In the Studio
I was newly out of esthetician school, broke and desperate for a job. I had applied at a makeup store, but was patiently awaiting for my references to go through. After a few weeks, I was in dire need of money when a old classmate offered me a job at “popular photography” place. I would be the hair/makeup artist and photographer’s assistant. I agreed and was working the next day. Things were fine until I had to learn the scripts. Everything had a script. I found out the hard way when the regional manager called and everyone ran away from the phone. I answered, still very new to the company, trying to remember my lines. I fumbled with some words and there was a long drawn out sigh.
“What’s you’re name? Listen, it’s ‘thank you for calling *popular photography place* at the *town* mall. My name is R. Are you calling to BOOK your appointment TODAY?’”
I should have known then this would my worst job ever.
Besides the secret shop phone calls and trying to sucker people walking in the mall to get their photo taken, I had the pleasure of calling up past clients to con them into buying more photos. My script was to tell clients that their photo was selected by the president of the company and he wanted to hang their picture the wall (which really wasn’t true). They only had to pay an additional large fee to have their photo reprinted and framed but could keep it after we had it for a month. According to my manager, I wasn’t “excited” enough when I spoke to these clients and was constantly scolded for it.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was after a few months of working there, I finally got to meet my regional manager, R. I had spent the whole morning cleaning as my manager sat at the front desk, terrified. R came stomping in, immediately commenting on how the shop looked. He tore through, complaining on everything — paperwork, the floors, the walls — nothing made him happy. The shit hit the fan when R decided to go through the makeup station drawers. Our first station was not in use because it often got in the photographer’s way during sessions. As a result, we used it as a storage for items we didn’t need. The makeup palette within station one had missing eye shadow. This made R furious! He came around the corner, shaking the palette in my face, screaming, “Are you serious?!”
I tried to explained why but it was no use. As he turned to walk away, the palette he was holding bumped into the wall, causing a blush insert to fall out and break onto the floor. He looked down at the blush, stepped over the mess and walked away. I quietly cleaned up the powder and stayed at the front desk to avoid the wrath of R. Shortly after that, I quit and never went back for my last check.
After all that, you left the check? Why? Did you have fun? I would have had fun being SO FUCKING EXCITED about the picture on the wall thing. But I’m an actress and really enjoy making an ass out of myself like that.
I worked in fast food and we dreaded the Dia de los Regional Manager. She would pass through the small shop like an enraged wolverine. Even when we had advanced notice she would find dirt where none existed. On the rare surprise visits her face would often become a plum red at the sight of an employee drink in the food prep area or another minor violation. We never had something at all “critical” and were consistently ranked in the top % of stores in the franchise for inspection scores, both internal and county inspectors and yet we never escaped feeling like we had let her down. I often wondered how the stores that actually DID screw things up majorly react.
@tronner, why not write this up for the site? We’d love more details!
It would have been fantastic if the OP had flipped a bitch right back at the regional manager for making a mess. People who get just off the bottom rungs of the career ladder can get so full of themselves because they have power over other people
I’ve had a jobs like that &…I don’t deal well with those type of people. At one place people would freak out about everything & tell me in a fearful voice that, “Scott (Regional Manager) doesn’t want it done like that!” They seriously sounded terrified. My response? “Well, Scott can bring his happy ass down here & do it himself if that’s how he wants it done.” It was always something stupid, like how spoons were supposed to be.
And I don’t know why people were so scared of him in the first place. He wasn’t THAT bad. I’ve definitely had worse.
lol. working for photographers is definetly trying. i interviewed for a kiddie kamera i think that was the company called. i too was desperate for a job, any job. well on the interview, the was me, a large black girl and a skinny afghan girl. it was a group interview, which i had never been in one so i was new to it. anyway, a hyper blonde girl tells us that as part of the interview we are to act out a script, to get the little kids to pay attention to snap a proper photo. well the script went like this “helloooooo! i’m gonna take your toy!” *takes toy* “Oops did I take your toy?!?!?! ooooohhhh nooooessss” complete with high pitched cutesy voice and facial espressions. i was mortified that i would have to do that in front of everyone, because we were in a large store. but i did my best. the guy who was working with the blonde girl could hardly contain his laughter at us, and everyone in the store stared unabashedly as we left. they didn’t call me back.