Thrown in the towel.

About a week ago, I had some commitments I had to attend to and could not show up for my Duty at the Showroom, so I decided to enlist the help of one of my colleague to help cover for me on that day and in return, I will take his place during his Duty.




The day arrives and he covers my duty while I went to attend my thing, and the very next day, I covered his duty so he could take a break, things went pretty well until about a day later when he suddenly drops me a text, requesting for the same arrangement to be made, seeing how he was more than ready to help me when I asked for it, I naturally decided to return the favor and just help him out.





So the day after my original duty ended, I had to return back to the Showroom the next day to cover for him, and after having to report to work only once every 3 days, the thought of having to go to work 2 days in a row sounded like torture, but I was able to find solace in the fact that I will be getting a pretty long break away from the office after the 2 days since he will be covering my next duty for me, essentially leaving me with 4 duty free days.





Tomorrow is the day he is supposed to be covering my duty for me and I was more than ready to just sit back and relax at home, do a bit of brainstorming work for my clients and not worry about having to attend my showroom duties, that was until I saw him getting removed from the Company's group chat.





The only reason why someone would be removed from the chat would be because they have tendered their resignation and I have known for quite a while now that he has been really conflicted about continuing on this career path that wasn't generating any income for him, I was already expecting him to quit, but I was not expecting him to actually quit the day before he was suppose to cover my duty.




If I were to look at the bigger picture, his financial issues are definitely more pressing than covering my duty, but it would be nice to at least tell me beforehand...

"Hey, this might seem sudden but I have just resigned from the company, thanks for covering me on Monday, but I won't be able to cover your duty tomorrow as agreed, know that it is not intentional, so sorry about it."

... if he had the initiative to actually apologise and explain it to me personally what has happened right after it happened, then fine, I would have been happy for him that he has finally told the boss about his conflicted feelings towards the job he has been having for months, but he didn't.

I know it wasn't his intention to actually take advantage of me, but it would be nice if he had a sense of duty (no pun intended) and delivered what had been agreed upon not even 3 days ago, or at least have the initiative to apologize to me and tell me he won't be able to cover my duty the next day. I mean he didn't even tell me that I had to go back to work the next day, had I not noticed his removal from the group chat, I would still be oblivious to the entire situation.

I wished him all the best for his future endeavors but this really isn't the final impression he should have left me with. Irresponsibility isn't a very nice color on anyone, now I can understand why Little Miss Clit Face was pissed off at me when I left ID1 without personally informing her 4 years ago.

I'm not the other interior designer.....

When I was first presented with my third clients, I had every intention to do their project for them, at that time, I still didn't have any projects on hand, so my hunger for projects to run was still quite strong.


Discussion with them went well and we spoke for 3 hours during our first appointment with every subsequent appointments lasting equally long.



Prior to my third client's confirmation with me, I had already closed 2 different deals, being a newcomer in the industry and a complete newbie at project management, the last thing I wanted to do is handle multiple projects at one time, in fact, after I got my very first project, I was ready to completely focus all my energy on that one project, to get it perfect so it can be something I can be proud of, but then a miracle happened and another client of mine suddenly calls me up out of the blue and decides to hire me do renovate their home for them, an opportunity I am really grateful to have been given, until I realized the only reason why they picked me was because I had grossly under quoted them on certain items due to carelessness of my part because I am an idiot.



And then a week later, my third client gets back to me and request for me to amend the quotation for him and his fiance to look over and consider. I was really honored when he told he he had shortlisted me and another Interior Designer, I really was, but I really really had no interest to do his project for him, for his sake and for mine because of how encumbered I was mentally to have to come up with 3 different interior design proposals simultaneously.

They also didn't really make it very hard for me to not want to close a deal with them during the third appointment, with their constant...

"The other interior designer we found were offering us this item for free."

"The other interior designer was actually offering us a lower price."

"The other interior designer actually charged us lower for this item."

.... a customer comparing me to "the other interior designer" or "the other design firm we found" is slowly becoming one of my pet peeves.



If the other Interior Designer is offering you a better price, then go get the other interior designer to do your renovations for you.

I was trying really hard to get them to settle for the other Interior Designer over me because I could tell from the way that they were trying to haggle for my final price to be lower that any additional cost I will have to bill them in the future will be met with a similar response.




Well, my attempt to get them to pick the other Interior Designer was unsuccessful, they were persistent and they actually managed to guilt trip me into lowering the overall price for them....

"We actually came down to see you for a third time, that should prove our sincerity. It's not my intention to make things difficult for you, but my wallet is also bleeding from this decision to pick you."

... and in the end, I gave in and gave them a $2000 discount.



That was 2 weeks ago and right now, I am facing the very exact situation I had predicted would happen, after informing them of certain additional cost that will be incurred from their decision to add extra carpentry works...

"Wow, that is quite expensive, could you maybe just waive off the extra charges?"

... the extra charges was roughly $200, and he was requesting for me to waive it off like it was spare change. Of course I couldn't waive it off, it was way too much money for me to simply waive off, especially after I had given them the huge $2000 discount, so I told him that it was going to be difficult and he goes...

"But the other interior designer was offering to do that item for us free of charge, I am not kidding."

I can't even anymore with them, I was actually ready to enjoy a slice of brownie from awfully chocolate when I received a text from my client sharing with me his experience with the other interior designer who is throwing in all kinds of free shit, it's like suddenly, all that anticipation I had for that brownie just disappeared. I still ate the brownie, but it didn't feel like an amazing brownie anymore.

I am not the other Interior Designer! Stop bringing that person up!