My last few "jobs" in the state of Stinkassachusetts were a bunch of
"scrap" gigs in the summer of 2014 courtesy of TCG, which is rather
ironic considering they were the first agency to find me design work
when I began this miserable journey back in the late 1990s. Even
worse, the hourly rate I earned was nearly identical to what I was paid in
the 1990s as well. First, they placed me with some little company
downtown for a week or so (Cartesian), when it was over TCG emailed
me the same feedback I'd received 15 years earlier from every assignment, "could you
please let her know that her design work was fantastic."
*Sigh* They said they'd be hiring soon and I said "well, be sure to
think of me when that time comes!" But I knew better than to hold my
breath (after all, this is Stinkassachusetts). Next came a two-week
gig in Natick (can't even remember the company's name); I completed
the project in TWO DAYS, earning more awesome feedback. *Sigh*
again. Where has doing a great job and earning top feedback gotten me in this miserable place these past 16 years?
I finally told the staffing rep that I'm done with this, I'm
just going to try to enjoy these last few months in my home while I
have it before packing it in and then hopefully heading overseas to
teach English. She was sympathetic but tried to offer a pep talk, "I
honestly think you do have the skills and ability to stay employed
in this industry. I know it has been a challenging ride trying to
find full-time employment but I do think at least for the time
being, the few week/few month assignments that have been coming up
is an indicator that the market is picking up. All of the piecemeal
work may be opening more doors and getting you closer to your FT
goal even if you can’t see the results immediately right now."
You're damned right I have the fucking skills and ability for this
industry, but that's not what counts today. I don't have the "age"
or "looks." Sixteen years ago I was content to take piecemeal scrap jobs
on the chance it would "open doors" and get me closer to a full-time
gig. It's time to admit that in this miserable state there was never any chance of that happening.
I did one final few-day assignment with a company called Lois Paul
& Partners. For this one I actually had to bring my laptop as
they didn't have a computer for me. This didn't bother me. What DID
bother me was the "graphic designer" I had to work under -- an
inexperienced kid who didn't know what she was doing. This came to a
head at the end of the project when she told me to put a really
crappy image into one of the slides, and I explicitly told her,
"This image is terrible, nobody is going to be able to tell what it
is," but she overruled me. Well, the boss (some C-level exec) was
reviewing the slides with her as I stood by taking notes for edits,
and he pointed at that image and
irately said, "I can't tell what that is! Why did you use that? It's
terrible!" And he gave me a dirty look (since I'm the guilty one who
worked on the slides). She just stood there quite visibly
squirming in silence hoping and praying that I wouldn't call her out in front of the boss with "hey,
YOU ordered me to drop that image in!" But, I didn't say anything.
Why bother. At the end of the day, she's the one with the full-time
job, and it baffles the mind.
A fitting conclusion
to my life in
Stinkassachusetts.
No comments:
New comments are not allowed.