If you haven't read Part 1, the short version is: I hired a friend as a designer, she missed deadlines because of ants and burnt noodles, and I told myself I'd end it after the shoot.
This is the shoot.
A month of planning
This wasn't a casual shoot. Photographer, models, props, styling. A month of planning and real money invested. Her job was props and set design. To make things easier, she stayed at mine for two to three weeks beforehand.
What I watched during those weeks was someone who would announce she was going to get props, spend two hours doing makeup, then drag me around several boutique stores browsing for herself. Not for the shoot. For herself. As if I had invited her on a shopping trip and accidentally scheduled a shoot around it.
Every time I raised it: "Don't worry, I'll handle it."
Her version of handle it was coming home from a party late and starting on the props at midnight. Then announcing, exhausted and dramatic, that she had worked so hard and it was so late. You started at midnight. After a party. That's not working hard. That's fixing a problem you created.
She also panicked and cried because she hadn't practised the gift-wrapping scene. I cut the scene. There was no time for it and no point arguing about it.
"At 3am she asked if I could wake her up. The same age as me. I had to set an alarm to wake up a grown adult who was supposed to be working for me."
The morning of the shoot
She overslept. I had to drag her into the car.
She did her makeup in transit. When we stopped to pick up the model, and I asked her to run in quickly, she said, "Wait, I'm doing my makeup." You are not the model. The model is inside waiting. We are already late.
When we arrived and the photographer asked about the setup, and she said: "Umm, I'm not sure. What do you think?"
She was supposed to be leading the set design. She had no answer. She kept asking what to do for the entire shoot. She drained every bit of energy I had and contributed almost nothing useful. Thankfully, the photographer was experienced and held things together.
Mid-shoot, she asked me to take her photos. She wanted content for her own page. I had a photographer, a model, a schedule falling apart, and she wanted to do a personal shoot inside my shoot.
What she said afterwards
"The shoot was a success because I prepped so hard last night."
I had no words. She partied, came home late, started at midnight, panicked, cried, overslept, delayed everything, contributed nothing useful on the day, and now she was taking credit for the outcome. The gift-wrapping scene she hadn't practised? I cut it. So we never even got to the thing she was supposed to have ready.
Then: "Let's eat at that fancy Italian place. You can treat me."
Treat you.
You destroyed my shoot, dragged me through weeks of chaos, wasted my money, drained my energy, delivered nothing useful, and now I need to treat you? She had completely flipped the dynamic in her own head.
Every time I was kind, every time I let something slide, she took it as permission to push a little further. The more I forgave, the cheekier she got. That's the pattern. You think you're being patient. You're actually teaching them what you'll accept.
Some people love the idea of working hard far more than the actual work. As long as they can say they were up late and tried their best, the outcome is someone else's problem.
The line that ended it
At dinner, she said, "I take things slowly. That's just how I am."
Said like it was a charming personality trait. Which explained everything. The contract not renewed. The team that stopped giving her tasks. Some people don't want to improve. They just find a new explanation for every outcome and move on to the next person willing to absorb it.
I later found out she went on to work with other brands as a freelancer. They got angry, too. I felt genuinely bad for them. Because I know exactly how that anger feels and how long it takes to build before you finally do something about it.
I told her I was wrapping up the project and finishing the rest alone.
I thought that was the end. It wasn't.
