R115, for 15 years, I worked in the main in-house art department of a fashion brand, when, for some reason, one of the staff graphic designers was transferred to another art department and the same type of manipulator was hired as steady freelancer.
The studio manager, who was extremely lazy, she barely did her own job or knew much about what we were doing (she transferred from the production department where she was a secretary, she had no creative credentials whatsoever!), went on to hire this Manipulator woman due to her SOB story. Her portfolio was nothing special.
Almost immediately, this Manipulator, a straight married woman, started kissing the manager's ass (the manager was a lesbian), the Manipulator copied graphics programs for the manager, programs which the art department hadn't yet installed in the new Mac computers. This was during the time when graphics were done the old school way (T-squares, triangles etc), the department recently got the computers in, we didn't yet have all the new graphics programs. But the Manipulator sure had them and made sure to copy them to be "helpful".
The Manipulator was always complaining that her husband was constantly layed-off his construction work, which was BS, as he was able to collect unemployment during his down time. He had a great union job and was always doing off-the-books side work. The family was hardly poor. they lived in a Brooklyn brownstone.
Well, you can figure out what eventually happened, the Manipulator was there around 3 years, when I was let go. I was not given any sort of honest or valid reason. It’s always the married women, especially those with children, who get to keep their jobs, while single men and single women are always let go. Who is paying our bills?
The Creative Director used the lame excuse: "She has a family, her kids are going to college soon, her husband works in a field where there are constant down times, blah-blah blah..." This type of excuse is, of course, bullshit and illegal, especially as I had seniority, at that point I was there 15 years. I enjoyed my job and I did much more work than the Manipulator. I also did a lot of overtime, the Manipulator, of course, had to get home to her family.
On the other hand, neither of us had job security because both these jobs were basically on-staff weekly freelance, also, these jobs were technically illegal. Neither of us had a legal contract to do these jobs. We worked 52 weeks a year, of course, we were allowed unpaid vacation time.
