I’m a high school student working part-time as a designer at a Japan-based company that specializes in manga serialization. I’ve been there for over a year.
When I first joined, the work was straightforward and I performed well. My supervisors were satisfied, and I was paid more than the average part-timer due to my experience in design.
Later, I met the CEO. He invited me to his house, and we discussed ideas for the company. I shared several concepts, even introduced people from my network, and some of those ideas are now being implemented.
At one point, I was assigned to create an animated promo. I have some experience in animation, but I’m not a professional. I handled storyboarding and production, but the final result wasn’t strong, which I agree with. The CEO told me he wouldn’t give direct answers and expected me to figure things out myself.
After that, the animation project was dropped, and we shifted focus.
During this time, I continued contributing by bringing in new team members and working on design tasks. Then my exams started. I chose to keep working while studying since my usual tasks were manageable.
Around this time, the company began preparing to go international, and the design standards changed. However, I wasn’t clearly informed about these new expectations.
I was assigned to create multiple illustrations. The first few were done properly, but due to exam pressure, the later ones dropped in quality. Previously, my work would still be accepted, so I didn’t realize the expectations had significantly increased.
Later, I was told that most of my work was not up to standard.
Things escalated during a meeting at the office. I arrived 20 minutes late due to traffic. Met the CEO and he clearly wasn't happy. Later the CEO asked me to generate AI images so that he could see my process. I wasn’t given a clear style or direction but started working anyway.
He left the office and gave me his iPad to continue working. I later found out I was expected to generate images for 27 banners, but this was not clearly communicated to me.
When he returned, he was very disappointed with both the quality and quantity of my work.
He mentioned upcoming meetings in March and said everything needed to be completed by then, which I had not been informed about earlier and by now it was already February. I brought more value with my skills, so my salary was more than other part timers. But he questioned why I was working there and compared my salary to a full-time employee, despite my role being part-time and originally agreed upon differently.
Thanks for reading so far, rest of the story is in the comments