Painting murals is a task that takes a very specific skillset and it needs to be done just right to ensure a long-lasting mural as a result.

What would you do if your new boss told you that you need to rush through the painting, and even told you to paint while it was raining out?

That is what happened to the muralists in this story, so they obeyed and painted in the rain, which ruined the mural and lost the boss the contract.

Check it out.

Don’t stop painting the mural? sure thing, boss

For the last three years, I have worked as a muralist for a mural company.

It’s hard work, but also rewarding, as I was beautifying public spaces.

I had a good boss.

He was a skilled painter who worked alongside us on big projects in addition to providing us with plenty of financial incentives and encouragements.

Unfortunately, he retired last year and gave full control of the company to his business partner.

It immediately became a mess.

The business partner controlled the administration side of the company.

He was not a painter and didn’t understand the work it took.

He would overbook clients and overpromise on completion dates.

He never offered us incentives and would only berate us for not getting jobs done quick enough.

We tried to tell him that the old boss have always encouraged us to take our time and deliver the best mural, as the company’s reputation rested on the quality of our work.

We also tried to explain that as artists, we want to be proud of the work that we put out there.

What a jerk.

He brushed it off with: “You’re paid to finish jobs. Just get it done.”

This was incredibly demoralizing, and after two months of churning out rushed work, we were burned out.

One of our four muralists quit.

The final straw came three months later; our company won a huge bid to paint the side of a five-stories-tall building using my design.

I told the boss that it would take us five weeks to complete; however, a week before the project was due to start, he told us that we had three weeks.

We protested, citing that we’re down one muralist, safety issues, weather changes, and the complexity of the design.

He, of course, told us that the contract has been signed and brushed off our concerns.

He did, however, offer us financial incentives for overtime work this time, and knowing that there was nothing we could do, we accepted it.

I simplified the design and we planned to stay late.

The weather got bad as predicted.

There were a few days of rain where we barely got work done.

We fell behind and told the boss that he had to get us an extension.

Our client was nice enough to grant another week, but our boss was mad.

He would show up to the job site regularly just to rush us.

On the third week, we were working when a light drizzle started.

We were waiting in our cars hoping that it would pass when the boss showed up.

They can’t control the weather.

The moment he saw us, he started accusing us of being lazy.

To quote: “This is why we’re falling behind!.”

One of my coworker said through gritted teeth “Can’t you see it’s raining?.”

But before we could explain why we couldn’t paint in the rain, the boss yelled: “If you’re scared of a little drizzle, you shouldn’t be a muralist. Get back to work.”

My coworker shot me a look and I knew immediately: the malicious compliance was on.

The three of us got back on the scaffolding and began working.

The boss smugly said “see, that wasn’t so hard” and drove off.

We kept our smiles to ourselves.

When the boss returned that afternoon, he was horrified.

How did he not know that this is what would happen?

The rain had washed the wet paint down the building, leaving paint streaks dripping onto the rest of the mural.

Basically, the whole mural– three weeks worth of work– was ruined.

We noticed him staring slack-jawed, but we just kept painting.

Then he called us down and cursed us out with all sorts of profanity.

When asked “What the heck were you guys thinking???,” my coworker replied: “Well… you were the one who told us to do it.”

My boss’ face turned beet red.

Then he asked “Well how the heck are we going to fix this???”

I can just imagine the look on his face.

My coworker simply replied “You mean, how are you going to fix it. We’ve decided to all quit.”

And indeed we had while we were working in that rain.

We packed up our tools as the boss went from yelling to begging to yelling again.

We just ignored him.

That was the last day that we were on site.

I felt so relieved the moment I got home.

The Aftermath:

I got a call a week later from my old boss.

He sounds like a great guy.

I was ready to tell him that I won’t come back to work, but it turned out that he just wanted to check in on me.

He apologized for what happened.

He also told me that my new boss lost the contract, and had to fork out the money to repaint the whole wall blank again so that another muralist can take over.

The company is floundering now.

The new boss can’t find anyone to replace us, and he probably never will.

What he didn’t realize was that finding even one good muralist willing to work for a company is difficult, let alone a team.

I didn’t even know there were companies that offered this.

Most muralists are more than happy to self employ.

More importantly, not many people have the skills and patience, as well as physical abilities to create beautiful largescale artworks from great heights.

I give it another few months before the company completely shuts down .

My coworkers and I still keep in touch.

They got a few mural projects in the work from clients that they knew during their time with the company.

I help out now and then, but I’m still pretty burnt from the experience so I think I’ll look for other jobs for now.

Why do owners like this assume they are experts compared to the people they hired on as experts?

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about this.

It seems simple.

Absolutely, but these types of managers are rare.

This would have been a great idea.

Here is someone who had a similar experience.

How did they ever get to the point where they became the boss.

Another business ruined by a new boss.

A tale as old as time.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.