Well, I’ve been busy. I finally got a job paying for my graphic design skills. It was weird though. A company I had applied to, for a job previously, emailed me and offered me a the job I failed to get before. Apparently the successful candidate had left and I was second choice. Awesome I thought, but all was not good. They wanted to employ me freelance, but set my pay themselves, at barely over minimum wage. I had to take a lunch break for a hour each day I worked, that they wouldn’t pay for and I was expected to work through it. Along with the unpaid overtime I had to put in. Then they removed my parking availability and asked me to park on a verge off site. Wow, how to get exploited without the need to stitch trainers together in a third world slum. I don’t know how these people think. The owner said he had worked in the business for years and was some kind of small business Yoda. Well he was wrinkly enough for the part. I have never been so used in my whole life. He thought the idea of some kind of utopia in the future, dangled in front of me like a carrot would offset all the shit of the present. Well, that might work for some college leaver with no life experience, but I’ve been around a while. So I worked for a few months hoping to be able to put up with these morons for six months and then move on with the experience under my belt. It was no good though. One job I was given was to create six signs for a business next door. Very little artwork was supplied and I had to source it all myself. Then it transpires that the customer isn’t paying for my services and getting a freebie. Then the boss has a problem with how long its taking and calls me in for a meeting. He tells me that what I’m doing isn’t what the customer wants (a guy who can’t make up his mind) and that I’m losing him money. Well, have you tried charging for graphic design services, dickhead? I think he was expecting me to fight for the job like I really wanted to stay. Promising all kinds of improvement and offering to work for even less. Not likely. I said this is as good as it gets and you can stick this job up your arse when you pull your head out of it.
So any designers out there. Don’t put up with these exploiting small business owners. They’re all the same, acting like they’re all Alan Sugar and doing the world a favour by existing. It’s strange how they don’t ever have any money, until they need a Range Rover or Mercedes to take the kids to school. Well I wish him luck finding a Degree level Graphic Design graduate who will work for £7 per hour freelance and put up with his endless bull shit.
Now I know why the other candidate left, incidentally after going on holiday and never returning. I wonder if the owner will ever see the pattern that’s forming.
Always value your abilities and insist on commensurate reimbursement.
GRUMPY BASKET 