Am I about to get fired?
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- landock
So here's the deal...been working at this tiny agency (me + 2 owners who are married) for about 8 months as the web developer/designer and generally things have been going ok. Most of our work right now is on the print side but I have a good working relationship with the husband and most of the projects I've worked on here have come off without a hitch. But in the past few months we've had problems with a couple of the sites we're developing and this is where things start getting dicey with the wife.
I've been told now on 4 separate occasions that I'm the one holding back the agency from getting doing more web stuff. Now I'm the first to admit that I have bad habits and I probably waste too much time fucking around online but I've been doing this shit for 11 years and and feel like I'm not doing anything to warrant that kind of response from her. It's pretty demoralizing.
At this point I'm looking at new gigs but I guess I'm just trying to figure out if I'm just fucking up or what. Like I said in the beginning, most of the projects run more or less smoothly. But anytime we have a problem, I hear the "We can't take on new clients because you're shitty" speech. We have two sites right now that are nearly completely built (just need to do some cleanup) but still need 90% of the actual content. She's our copywriter but she keeps asking me why they aren't done. Fuckkkkk
Earlier this year, for example, we needed to create a blog for an existing client's site that took me under a week to create the Wordpress theme for and she asked me why it wasn't done in a day, since the last guy who worked here created one she loved that quickly. I explained that I designed and coded everything from scratch while the last guy just restyled a free theme he got somewhere but I guess I looked like an asshole. Mind you, this is for our biggest client so I thought it was warranted.
And for the record, since I've been working here I've never been given any sort of timeline for any of the work I've done. We have zero project management and I'm expected to just finish everything ASAP. That sort of works on smaller brochure sites but completely collapses for anything more involved, which is 90% of the stuff we've done lately. I tried to explain to her a couple of months back that for most of the projects we're involved in, I never know what stage we're in and that we needed some basic management in place to be on the same page. She agreed and then we did nothing. We have Basecamp but they don't use it for a single internal projects.
Anyway, last night we're putting the finishing touches on a quick redesign that we did for a client and when the wife pulls it up on her laptop things look crazy (looks like the css hasn't loaded properly). I have her refresh and things look right and we're making sure everything works when it happens again after she submits a form. This makes her go into a long sarcastic speech about how its not a big deal if we lose this client and how can we consider ourselves professionals when this sort of stuff happens. We proceed to bring it up on every other office computer and it looks fine in all them and I start telling her that it was probably a network hiccup and she gives me more sarcastic bullshit about how she hopes its just our "shitty network and her shitty laptop". Then she tells me that "maybe its time we just concentrate on print and pr. this web stuff isn't working". Everything seems fine today but I think I'm screwed.
- CanHasQBN0
Yes. Because you talk too much.
tldr.
- cannonball19780
Id fire you for your horrible communication skills
- Does this read incoherently? Sorry, about that, just frustrated.
landock
- Does this read incoherently? Sorry, about that, just frustrated.
- landock0
tl:dr - The lady I work for thinks I'm garbage.
- scarabin0
regardless of the actual situation, you're seeing the signs and you should be updating your book.
consider yourself lucky to have had warnings, don't get fucked unprepared
- pressplay0
never. I repeat: never. work. with. couples.
- +1111111111111111111...d_rek
- +2222222222222222222...ali
- +3 and I run the business with my wife..RumperChunk
- Point taken, even with the funny math.CyBrainX
- _niko0
- Why is this exist???? WHY!CanHasQBN
- I've only jerked off here like 5 times. That's not the problem
landock - i had to disable images for my 1st time ever on qbn b/c of this pic..e-pill
- I disabled images as soon as I saw her face and did not scroll any further.fooler
- are you sure that's a her?Amicus
- Is this from 'I'm gonna get you sucka?'VikingKingEleven
- e-pill0
i read it.. wasnt too long but a lot of useless info.. if oyu have 10 years plus under your experience, perhaps some new networking from those old clients is needed to strum up some awareness that you are still around.. get your work out and move on to a design team that is already managed nicely.
it may be time for you to work with a larger and more focused and organized team and environment.
perhaps you arent getting let go and replaced, but rather you are replacing them..
good luck.
- Right, I didn't want to drag on but I wanted to give concrete examples. But I can see how it's disjointed
landock
- Right, I didn't want to drag on but I wanted to give concrete examples. But I can see how it's disjointed
- CanHasQBN0
Ok, just finished reading it. I realize I'm only hearing one sound of the story, but if it's true, she sounds like a biatch.
I think she was fooling around with the previous guy. Husband found out about it. Fired him. And now she's bitter and taking it out on you.
- team_zissou0
The whole discourse was unprofessional, redundant and if you valued yourself you would quit. And they should move on as well.
- duhsign0
women like doing that, it's called bitching.
But seriously, step up your game or move on and find a place where the oversight/management you need is in place already. The thing with the css not loading properly is super common, if she doesn't get it you have to explain nicely like your talking to a two yr old with a temper and a handgun.
But as far as being sloppy, wasting time, not being a leader enough to even lead yourself, whining and being a pain in her ass...you may want to do something about that.
- nocomply0
Yeah sounds like you got it coming, but regardless this place sounds like a bad place to be working at no matter what.
I would take it as a lesson to stay on top of your chops, and then take your skills, experience, and ambition to succeed elsewhere to a team that will appreciate your hard work.
- pressplay0
like I said, if you work at a studio run by a couple, you can only lose. there will always be the situation where you‘re the fifth wheel. especially when times get rough. you‘ll soon find yourself facing the good cop/bad cop game...
- That's exactly what's going on. Just had a meeting with the husband and everything was coollandock
- vaxorcist0
hmm.... I'd consider leaving, and/or outsourcing some wordpress-hackery and concentrate on a few big money projects...
They may think you're "too small potatoes" to do something big if you take more than 1 day to do a blog layout, when in fact you're possibly able to make a great, huge sight precisely because you DO NOT just hack template tweeks, but non-tech people base their ideas on observations they see themselves, based on their own past assumtptions, no matter what's the iceberg under the surface....
- team_zissou0
or you should all fuck
- pffft. bwahahaha. this comment made me spit out my drink.Gucci
- pressplay0
run! run as fast as you can!
- SteveJobs0
you are either holding them back or you aren't. which is it? if you aren't you need to effectively communicate that to them in a way they can understand. otherwise you might as well start working on your resume.
- dMullins0
Only one half of the story, but it sounds like you have every reason in the book to start looking elsewhere. If people treat you like shit, then they aren't worth your time. Simple as that.
Never take shit from employers. We are all humans, and we're not fucking saving lives with graphic design.
- id like to think i am saving the universe with bag design..e-pill
- unless he designs seatbelts.SteveJobs
- Graphic designers don't design seat belts.dMullins
- i use seatbelt nylon for a lot of collections, 'greater perceived value' is what it is.. its just nylone-pill
- ..but we market it and call it 'Performance Ballistic Nylon Weave' or something like that..e-pill
- This guy locked down seatbelt design back in '58 - http://www.design-te…landock
- what about the cards on airplanes for emergencies?
duhsign - i steal those cards, i have a stack from the 1980s PAN AM flights that i snatched as a kid..e-pill
- collector's items!!~e-pill
- cotton0
Undervalued, understimulated.
Do yourself a favor and take your experience and leave that bitch to (attempt to) find someone that meets her expectations and pay grade.
- fooler0
is she hot? she sounds hot.
- when i read this i imagined her hot. wearing a suit jacket and skirt. legs crossed. high heels. bein all hot & bitchy.CanHasQBN
- She's a 50 something squat italian lady from Ohio. Is that hot enough for you?landock
- I guess for Ohio that is hot.fooler
- That is the problem right there.team_zissou
- Heh. "squat"
So she looks like Danny DeVito?gramme