As a freelancer, you always have to bring your A-game. Unfortunately, on one gig, the staff exec who hired me saw that as my attempt to outshine her.
The production began ok - although what we were producing as a team was not the best. The exec was set in her ways and when I made a professional attempt to talk through ways to improve workflow and content it was taken as a personal attack.
She became very petty, changing all my shifts to ensure I worked the most unsociable hours. On another occasion, I stood up for the more junior members of the team when she tried to make them take a travel day back from location unpaid. I should have known it would only make things worse, but I didn’t realise just how unprofessional one person could become.
The attempts to put me down and undermine me came thick and fast. She would leave me off credits and call sheets. She would "accidentally" forget to put my name down for catering on busy studio days. She would have me doing the work of two or three people, then pounce on any mistake as an example of how awful she thought I was. Other work that she had greenlit and I had worked hard on would be casually discarded.
I was sleeping badly, I was depressed, I was constantly on edge. Behind the scenes of this shiny, popular, beloved show, it was nothing short of excruciating; the polar opposite of how it looked on camera.
I tried to speak to HR but they said they only dealt with contractual matters. I spoke to the head of talent, desperate to get someone to understand my situation and offer some help. Ultimately, they sided with the staff executive rather than the freelancer on the short term contract and I was fired.
My confidence took a battering. The sense of frustration and injustice to this day still hurt. Despite reassurances from the head of talent that I future employment with them was possible, I haven’t been offered any opportunities since. I’ve clearly been blacklisted, all from wanting to do well and wanting to do it in a safe, healthy environment.
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