Can Someone Please Remove the Knife From My Back?
Film is a cutthroat business. Sometimes it’s more annoyingly so. And sometimes it makes you want to punch a baby.
This is one of those times.
I don’t always work on sets. Many times my bread and butter comes from being an office drone at a post-production company known for making DVD menus and editing web commercials. This is by no means bad work. I’m not bad at editing, I’m pretty great at quality control type duties thanks to my experience as a game tester (a job I shall write about at some point in time) and on the occasion that they decide to shoot a small internet commercial I tend to be a go to guy. The company usually pays me well and sometimes even offers me regular work for months at a time. Although I don’t like being stuck in an office doing somewhat tedious work, I don’t complain when offered money.
It wasn’t always this way. When I first started working for this company almost two years ago I sucked at what I was doing. I also didn’t treat the job with much respect. I didn’t do good work, would show up late, and committed many sins first time workers tend to commit. The boss of the company didn’t like me much after that and the only reason I still get work with them is because I have a friend who works as a producer there. Even so I still wonder how I still get employed at this place with some regularity.
I have spent the last year and some months making up for my stupidity. I have tried to cultivate a reputation of reliability and have been slowly succeeding. The boss seems to like me more, and I tend to get hired for more jobs because of it. In a time like this where I’m desperate for money this is a huge boon. I have tried incredibly hard not to repeat my past mistakes, which include talking and not working and coming into work late. I have mostly succeeded.
The other day I found out that it doesn’t take much to set back a years worth of work at all.
This company’s office is small and off the beaten path. They hire the same people for most jobs which means I get to work with the same freelancers and salaried employees every time I work there. I have always gotten along with these people, which includes the other producer who is not my friend outside of the office and the editors, headed up by the lead editor.
Now at this point in time I have learned that talking in the workplace can get you into trouble. I talk a lot in my daily life but have learned to tone it down when at work. However, if you work with me, act amazingly friendly to me, and try to start conversations with me about subjects you know I like then I will reciprocate like a normal human being. This usually isn’t a problem in the office because if you’re talking to me, chances are your talking as much as I am…which leads to what I like to call “The Group Defense.” Because if you can claim others are doing what you’re doing as a defense then chances are you’re not getting in as much trouble as you should be.
It’s a defense a six year old would use, and I’m happy to say it still works in your twenties.
So if the guy who usually acts like your friend and talks to you and listens to what you’re saying about any subject, including work, turns on you it can be pretty bad. It can be even worse when this guy technically outranks you. Ladies and Gentlemen welcomes to my current predicament.
In this case the bad guy in question is the head editor, who many times starts conversations with me about such important subjects as The Weather, Which Girl is Hotter, and How Much The Current Work Assignment Sucks. He then many times invites me out to eat lunch during break, and at one point even invited me to a movie. However I am not his favorite employee. That would be another editor that acts as his right hand man. I get along with that guy even more, having played golf with him on a few occasions (which usually are when I can afford it). I enjoy working with these guys. They make me laugh when I’m bored, which can be often depending on the assignment I’m given.
So when I left the office the other day after a day of quality control work on some very fun B-Movies, I was asking to be hired more for this type of work. I love working on quality control work when the work involves watching fun things. Cheesy B-Movies from the 80s happen to be my forte, so be hired to watch them and get paid is like some sort of minor dream job. But…then I wasn’t asked back. I asked my friend why I wasn’t, and I learned an unfortunate truth about the film industry. Trust No One.
The lead editor had taken it upon himself to bad mouth me after I led the office very loudly to my boss and others. His complains included my talking and my work ethic. I find the part where he complains about me saying I like my job too much funny because, let’s face it, isn’t that what bosses want to hear? However, by pulling this stunt in the middle of the office to my bosses face I have been set back a years worth of work building his respect. This is probably a big part on why I wasn’t brought back this week to work more. My reputation was destroyed in two minutes by one very big bastard.
The especially ironic part is that this guy has no right to complain. His work ethic sort of sucks, he talks as much if not more than me, and that day he had taken me out to lunch with his right hand man where he had talked about the work I was currently doing…where I had admitted I really like my job.
If my boss had complained about this type of thing it would be different. But he didn’t. Instead he has been giving me more work. The other producer also complimented the work I was doing THE SAME DAY saying it was very thorough.
I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why this guy would go and disparage me like that. It hurts. My friend theorized it was because I might be threatening some of the work his right hand man was getting. I don’t know about that. They are both more experienced than me, but if he feels threatened many he should….you know…have his friend and employee work harder. That’s really the only reason we can guess, outside of the dude just complaining because it’s a small office and he has no one else to talk about.
Dude, fuck this guy. Fuck this guy in his ear. And also, someone surgically remove the knife embedded in my back please. It hurts, and it’s unseemly.
I can’t really confront the guy since I’m not supposed to know this information, so all I can do is hope to get hired again (I probably will be at some point) and work hard and show everyone just how awesome I am at what I do. All the while I will be biting my tongue off whenever the lead editor or my boss is around, simply nodding and agreeing with whatever they tell me like a good little stooge. Oh, and I will never trust anyone in that office again….of anywhere else…again.
Lesson learned. Take notes people, so this doesn’t happen to you.
