When you quit a job, you often have to return the company owned equipment that you no longer need.
What would you do if your boss refused to accept the equipment or do anything to come and get it?
That is what happened to the photographer in this story, so she ended up keeping it and starting her own business.
I worked for The Company.
They did Three Phase Photography.
Family and children photography. No wedding or events or anything.
Straight studio work that was in a portable setting.
Sittings booked for 10 minutes and we were supposed to shoot 30-50 a day.
Yes, it is as wretched of a job as it sounds.
It was fast, high energy and at times simply brutal.
- Preseller- They come in 2-3 weeks in advance and sell a “special” 10×13 portrait and book the appointment.
- The Photographer-(That’s me in this instance) comes in for about a week and takes the pictures.
- The Salesperson returns 2 weeks later with the “special” along with the other 6 poses I took and tries to sell you $400 worth of pictures.
I was very good at what I did.
The company sales average was $100 per customer per 50 customers.
The more you shoot, the lower your quality, because you spend less time taking care of details, and details, sell pictures. My average was $175ish per 150-200 customers.
I was making this company a LOT of money.
And they consistently treated me like crap. Oh, the stories…
Their business model was shoot as many sittings as you can as fast as you can.
To them shooting 50 with a $100 average was BETTER than shooting 35 with a $150 average, even though the profit margin was exactly the same.
I never agreed with that and Boss and I went round and round about it every week.
They withheld raises because I didn’t have enough sittings and took my bonuses because I wasn’t meeting their quotas.
So I figured out how to be fast, efficient, and good!
So that’s the background…now the good stuff.
Enter The Jerk.
The Jerk is a pre-seller who lied to the customers, lied to the store, and would book appointments from 9 am to 8:30 pm even though the studio hours were 10 am-7:00pm.
I can see why he got the nickname, The Jerk.
He told every lie in the book and I think he even added a few of his own.
Want to bring your dog?
Family of 15?
Sure, bring 5 changes of clothes and I’ll even have her do your make-up! (I don’t even do my own make-up!)
Come and get your picture taken and we will throw in a free toaster!
And just to make it interesting, he would triple and quadruple book appointments and when he ran out of those he would sell “Open” appointments and tell people to just come in “anytime and my photographer will work you in”.
GRRR! Just writing that makes me mad even after all these years.
The biggest problem was he would “waive” the sitting fee or just not tell them.
I was OBLIGATED to collect that $8.00.
Every time I didn’t it came out of my check.
It was a nightmare.
I refused to work behind The Jerk for these and 1000 other reasons.
I told BOSS that if they EVER put me behind The Jerk again I would quit.
Which is exactly what happened.
They knew he had been working at the store I was assigned and they lied about it.
I immediately called BOSS and told him this was my last week and that he needed to make arrangements to get the photography equipment at the end of the shoot.
I should have walked out, but I was young and dumb.
It was a 3-day shoot and I shot 316 customers by myself.
That is an INSANE amount of sittings…and NOBODY was happy.
Every night the store manager had to tell my customers to leave because the store was closed.
People were lined up at 9 am waiting for me.
I took so much abuse that week.
After a customer threw a shoe at me and another spit on my pizza, the store security guard brought a chair over and stayed with me almost the entire time I was there.
I honestly cannot remember how many people were escorted out of the store because they acted a fool in my studio.
It’s been over a decade and I still have nightmares about that week.
But…nobody came to get the equipment so I start making phone calls. And plotting…
Me: “Hey, what do you want me to do with your equipment?”
He just won’t accept reality.
Boss: “You are going to need it next week in Florida.”
Me: “No, because I quit!”
Boss: “You didn’t give me any notice so I’m not accepting your resignation. I am sending you to Florida next week.”
Me: “I’m an independent contractor…remember? You can’t make me go to Florida. This is not complicated. I quit. ”
Boss: “Just go to Florida. I don’t have time for this now. You can quit in 3 weeks if you can hire a replacement.” and he hangs up.
Nope. Not going to Florida.
I packed the equipment and took it home with me.
The camera was a brand new Canon T2i 550D and those were pricey back in 2010, I really didn’t want to give it back, but it wasn’t mine to keep.
I had an idea.
Boss was an absolute train-wreck of a human.
If he didn’t want to do something, he wouldn’t.
If he could find someone else to do it, he would.
I decided to use his own worst traits against him.
Avoidance and procrastination.
The next thing I did was take the company credit card and go to the nearest storage unit with climate control.
I rented a unit and paid for the first month, but just one.
I unloaded it all, down to the last halogen light bulb.
I took detailed pictures of everything and an inventory.
I locked the door and walked away.
At this point, there was nothing I could do but wait and hope Boss would continue to be the worthless wreck I knew him to be.
Next, I called and reported the card stolen.
Why? Because I knew if I didn’t that card would remain active and rent would be paid every month on time, and that just wasn’t going to work for me.
Quitting is sometimes the best option.
I cut it in half and sent it and the combination to the storage locker to BOSS via FedEx along with a hand-painted sign that said: “I QUIT!”
I also sent an email to HR telling them that I was terminating my contract and that BOSS had the information on the equipment.
This is probably the only sketchy thing I did.
The person I emailed was out on medical leave, and I knew it.
I could have sent that email to a dozen other people who worked there, but they might have paid attention to it.
By the time she got back to the office she had so many emails, She couldn’t even begin to tackle them all.
A month goes by and the police knock on my door.
Ok, so I wasn’t expecting THAT!!!
The Company has reported the equipment stolen and the police are there to investigate.
I really thought I was going to jail.
The cop that knocked on the door was fully expecting to take me away in handcuffs until I explained what was going on.
I ended up taking copies of the emails to the police department as well as my copy of the contract with the storage unit.
I also had a copy of the shipping label.
Both my name and The Company were listed on the contract.
I had to make an official statement and jump through some hoops.
The company had placed a monetary value of $12,000 on the studio rig so potentially I was in a lot of trouble.
Except I covered myself.
The police told me I was in the clear because the storage unit had their name on the contract, their credit card was used to pay for it and I had sent the combination and all the pertinent information to The Company.
I am very good at protecting myself.
At this point, I figure the gig is up because surely they are going to come to get this rig or send someone or something!
What did this guy do all day?
NOPE! BOSS is still worthless.
Two more months go by.
I get a call from the storage facility they are about to cut the lock and auction the contents.
I just about peed my pants I was so excited!
I called BOSS again.
He dodged my calls and ignored my emails to please call me immediately.
I never specifically stated what I wanted to talk to him about and just like I was hoping he would, he ignored me.
Okie dokie. I have done all that I can!
And that’s when it all started to come together.
And then I hit a pretty good snag, but it actually worked out better in the end.
In this state, if a storage unit goes up for sale the owner cannot purchase it at auction.
I didn’t know that.
But where there is a will there is a way.
They sent letters and called three more times and then the date was set.
The unit went up for auction on my birthday.
My neighbor went to the sale.
He bought the unit for $125…I almost died!
And of course, we were in cahoots on this, but we had to make it look like we weren’t.
The pistol grip the camera mounts cost more than that not to mention the lighting, props, and costumes.
And of course the camera!
My neighbor then put an ad in the local paper for “photography stuff $1000 firm” but didn’t list anything specific and…ooops…put the wrong number in the ad!
A week later he wanted it out of his garage so he sold it to me for $126.
He has a bill of sale from the auction.
I have a bill of sale from him.
It is now mine and there is NOTHING the company can do about it.
But they tried.
I now have a fully functional photography studio, all the contacts I need to start my own business, and the skills to do it.
I started calling all the stores I had worked for the last 8 years and offered them a much better deal than what The Company was giving them.
I did my own preselling, my own photography, and my own sales.
Except I took it a step farther.
Sounds like a great business.
I bought a monitor and computer and let people preview their pictures and order the day of the shoot.
They paid in full and I mailed the pictures directly to them.
People LOVED it!
No high pressure sales, no tricks. My customers were happy and so were my stores.
About 6 months after my first independent shoot I heard from The Company.
I got several nasty letters from them, which I ignored.
Word had gotten back to them that I was using their equipment and that I was working for someone else.
I just laughed at them.
They thought so little of me that it never occurred to them that it was my business.
Then I got a Nasty Legal Letter from a lawyer.
It started with cease and desist, rolled into me violating the non-competitors agreement, and ended with the return of their stolen property.
They had apparently not told him all of the facts.
I sent him copies of EVERYTHING.
I waited a few weeks for a response from him and heard nothing.
I finally called to find out what was going on, but no one was available to take my call.
How convenient.
They knew they had no legal leg to stand on.
A few days later I got a certified letter in the mail saying “No other legal action will be forthcoming from this office”.
I would have been content to just let it slide, but this whole thing ticked me off and now I wanted blood.
I made a real effort to really hurt them.
Little by little I built my business and my reputation.
I didn’t have to do any of the nasty tricks that The Jerk did.
Within a year I had stores and schools calling ME.
I had more work than I could handle on my own so I took on a second photographer, then a third.
I actually hired 4 people out from under their noses.
At the height of my business, I had 8 additional photographers and a full-time office assistant.
I could have grown much larger, and in hindsight, I am so glad I didn’t.
Digital photography was a HUGE boon to the industry, and then it backfired.
I found my niche in the market just as it exploded.
I ran The Company completely out of three states.
They lost all of their chain contracts to me, including the store where it all blew up.
Hopefully he does a better job at the gas station.
The Jerk lost all of his stores and ended up working at a gas station.
The Boss ended up demoted because his district was dissolved when I sniped the contracts.
The Jerk actually tried to convince one of my photographers to “hire” him to do the preselling for her.
By now my name and my business name had a really good reputation.
BOSS left The Company for good and used me as a personal reference (he was a good photographer, just a rotten manager) and I took great joy in telling the people who called me that I was legally not allowed to tell them what I thought of the man.
The age of the cell phone camera pretty much destroyed traditional photography and I closed my doors as a business in late 2017.
The Company closed for good in 2016 and I would like to think I had a hand in that.
I’m still standing and they are nothing but an empty building.
I still have the original rig, but the camera has been replaced several times.
I do senior pictures and the occasional venue shoot.
Most of my photography is for restaurant menus now.
People ask me if that’s boring.
I’ve never had a meatball scream, cry or kick me which is pretty much a daily occurrence when you work with kids.
This may not be as epic as some on here, but I beat them at their own game and that still feels pretty good.
Well played and good thing she thought it all out to ensure she was protected.
Let’s take a look at some of the comments below.
She knew exactly how to succeed.
Using laziness against the boss was epic.
Thank goodness the neighbor was willing.
I remember those store portrait studios well.
Yes, mostly legal indeed.
This story was picture perfect.
If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.
