So I work for a hostel. My contract clearly states that I am a housekeeper getting paid the minimum wage. Everyone at work knows that I can do art murals but that is only a hobby of mine and I am NOT a professional artist and I have never stated that I am a professional artist on my CV. I have done murals for hostels before when the managers had asked if anyone was willing to brighten up the building but they clearly didn't want to pay heaps for a professional. I volunteered and pretty much did the murals when it was quiet or when I finished my houskeeping duties early. I used my own art supplies and only asked for them to buy me paint if I had run out. I got paid my normal working wage by the hour and my managers never hovered. They just let me get on with it and at the end of every mural, they were happy with the end result.
I now work for a different hostel and my experience with them is so much different. My deputy had asked me if I could do up a couple of their large boards in a very short amount of time while she went on holiday. I agreed because I like her and was very encouraging so I ran through some quick designs that I did on the spot before she disappeared. We BOTH gave the design a thumbs up and I started doing the artworks straight after I did my housekeeping duties. Again, I used my own materials and whatever they had available (which was only a handful of chalkboard markers). I finished the first artwork within a week and moved on the second the following week.
When I came back from my days off to work on the second board, everyone complimented how nice my first artwork looked (including my deputy who was on holiday) but I was then asked to change several things by the staff who were present because the hostel's ex-manager (who now had nothing to do with the hostel) came by during the weekend and started nit-picking on all the things she didn't like about it along with other things around the building. For some reason, the staff who had worked with her in the past started panicking and had asked me to change my artwork to make her happy. This infuriated me because why should I listen to what an ex-manager had to say? I did it anyway but I pretty much did the bare minimum.
I finished the second artwork and I made it perfectly clear to everyone in the hostel that if anyone complains about my artwork, they are more than welcome to change it themselves or ask a professional to do it because I refuse to change it when the deputy and I had already agreed on the design. I am a housekeeper NOT a professional artist. If you want me to do a better job, pay me more, give me a time frame with an agreed design that clearly everyone is one board with and buy me better materials so that I can produce better results. If the hostel doesn't want to do this, then don't expect me to do a great job for what little is being given to me. I do art for a hobby not as a job.