No on Job A… (Part 1: The Bitching)



Yesterday started off pretty decently. My mate  katalina made me a wonderfully yummy egg and cheese English muffin (with wild onions left over from dinner last night) and some nice, warm (not scalding hot) mocha coffee, even though she hadn't slept very well that night, bless her heart. As usual, I hit snooze on my alarm for about 30 minutes, then struggled to hold my eyes open while she sat on the bed and chatted with me to help me wake up. (I love that kitty ^^)

I cut it a little close, but I made it to work on time, 10 am on the dot. Then I got told to come into the office by the person who always tells me to come into the office (a little early for that, isn't it?). This is also the person who belittles, condescends, and talks to me like I'm either an idiot or am trying my hardest to piss everyone off. Neither is the case, but I'll expand on that later.

She called me into the office, and from the first words that came out of her mouth, "You've been with us a couple weeks now" (actually more than a month, but who's counting?) I knew what was about to happen, though I'd seen signs indicating it for the last couple of weeks.

They let me go.

And actually, my first reaction, was happiness and relief at not having to work there anymore, because that job, specifically that PERSON got on my nerves so fucking bad it wasn't funny.

Now I apologize if I seem unprofessional in talking bad about a previous job. I won't name the company, and I certainly wouldn't mention this stuff to a possible future employer. But forgive me, this is my journal, I don't HAVE to be professional on my journal (I'm sick of being professional for now, actually) and I need to vent...

So get out the popcorn, because this is a long one.



From the incredibly unyielding and oppressive policies, to the inane mandatory meetings and forced "bonding time" to a pickiness that makes most clients seem absolutely tame and hard, to-the-minute deadlines with turnaround times that would make most artists wince, that job turned sour in a hurry. But nothing turned it bad faster than the bitch who took every opportunity to skim past any accomplishment I'd managed and focus on every negative aspect of my work and performance. Near the end I'd leave every day with a fresh batch of reprimands and intelligence-insulting, lecture-styled "one-on-one" sessions that reminded me of the overly strict mother who sits her little boy down to scold him for an hour about tracking mud on the carpet. Questions intended to point out my mistakes by making me feel like a fool were all too common, like "Do you think this is acceptable?" and "How do you think this makes you look?"

Though deadlines were the biggest thing, and while they wanted something done by, say, 4 pm, I couldn't work on anything at lunch, was required to take a full hour of lunch, and usually had to have some BS meeting in the middle of all of it. I also couldn't stay after 6 to work on anything, and I couldn't take anything home or come in early. "You can't take these shortcuts to cover up your inadequacies" I believe was the term used, in that fake polite, stern voice that made me want to sock her in the ovaries. And god forbid anything be done 5 minutes after it should be done, or else I'll be reprimanded for an hour on why I blatantly ignored rules about deadlines and I don't listen and didn't plan thoroughly enough and now the company is going to implode because we're now late for our mandatory monthly card-game hour which was pushed back 10 minutes because I was too busy holding everybody back by being reprimanded.

I honestly could continue for literally hours on why that job was the most difficult, demanding and impossible job I've ever had (and I didn't even work with the public!) but I think I've already made my point. One guy, the boss, was demanding as well, but he also was understanding, and when I made a mistake or overshot a checkpoint time, he'd calmly discuss the problem without sounding like he was scolding a child. But between the both of them, they were very difficult to please, very restricting to my creative process, very rushing and uncompromising, and we simply could not get on the same page as far as creative ideas went.

I'd come up with an idea and a straight forward way to accomplish it, the boss would ok the thumbnail concept, but if the style or execution fell outside of the tiny box they had imagined the project to fit in, it was no good and couldn't be used. They usually wait til the end to tell me it wasn't usable, and I sat there and watched the boss change his mind about a video I'd finished after showing it to the bitch when before he had minimal stylistic complaints, and then the whole thing was scrapped. It's like being told to go wild with an idea, but only if you do this, this, this, this, this and oh, it has to be done in 4 hours. I was never good enough for them or this position, and I never had a chance.

The firing happened literally less than 12 hours after a long talk with  buckhopper about the way production companies are in LA (or SoCal in general, as this job was in Orange County). They are a completely different beast, he stated, and they all have enormous expectations and very little room for error. The horror I was experiencing with killer deadlines didn't normally happen anywhere else outside of LA, as most places allow people to work on things as much as they need to as long as it's done in a reasonable amount of time, like a few days maybe. But because CA pays overtime for any time working more than 8 hours a day, companies are strict about extra work. But hey, I offered to take work home and work on my own time, for FREE, to complete a project by the beginning of the next day, and I wasn't allowed.

So that explains why I was almost beaming with glee when she said the company wouldn't be moving forward with me. Judging by how many faults they found with me and my work from the get-go, I'm actually pretty surprised they held on to me for as long as they did. They probably just wanted me to finish all the work for the next two projects and reach the point where there wasn't as much work to do before kicking me to the curb.

Of course I was a bit surprised at the suddenness of the action itself, since despite the bitch finding new and creative ways to bitch at me and point out my blatant hatred for written in stone company law, I was actually greatly improving my time management and had gotten projects finished within 10-20 minutes of the set time and before the day was done instead of needing an additional day to implement all the revisions and stuff. But improving isn't really good enough for these people. I needed to be a motion graphics god before I took the job, and that's what I was afraid about out here. People want stuff done their way and they want it done to fit their schedule, forget how long it normally takes to do things. Go straight from A to G and skip B-F if you have to, but then we'll bash your work for not having B-F and say we wanted it to include H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O and P the whole time and I just decided to plug my ears and make loud sounds so I didn't have to do it, but I didn't get away with it and now I'll write on the blackboard 1000 times "I will include every letter from A to Z when I do incredibly restricting, time demanding projects that require skills equaling 1337 x the universe or else I will have my nose rubbed in it and be told I'm very bad and I am and I should be ashamed," ... and then they'll criticize me on my handwriting.

But hey, work is about gaining experience, especially in LA! It's all a stepping stone of experiences that will lead to the promised land of higher stature and more benefits (more than zero benefits would be a good start). There's always lessons to learn and wisdom to apply to the next job, so let's go over the things I learned, and try to be positive about it all! Because a winning attitude leads to a winning #winning!


1). "Do as I say, not as I do" is a character builder! It's important to know that the ability to be late and leave late/early is a privilege earned through hard work and is not something to be given freely to lowly scrubs like me who work for a much smaller amount! And if you come in at 10:03 and put 10:00 on your timesheet, even though I come in at 10:15 or sometimes 11:00, I will murder you because you are supposed to be ACCURATE and SPECIFIC and WHY WOULD YOU LIE TO ME YOU BASTARD?! But if you come in earlier than 10, don't be specific, just put 10. I wouldn't want to have to pay you almost a whole extra dollar.

Hmm... that's not positive enough... "Do you think this is fair? How am I supposed to feel about this?" Ok, I'll try harder.


2). Having time to learn things or try out ideas is unnecessary because I'm awesome and always know immediately off the top of my head exactly what I'm going to do and how long it's going to take down to the minute! It's a good thing I have these skills, because if I didn't, I might not have enough time to sit at the kitchen counter for 45 minutes after finishing my meal in 15 minutes, or let you tell me how much I suck for an hour or more every Friday because "honesty is important to us", or for 2 hours each week share with you my progress on all projects, a piece of news related to the production industry (which I of course have tons of stuff to talk about because I eat, breath, dream and shit production 24/7 EVERY DAY (168 hours a day)) and a superfluous side goal that I must accomplish for next week so I can better myself, but doing that at home is naughty and immoral. That's why we have 7 whole hours a day for this stuff, which is more than enough time because I can do it in 5 while painting a picture of Mt. Rushmore with a crayon in my butt! I do this because I'm awesome. Oh and now you have 6 1/2 hours because we had to let the cleaning guy clean your carpet and dust your desk, so get in there because these deadlines are important! (just not more important than lunch hour)

Hmmm, that was better, but "I can sense you're holding something back right now." "What are you really thinking?" "I'm trying to understand your thought process because it isn't really clear to me how it works right now."

Ok, let's try this.


W). I learned so much important, vital career-related stuff because the month I was there was very enriching! That month had so many power-packed expectations and standards that I was surely going to improve over time! It's a good thing I wasn't given much time to improve or adapt because then I might have learned too much, and we have specific learning limits around here. It's how we keep a tight ship. Though I did learn more about how to manage my time better. I learned to go from general to specific and leave out details that are unnecessary and then put them in later... even though I really didn't know how it was going to turn out until the details were there and now that they are I'm "not feelin' it." Here why don't you add a little.... "better" to it. That should fix it up. What? You're not sure you can finish it today and want to work longer on your own time to get it done? Where's my taser? NO NOT AGAIN!!!


*ahem*


So yeah, Job A wasn't the best, and because I wasn't there very long I didn't learn much except that I'm not fast enough, creative enough under pressure, can't make things fit to an idea in someone else's head without them telling me and that I REALLY hate making my own deadlines because I have no idea how long things take. I'd much rather be told "Have this done by tomorrow" and then put in all the work I need to in order to have it done on time.

Ok, what I truly learned (grasping at real things here) is how to manage my time a little better if I have to (though I didn't get much of a chance to perfect that). Going from general to specific is a good way to save time, because if you spend a lot of time on details and the client/boss doesn't like the direction, you just lost a lot of time. Also, don't think, just do. "Analysis is Paralysis." There's no time for fleshing out ideas, you do that on the fly. Oh, and I learned a few keyboard shortcuts for After Effects and Photoshop (though probably forgot them already) and that most places are probably going to be very concerned with when you get into work, down to the minute, so I'd rather be early than constantly 5 minutes late, because they notice. 5 minutes in many places is a huge deal, or if it's not, you should assume it is so you don't get in trouble.

And I learned that content for demo reels comes from the demo reel fairy, because you aren't supposed to use any of your work for any company at all because your ass and all its content belong to them during the time you're there. Well that may be just how it is at most places, but I'm using the one or maaaaaybe two things I was able to finish that I'm actually proud of on my next demo reel because that is the only thing of value that I got from that place other than the killing of my unemployment benefits. They can kiss my fuzzy orange and white ass.

Most importantly, I learned I don't like how jobs work here, in SoCal, where I currently live. I don't like the rushing, I don't like the instability, I don't like the constant fear of losing your job to someone who does that stuff at 5x your quality, 10x the speed and knew After Effects when they were 2... before it was released. (I also don't like the traffic). The demands, the competition, and the pace of everything I think are too high here, for me personally (as well as the cost of living) and it's not easy to get a job, at all. It took me 6 months to get the one I had. 6:1 search-to-work ratio is not very good, and I don't like wondering if I will make rent month to month. I don't like having to live 5 years of hell in order to establish myself well enough to make a decent living. I don't think I would even like the stress of a job like that for it to be worth it, because the pace, quality and demanding aspects would all be the same still.


So..... I've decided......











*please flip the tape over, and we will continue on the other side...*

-JT


Part 2: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2314345/
Part 3: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2314384/