Fired from the "Movie" business

daveg955 submitted 605 days ago

I went to L.A. in 1992 to work at an audio post-production facility. The guy that "owned" this brand new company, my boss, was a Hollywood brat; meaning his parents had been in the business and he was riding on their coattails. They financed his little venture and pulled strings for him get a good space in a well-known facility. He was neither a businessman or a technician. If I were to describe his business model, it would be "middle man."

My boss didn't how to do anything except act like how he thought a Hollywood "bigshot" should act. He was very good at it because he BS'd me into moving to L.A. with all kinds of boasts and claims about how well his business was doing and all of his Hollywood connections.

It didn't take long for me to realize how phony he was. But I was stuck in L.A. and felt I'd better make the best of it. He was so insecure on so many levels. He bid on a job that (1) no one else in town would touch because (2) there was next to no budget for audio. The guy severely underbid the job just to make sure he got it ("It will be a great feather in our cap.") Our?

From the moment "we" were awarded the job, my boss turned into the Bigshot from Hell and began his pathological lying. He made promises (lies) that no one could possibly keep. When he got caught in one lie, he covered it with another more outlandish one. Of course, every time he was caught it was all my fault.

I got tired of taking the heat for this guy's complete lack of competence and integrity. One day, my boss wasn't in the studio but the client was. The client started ragging me for being so slow/unexperienced/stupid, etc... Although I felt like showing him the door with the bottom of my shoe, I calmly explained to them about what was going on - not that my boss was lying s.o.b. - but the process of what I was doing and how I was, in fact, delivering what he wanted. The client semed pleased with my explanation and we got a LOT of work done because my boss wasn't there getting in the way and acting like an idiot.

Well, my boss got wind of that and our "working" relationship fell apart (I was doing all the work anyway.) I had decided to level with him and say, "Look if you don't want me, just say so. I'll leave." But when I got to the studio that day, I discovered that he had taken all of my personal items (work-related equipment) out of the basement studio and locked them in his office, of which he forgot I had keys. I was livid at first but soon realized what was getting ready to happen. So I go my stuff out of his office and locked them in my car before he returned. I went back down to the studio to get the last of my stuff he hadn't put in his office.

As I was walkng up the stairs, he was walking down. He saw me carrying my stuff and asked rather indignantly, "Where do you think you're going with that?" I just stared at him. He started getting very nervous. He was holding an envelope in his hand. He started blathering on about how the business wasn't doing so well; no jobs comng up (another lie); the economy was bad; it's raining outside... on and on with any lame excuse to preface what he was about to say.

I interrupted him, pointed to the envelope and asked, "That's my severance pay isn't it? You're firing me, aren't you?" He was sweating almost profusely at this point. He probably thought I was going to hit him (the thought had crossed my mind earlier). But he sheepishly said yes, he was "letting me go." He couldn't even look at me. I laughed and immediately handed him my keys. He was startled that I laughed at him and asked, "What's so funny?" I said, "Hey, don't worry about. I was on my way up to your office to tell you to f**k off, pal." I snatched the envelope out of his hand and walked out the door.

The look on his face as he continued to stand on the stairs was priceless. His "business" folded like a house of cards in less than six months.