Frustrated Worker Finally Resigned After Feeling Undervalued, And The Departure Left The Company Owing Months Of Accumulated Paid Time Off
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Extra effort often becomes invisible once management starts treating unpaid skills as part of an employee’s regular job.
One designer had quietly absorbed the work of several creative departments without receiving a meaningful promotion or raise.
Instead of appreciating his versatility, his manager ordered him to perform only the duties listed in his original hiring letter.
Read on for the full breakdown.
Only do what I was hired to do? If you say so…
“I worked as a Graphic Designer, Illustrator, Concept Artist, 2D/3D Designer and Animator for a company called ‘Magic Memories.’
It’s one of those companies that sets up a giant green screen in front of attractions and takes your picture, then, when you’re coming out, tries to sell you a photo book with your pictures edited inside these templates tailored for that site. There are sets designed for each attraction and all themed to fit accordingly.
I was originally hired to be a Graphic Designer who makes the Photoshop documents used for the photo-templates. That was it. I mentioned I could do 3D work and eventually incorporated that into my designs as well.
After noticing my 3D capabilities, I helped out by working on the design & build side, creating architectural models for the set designs and sales areas for new sites. Because I was skilled artistically, I was also tasked with creating the concept art for these new themed sets as well.
The pay wasn’t great…
It was like being a budget Imagineer, if you’re familiar with Disney at all. Except I didn’t get paid over 35k a year to do all these jobs.
None of that was a formal promotion, nothing had documentation. Just ‘try this out, see how you do’ and then never actually turning into anything.
I wore every hat in the creative team, and outshined every other designer in each department by a long shot. I was the only one who knew how to animate digital signage as well as a few other minor things, as well.
Story:
One day I was doing what I do, and this snake of a salesman comes up to my little cubicle and asks for help with some kind of marketing material for a pitch document. It doesn’t take long and was fairly simple to do. I didn’t think anything of it.
Hmmmmmm…
A couple days later, my manager (who isn’t the original manager that hired me, this is someone who got promoted into this position later on) pulls me aside and yells at me for not following protocol and not following the correct channels the design team goes through to get work done.
She ‘saw something’ in my work I did for the sneaky salesman and was mad she had to change something last minute before it all went out. If I remember correctly, it was something stupid like text needing to be shifted a little more to the right.
She was also mad she didn’t know that art existed because there was never a design request created for it.
“I don’t like how you went behind my back to do this” etc..
“From now on, don’t help other departments, and just do what you were hired to do, I’m the manager not you.”
If that’s what you want!
I already disliked company and wanted to watch it burn from the inside, so I graciously agreed. I wouldn’t do anything that wasn’t in my original hiring letter.
All the concept art for new sites halted, no new artwork for pitch designs to acquire more sites… All video content for sales areas stopped, no one to animate the videos that loop on screens…
Plan drawings and 3d mockups for different sites ceased, architects/builders had no idea what to make or what to build it out of… Sales didn’t get any collateral to help their pitches to acquire new sites, making it far more likely to lose bids for new attractions…
It takes a month (I’m honestly surprised, to be honest) for my manager to get back to me.
“Hey, I noticed you’re behind on a LOT of your tasks on Asana” (its a website we used to track whos doing what and due dates, etc..) “What’s up with that!? We have MANY urgent things that need to go out ASAP! Where are you at with X and Y? Z needs to be finished by this time to meet the deadline…”
Don’t you remember?
I remember vividly that I just stared at my screen and dead pan said, “Oh, I wasn’t hired to do any of that. I’m just supposed to make these templates, remember?” and pointed at my screen while I wiggled this sea lion I had selected in Photoshop around.
Not long later, they tried to ‘formally’ raise my responsibilities. And when asked if a raise was to follow this increase in work, they offered a $500 a year increase.
They were done with this place.
I accepted and then walked to my desk, wrote up a letter, and quit.
Forcing them to pay out my two months of PTO I had saved up with my newly increased hourly rate of like 2 cents because of the worst raise in history.
Company was bleeding money because the CEO and his best friends paid themselves a ridiculous salary and refused to take a pay cut in lieu of helping out the employees or the business itself.
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Things began to fall apart, I can only imagine what they lost after I ditched them.”
Now let’s see what Reddit users had to say about this.
This person chimed in.
Another reader spoke up.
This Reddit user shared their thoughts.
This individual asked a question.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a person who changed their minds about donated items, only to return to the shop to find them all sold.
And this Reddit user had a lot to say.
This designer stopped producing concept art, animations, architectural models, and sales materials because none of them were under his official position.
Management eventually offered him $500 more annually for the added responsibilities, so he accepted the raise, resigned, and collected his saved PTO at the higher rate.
The company demanded one job description and accidentally deleted most of its creative department.
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