Work the hardest, get the worst treatment

by Angelfish
(England)

I've been working in a photo studio for over a year. The studio consists of three photographer/sales persons (myself included) and a manager. I am on the brink of quitting due to how I get treated there. Its not just me being bigheaded, I carry the whole studio. Our weekly targets speak for themselves. I continually bring in MUCH more than my 25% share of bookings, leads, and revenue. Yet the other two enjoy much better treatment from our manager.

One of them has been there longer than me yet is probably the laziest out of them all. She can very easily get away with doing absolutely nothing all day without any comeuppance as she is quite friendly with the manager outside of work. She is allowed sick days if she so much as sneezes, is allowed a snow day if there's 1cm of snow on the floor, and is constantly being given early finishes so she can go on nights out, if not the whole weekend off (working in retail, our days off are meant to be through the week as its quieter, we are not supposed to have weekends off unless it has been booked as a holiday). She is also receiving training to become assistant manager despite the fact she readily admits that she doesn't care about hitting her targets.

This promotion was originally offered to me (or at least I thought it was, I told I would be given a lot more responsibility and sent on a management course), but when she found out about it she decided to spit her dummy out because as she had been with the company longer, she felt she was more entitled too it. So our manager swiftly did a u-turn, told me she never promised me anything, and has let this other girl know that she is going to make sure she gets it and her place is now booked on the management course for January.

The other employee, is much younger than myself and the girl mentioned above. Both in age and in mind. She also gets away with doing absolutely nothing, normally the "reason" for this is something going on at home like shes split up with her boyfriend for the 20th time this month, therefore we all must feel sorry for her and cut her some slack. Again she is allowed to take paid time off for stupid reasons such as her car is broke (not made to get the bus or a taxi like I would have too). Also she acts like a total brat if she is meant to do something she doesn't want to do, yet again "she is young" so we must allow for this.

I on the other hand work my ass off to keep the studio going, to keep us performing well. I promote every spare second I get, am never allowed a sick day even if I am practically dying, and very rarely ask for any particular days off or time off. If something needs doing I do it on my day off, like any normal person would. If my car wont take me to work I'll get a taxi. The studio would grind to a complete halt if I left. Yet all I seem to get is abuse from the boss. I never get any praise, just get complained at any tiny thing eg: today a major concern was the way I walked around store, apparently my body language wasn't "happy" enough and I was dragging my feet.


I was told when I started the job that there would be room for advancement. I am still a level 1 photographer despite the fact that photography is my whole life not just my 9-5, I regularly get my images printed in magazines yet in that studio a girl who has never picked up a camera outside of that building, has got a certificate hanging on the wall saying shes a higher level photographer than myself. I have been failed on my grading over 5 times for stupid things, each time I fail its for a stupider reason that they seem to have made up on the spot eg: your average session time is 17 minutes and that is 2 minutes longer than you are meant to spend with a customer.

This and the whole having my promotion robbed from me, has slowly ground me down to the point where I have no patience left whatsoever. Recently I have been so angry at work that I have been on the brink of crying out of frustration and have just spent the whole day avoiding everybody else so as to not spend any time in the their company.

I have considered speaking to our area manager as she does seem to recognise the hard work I put in, but then I don't know if she will just side with the manager as it would be easier than taking any action about it. I want to leave but I have been looking for a new job for months and nothing for photography ever comes up. I would probably have to take an office job which is not something I want to do but I am getting more and more desperate to get out of there.

Response from Carl: Thanks for your detailed submission, Angelfish. I think you're coming to the conclusion that if you've done everything you can to improve things for yourself, you then start to ask how much the job is worth to you if you get to the point of just hating the fact of going in there each day.

As you mention speaking with your area manager is one option but you're aware of how this could possibly get back to your immediate manager and cause you further grief. Assuming that you don't want to approach your immediate manager one last time and understand what it is that you're apparently doing wrong to deserve the treatment you're getting, perhaps a talk with the area manager is next? I'm assuming you don't have an HR department or personnel department you could approach first? Short of that, continuing to look for a new job as you're doing is probably your best bet just to try to increase your options.

Carl