Upset at work

Today, I snapped... at my boss:

First, obviously angered by the client's endless request to see different options for the magazine cover which I did 10 options and they are still changing. I spent 18 hours on a magazine on Wednesday not because I was really designing but the new editor for the magazine kept sending me revised articles. 5 mins after I laid in the new article, she sent me a revised version. In the end, the entire contents I have prepared painstakingly on Tuesday was replaced with new text (twice) on Wednesday.

Second, complete disappointment that built over the last two months for feeling short changed when she decided that there is no bonus this year. And this is how she explained "You know Bryan, the new laser colour printer is really fantastic and we have been able to work so much more effectively, though it is quite pricey at 15k. But the good thing is, the forum newsletter project that you designed and managed, has helped to recoup almost the entire cost of the printer." The project she was talking about was in July, during an business forum which we worked 18 hours daily for the whole week which I designed, laid out and printed 1000 copies per night, and Mz hand-folded before delivery at 6am to the client. Then, in the same breath, she told me "but this year the company did not do as well as last yr, hence there is no bonus". WTF!!!!

Third, I have been answered almost all those phone calls, archived the job files and literally know projects on my fingertips, including those five years before I join the company. I could even tell her which image has appeared on each brochure. For all the madness I have been covering since Jan, she took seven months to tell me that she will give me a small sum of money for the admin job covered. And I dun think an admin job is just 50 bucks a month.

Fourth, last straw was two weeks ago, she came up to me and told me that she printed out some current pay scale for admin and graphic designer from recruitment firms and told me what are the present pay scale for designers. So I am reading it as she is telling me that she is paying me quite a bit more than average.

That's it. She is not considering that I am worth more than my current miserable pay despite of my handling most of the corporate magazines (which is the basic staple for the company), much better project management abilities and rapport with her key clients. I was running the MBS casino project with her and my effort was only worth one month bonus when she charged the client a high five figure bill. She obviously forget that noone at my junior level has gotten involved in a billion dollar project before and this is, among the other the best feather in my hat now.

I am going to be more active in my job search. There are two main projects coming up in Dec and I am not going to hang around to get sleepless nights and not being rewarded appropriately. I was more than upset when my friends in non profitable and charitable organisations got a decent one month bonus. Talk is cheap so her frequent comments on how wonderful to have me in the team is not working anymore. She can use her 'more than average' salary to hire an admin cum designer if she wants.