Since we've opened back up after shutdown, the business owners have been a bit more demanding/unreasonable than usual.
To recap, these are folks that do not tattoo, and know little about running a tattoo studio - which is why they have me *ostensibly* manage it for them. The problem is, they want certain things but do not give me the agency to do them, or completely ignore my advice, or disregard the fact that some of the things they want just aren't feasible.
When we went through the fallout with the artist that was stealing from them, the owners had me draft a very simple contract to outline our working relationship - the artists are independent contractors, not employees. One of the agreements was that the artists would "dictate time of performance", or in other words we would determine what hours we work. This is pretty commonplace for independent contractors in general, and I drafted our contract from a standard industry one with just a few tweaks. This contract was signed by the owner, and a copy has been sitting on site, properly filed, for several months (I wisely made copies for myself and made sure the other artists did too). The owner is now denying any knowledge of this agreement and demanding we work certain hours, to which I politely but firmly reminded her she could not do. Both her and her husband are now raising hell about it, saying it will be "talked about" at our next meeting.
Every meeting with them seems to go the same way; they say what they want to happen, I tell them what is or isn't possible/advisable, and they act like they don't hear me or just do what they want anyway. They don't actually listen, they just wait for their turn to speak and expect what they want to be reality. This has gotten so frustrating, because they keep my hands tied in so many ways and set me and my colleagues up to fail, then blame us for it:
They were upset when clients had trouble finding our venue, but dragged their feet on obtaining signage for almost two years, even though I set up all the paperwork for them early on. They just had to sign it and get approved by the landlord, which is both out of my hands. So, we've had no sign for our business. For TWO YEARS.
They refused to set up a business account for their venture, instead asking me to use a credit card attached to their other business, so the charges are all mixed together, and they frequently want me to use OTHER cards despite the fact that I set up all our ordering through the one they already gave me.
They want the artists to answer inquiries through the Facebook Messenger day and night, getting mad when a someone isn't answered in 15 minutes... When I leave for the day, I consider myself off the clock, and do not expect my colleagues to spend their free time fielding questions, especially about schedule availability since they are not on site where the books are to peruse. I find it annoying that the owners seem to have time to check the messenger obsessively but not bother to learn the barest basics about the industry. They don’t understand needing time between clients. They don’t understand needing time for preparing artwork. They don’t know anything about the products/stock we need, and try to be “flexible” with expiration dates. They don’t understand that we can’t have their young grandchildren running around the studio barefoot, playing with our stock, bothering our customers, etc. In regards to COVID they refuse to wear masks AT ALL, even though it is now legally mandated by our state. I’ve had to remind one of the owners multiple times that he can’t use his vape in the procedure area, especially now. The days leading to re-open I (and a couple other artists) showed up to deep clean and troubleshoot the equipment in the studio to make sure things would go smoothly after being closed for 3 months... this was after the owners assured me that doing those things were not our responsibility and that they and/or their receptionist would take care of it... neither of which happened. If we had not shown up and done it, nothing would have been prepped. The day right before re-open, just as I was ready to call it a night, gallons of foul-smelling water started pouring from the ceiling from the installation work they were doing in the suite above us. The entire studio smelled like an outhouse, and I had to start over with deep-cleaning and sanitation. I sent them video of it happening. They did not stop in to check it out, help, or solve the issue in any way, and still expected us to open the next day. Luckily I have some options about what I can do in response to all of this, because frankly I’m getting fed up. It would be best and most convenient if I continued to work with this business for a few more years to get ahead with finances, but I am also not willing to back down on a few issues that might be enough to make me quit, which I COULD still afford to do. The owners tend to throw tantrums when they don’t get their way and have threatened to “just shut it down” more than once, which honestly is more a detriment to them than me since they’ve invested a fair amount of money and resources, while I have build a decent client following and reputation. I would be fine leaving, and it is VERY tempting to just do that, but there is enough incentive and circumstances with my colleagues to make me want to work this out with them. That said, I have already taken precautionary measures to back up my portfolio, intellectual property/contributions, receipts, client contacts, and anything else to GTFO if it comes to it.
