OkamiKodomo wrote:Saw my old boss at work today. The one that cost me my graphics design job, a year ago, and tried to claim they fired me for not going in to work, to attempt denying my unemployment claim, rather than the fact that I refused to take an 80% pay cut on the grounds of them finding someone on craigslist. She pretended that she didn't see me, and honestly, I had too much to do, to stop and talk to her, just to make a point. I'm not going to throw off my day, and potentially invest in bad karma over her. She's not worth it.
But is it terrible that I feel a little smug about it? That I really hope she saw the 'supervisor' title on my nametag? I will admit I'm bitter about it.
The company was a start-up. There were 4 employees: the book keeper, the manager, the owner (her) and myself, the graphics artist. Manager and owner were son and mother respectively. I did so much for them. Things that weren't in my job description. Such as coach the owner on how to use a computer. We're talking basic stuff, like sending emails, and 'why won't a .doc file open in quicktime' stuff. I set up a youtube, facebook, photobucket, and was working on a flickr account. I ran craigslist ads for them. I did some telemarketing and door to door with local businesses when there were no ads for me to do. Then when they fired me, they wanted to keep the adobe suite that I installed on their computer.
I started with them on commission, making $200 an ad. Business got good, and they couldn't afford that anymore, so they offered me a salary of $320(pretax) every two weeks, based on a calculation of 20 hours a week, $8 an hour. I took it, because they promised me I'd still get the full salary even if business slowed down again, because I wanted the reliable paycheck. But when it did slow, they wanted to put me back on commission, but this time only making $40 an ad... because they said they found someone on craigslist offering that price.
But the thing is, I found the ad, and the artwork was not only bad, but most of it was stolen tattoo flash that had been run through the photoshop bevel and gradient filters. And it was all static images, not animation, which is significantly more complicated. When I refused, and said I wanted to either keep my salary, or get the original price of $200 per ad, they fired me. When I filed unemployment claims, they tried to deny it, saying that I was pulling no-call/no-shows.
So on the one hand, I feel a sort of... vindication in that I still made it, and I'm doing better than I ever was with them. I feel proud, victorious even. I didn't let them bring me down, and I rose above it. And a part of me wants to make her eat her words, telling me I shouldn't burn my bridges with them, by refusing their offer. But another part of me feels I should be humble about it, because I was raised to never gloat, that you should turn the other cheek, kill them with kindness, that the best revenge is living a happy life.
I say feel proud don't let them get to you humble be damned. When I saw my Ex-BFF and her brother at the Waterpark last year when I was there with my now BFF they stared at us the entire time....And we were laughing smiling and started going on and on about stuff right next to them. We refused to awknowledge their existance except for the looks on their faces....
It may not be humble but being proud of where you are now is allowed.
