I hate working with incompetent yet inexplicably successful people.

[grace0418]

I am constantly amazed that all the incredibly talented people I know are working where they are while some of the most untalented morons are making millions.

I'm a graphic designer who deals with a lot of licensed illustrators, meaning they are successful enough to get paid for the use of their art on all manner of products. There seems to be a particular type of illustrator that I have to deal with a lot and it drives me nuts. I'll describe her: housewife who likes to doodle "cute" things (i.e. teddy bears, angels, flowers, lady-bugs, teapots, etc.), married to an aggressive guy who knows nothing about art but likes to make money and knows how to work the system. My coworkers and I have to cater to the whims of artist even though we are ten times more talented and competent than she. And we all hate it.

I design mediocre stationery products that get sold to places like Target, Walmart, Costco, Barnes & Noble, often using the "art" of these licensed illustrators. My coworkers and I have to take their crap art, try to fix it so it at least looks like someone older than 6 drew it, then slap it on our products. Recently, we discovered that one of our licensed illustrators can't really even draw. She just traces other people's art. Seriously. We sent her some thumbnail sketches for some drawings we need done and she literally traced them and colored them in. But she's got an aggressive bull-dog husband so she manages to make money (AND have a tv show) with no discernible talent.

But the worst was this morning. The client wanted me to use a particular pattern (some crap licensed art from one of our illustrators with fruit, text and bees over a polka dot background) but the only fruit they wanted in the pattern was watermelon. So I took her pattern, photo-shopped out all the other fruit, then replaced it with the watermelon. Other than exchanging out the fruit all other elements of the design were hers. But this morning I get an email from the illustrator (who has to approve our work before it gets produced) saying that the text and the bees "looked too busy over that polka dot background".

Uh, WTF? I didn't design the fucking background, YOU did! And yes, it IS too busy- ALL your art is too fucking busy, and ugly to boot! Yet somehow I'm stuck in this dead-end job dealing with your bullshit while you get to doodle in your cozy home studio making millions.

I suppose I should just be happy to have a job but I just get so sick of this shit sometimes. Thanks for letting me rant.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. Honestly, I think a lot of bosses are intimidated by truly talented people

It's like they try to keep good workers down so they don't look dumb when they get surpassed.

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. Tell me about it.....

Great rant.

[Shakespeare]

3. Names. I want NAMES.

The talentless doodler has a TV show? DYING to know who it is.

She sounds like an enormous pain in the ass--sorry you have to deal with that.

[grace0418]

9. If you want to know, I'd be happy to PM you.

I don't want to get fired!

[Shakespeare]

15. PM me, then!

Totally understand that some things cannot be bandied about in public. ;-)

[grace0418]

17. I'd love to provide a complete list of the imposters but

I can't afford to lose my job! Anyway, I just pm'd you.

[LaraMN]

4. Well then you'd love working with me-- I'm exactly the oppposite!

:rofl:
Perhaps that logic doesn't follow.

[Orsino]

5. Just remember that the truly incompetent are interchangeable.

If it helps.

[grace0418]

14. It's true. All the crap these illustrators churn out looks the same.

Yet they somehow all make tons of cash while my coworkers and I toil low-paycheck obscurity.

[tigereye]

6. um

maybe you should get YOUR stuff licensed... sounds like you have talent!

It does seem unfair, doesn't it? People always rise to the level of their incompetence, right? That's how I feel when I see people like Dr. Laura spreading so much crap (I'm a psychologist and half of what she says is revolting and inaccurate drivel), or really bad hack writers making millions while really talented and gifted writers go unnoticed. :(

[grace0418]

12. Thanks! My husband is too nice, unfortunately, and I hate the

drawings Walmart seems to love. You know, angels, bears, rainbows...GACK. I have tried though, my best friend and I tried to start a business but it failed unfortunately. So I'm stuck here for now.

[tigereye]

20. actually some of the higher end stores

and even the drugstores have cards that are very edgy, witty and arty. I don't know who does those. I hate those really cheesy ones, myself.

Business is hard, I sympathize.

[WCGreen]

7. Two words.....

George Bush.....

[grace0418]

10. I know! LOL! I almost started my rant by saying

FOR ONCE I wasn't referring to him although the shoe fits.

[newportdadde]

8. I think Twain summed up success pretty well with:

"All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then Success is sure."

http://www.twainquotes.com/Success.html

[grace0418]

13. Perfect! Thanks. n/t

[Loonman]

11. I'm used to it

I work support staff for a bunch of bigwigs who can barely tie their shoes.

[Deja Q]

16. Happens to us all.

There's one vermin I know, and all he does is asks everybody else how to do things.

And yet he whined his way into getting that position... and all sorts of free expensive training to go along with it. Despite having no experience beforehand (and flunking a test...)

And he ain't the only one.

Meanwhile, the genuinely good workers are about to lose their jobs out of redundancy. And we've been turned down for training saying it's not relevant to what we do. Funny how that works...

[grace0418]

18. I know, I know, you're right.

I just needed to vent. When someone criticizes me for something they did it really gets my goat.

[redqueen]

19. That Twain quote nails it.

Stilly humans... mistaking confidence for ability.

Ah, well. Maybe we'll learn someday. :)