A little about my position and the nightmare girl:
I work for x distribution, distributing huge cosmetics brands across the globe.
x distribution hired me to launch 2 new ranges for them, from concept to final production.
We hired a ‘Senior Graphic Designer & Content Developer’ to work on one project, whom I have experience with having worked with him in a previous role.
Then we hired a Polish woman, as a junior designer, she had the credentials but I wasn’t present at the interview, the owner brought her on board as she’d gone away and done a fantastic presentation for us.
Now comes the tricky part, I created the brand guidelines, alongside our marketing strategy - it goes deep in to the examination of colour, psychological/emotional response etc, there are reasons why brands use certain colours & styles (to coincide with their marketing plan.)
At first, she’d change the colours, I’d asked her to change them back, she’d tell me that these looked better (matter of opinion!)
She wasn’t completing the design tasks to the standard we’d asked for, she’d copy colours and designs off our competitors, etc.
One mention to my boss, and he sorted it out.
On Thursday, my boss put forward her designs to me, we were in a private chat and I was making notes on the designs and how I’d like them to be more consistent/cleaner and felt I gave him constructive points to put across to her. She came barging in on our conversation and became incredibly defensive about her designs.
I have to say, the comments the pair of us made were constructive - ‘looks great, can we make these lines more consistent then we’re good to go.’
Later, my boss asked me what I thought of her, I told him I thought she was a good designer and that I liked her concepts. Nothing less, nothing more.
However, yesterday he went on a business trip to London to launch a new store, and I had to take the role of my manager to ensure everything was completed, this is when the nightmare began.
I liaised with S (the guy) to get everything completed for x project - every time I would speak to him, she would interrupt with some huge debate on world politics or Christianity - it was all totally unrelated to what we were discussing.
S was making our email signatures for x brand when he asked what my job title was, I told him, and he joked ‘nothing changes there then, you’ve always been my manager in every position hahaha’
The polish girl spoke up “you may be content manager but you do not create it it is ours and we are the creatives”
I just smiled and nodded, but S looked up to me with a bewildered expression on his face.
“Actually, K is a great designer, she designed an award winning multi-million pound brand just up the road.” I was like thanks S, and smiled.
After this, things just went downhill, she spent the rest of the day making digs at me, “you’re not the manager,” no, I’m just an employee trying to get shit done so that our boss doesn’t have to run around like a headless chicken when he gets back on Monday - the worst thing about this was that I had done absolutely nothing wrong, I wasn’t telling her what to do, I wasn’t even managing her project.
She only started on Thursday and already she was asking when she would get a pay rise and her bonuses - she already gets paid above the rate someone of her talent would.
At the end of the day, I left the office feeling defeated and stressed that she’d belittled me so much throughout the day and had just totally head fucked me.
A ran after me on the way to my car and said “K, I’m not sure about this new girl, she seems really aggressive, did you hear the digs she kept making at you under her breath?” I was like yeah, unfortunately I did.
That was when he told me she’d been swearing at me in Polish throughout the whole day.
I asked him if I’d done something to upset her, and he said no, that he felt she just liked to debate and be argumentative for arguments sake.
I don’t know what I’m going to do if she continues, I hate negative working environments and everything has been so cheery, for once in the past 2 years I’d come home happy from work.