AND YOU DIRECTLY DISOBEYED ME!”
I tried to explain my case
“I was going to give it to him end of day, he wasn't there otherwise-”
She cuts me off still screaming.
“THERE IS NO OTHERWISE BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH”
I walked away without a word after getting the calm manager next to her to sign my invoice.
I come in this morning and was told by my shadow, “We have to offboard you bc the district manager threatened to pull the contract”
Tl;dr I pissed off the bridezilla district manager, who is getting married this week, and that's that. Contract means way more to this company that I ever could. My fault is not calling my manager immediately after and sharing my side of the story. Who knows what the screaming crazy told the company, probably said I challenged her authority lmao. I've never been berated like that in my entire working career. It was entirely unprofessional and uncalled for considering it was my third day with that company and the workflow was NOT communicated effectively.
My pitchfork is ready 🙂