The Best of May - Horror Stories From Advertising

Bust your ass - only to be beaten down. That is the way of the company.

Last year in May one of my company's oldest clients was threatening to take their business elsewhere. They gave us 2 days to prove that we were worth what we were being paid. The Boss gave me a few tasks - such as building a chart to compare their previous years advertising costs (by week) to the number of product sales they had - and building a cross-referencing booklet showing how much money we were saving for them in advertising. It was a ton of information considering I was compiling roughly 48 weeks of random stuff from different programs and departments of the building. I worked my frigging ass off to get it done. I stayed past midnight both nights - and was back at work at the crack of dawn each day. It sucked - but I believed in what we were trying to communicate and wanted to help with the solution.

The last night as I was getting ready to drive my weary body home - The Boss told me she wanted me at the office for the presentation to the client the following morning. I had 6 hours to go home, sleep, bathe, and get back to work for the 7 am meeting. Thirty minutes to drive home, then pull my business suit out of the closet and set my alarm. I got up a few short hours later to jump in the shower, dry and style my hair, and drive 30 minutes back to work.

The Boss was late to the office (AS USUAL) - arriving only 5 minutes before the meeting was to begin. She pulled me aside and asked me why I wore a suit, to which I replied that considering we were fighting to keep a client I thought I should dress like I cared (she was wearing her navy blue pants with a beige and ivory octagon pattern on them - which are 2 inches too short - and a pit-stained white t-shirt with a navy blue vest). She then rolled her eyes at me and told me she didn't actually want me to be a part of the meeting since she had the chance to go home and sleep on it... explaining that it would be a bad idea to put too many faces in the room for the client.

I wanted to punch her in her little bull-dog face and see her flabby jowels jiggle. Instead I went for a drive - to contemplate if I wanted to go looking for a new job that day. My husband and I had already made the decision to quit a few weeks earlier - and that was ultimately what brought me back. I wanted to see the look on her ugly mug when she would find out that we were both going to dump her.

It was totally worth it too.