I do graphic design-related work. I’m in my fifties and have been doing this for over twenty-five years!

A temp agency sent me to a gig at a small publishing company. The owner/boss/art director was absolutely horrible; she was condescending and patronizing, questioned all my skills and decisions, shrieked and yelled at me, and had tantrums when unfortunate but not unheard of computer-related issues happened — files got overwritten, documents with typo got sent to printers, etc.

She treated me so badly that I was in a constant state of shock and disbelief; she left me so rattled I started making more mistakes. The rest of the staff reassured and comforted me daily. (“We think you’re doing great!” “It’s her, not you.”)

I found another gig and left, but I offered to finish up a project off-site — not for free but I would work at home. [Boss] sent me several emails, not understanding that I wasn’t coming into the office anymore, and not understanding my offer to finish the project. She sent me all these confusing emails, and then she saw me waiting for a bus, parked her car, and got out to berate me!

Boss: “We spent so much money getting you up to speed!”

Boss: “You left us in the lurch!”

Boss: “Can you come in this Sunday to finish the job?”

The following week, the agency that sent me there told me she hadn’t been paying her bills and they were on the verge of closing the account, and they told me to cut off all contact!

Vindicated! She really was truly evil!

(I’ve been a digital designer for quite a while now, and surprisingly have little to no issues with customers. This particular customer had been extremely pleasant up until I was finalizing their product.)

Me: “All right, so, here’s the finished product! As soon as payment is sent, I can—”

Customer: “No. No, no, no!”

Me: “Is something wrong?”

Customer: “The grey! The grey is way too grey! It was fine before. What did you do?!”

Me: “Sir, I can assure you that between coloring the lines and now, I have not changed the colors.”

Customer: “You made the grey much too grey! Fix it!”

(I work for around 30 minutes using various saturation and colors to make it less “grey” for the customer. I eventually got frustrated and accidentally sent them the first image I had shown them on accident.)

Me: *realizing what I have done* “Oh, pardon me, sir, I think I sent you—”

Customer: “Yes! Perfect! This is what I wanted! Was that so hard?!”

Me: “Yes… Of course, sir.”

(He sent the payment and was perfectly happy with his “altered” product!)

(I sometimes help my coworker design ads for our newspaper. She rarely expresses appreciation for the help and loves to point out any mistakes she thinks I’ve made, no matter how small.)

Coworker: “This ad is wrong.”

Me: “Oh? What’s wrong with it?”

Coworker: “The text looks bad. There’s something wrong with it. I don’t like it.”

Me: “Actually, this ad is one YOU created a month ago. All I did was resize it and grayscale it.”

Coworker: *stares at ad for 10 seconds* “Oh, you know what? Never mind, this looks good!”