“Madame Cecile was what everyone called her. She was French and acted very French. She built this business and made it into what it is today – one of the best Ad agencies in Los Angeles. So you would need to do things in a certain way while you work here” “The French way!”.  This was the initial briefing I got on my first day working at my new client site. I had been hired as a 3d artist to create 3d models for them and was pretty excited to have a new job. But, I had no clue about what she meant by the “French way.”

I decided to take this job last weekend so as to have some consistent regular income for the next couple of months as I was getting tired of always looking for my next gig.  Madame Cunegonde was my new boss and now ran the Agency. She was the daughter of the founder the late Madame Cecile who had died about a year ago.

My first day was on Monday. My first inclination that things were a bit different here was when I called her by her first name without the Madame title. She immediately rebuked me saying that I must address her properly as Madame Cunegonde. She would not tolerate any disrespect from me.  I was then shown to my cubicle and giving a folder with a list of drawings and images that required 3d models to be created immediately.

The next day I arrived at 9am to start work to find that I was the only person in the office. Everyone else arrived at about noon. This I found strange. At 5pm I gather my stuff up to leave, when I was accosted by Madame Cunegonde. She asked me why I was leaving so early. I told her I had been there since 9 am. I was then instructed to stay as she was ordering dinner for everyone. It was 11pm when I finally was able to leave the office. We not only ate dinner in the office but we drank some wine and socialized with each other and some clients that had been invited over.

The next day I stumbled in to the office at 9.15 am only to find that I was again the only one there. I asked David who seats in the next cubicle to me why did everyone come to work late each day. He said that was the French way.  Madame Cunegonde called all of us in at 3 pm for a staff meeting to announce that last night we had closed 3 new major accounts worth $5 million. We were all going to get a bonus check that month.  I could not believe it. On my second day I was being giving a bonus check? Wonderful!

At about 7pm a couple of the team members ordered in some takeout with wine and beer. They invited me in to join them for Dinner. We ate in the break room in the office and then started drinking. I asked them if it was OK to be drinking in the office and they said “Oh yes, no worries.” But then Madame Cunegonde came in the room saw us drinking and snapped. She cursed us all out as a bunch of lazy squirrels and threatened to fire all of us if we did not return to our desk and start producing.  This I found strange as just yesterday it was OK to drink in the office but not today. Anyhow, I told her I was done for the day and was just leaving. She gave me a sarcastic look, muttered out something in French that sounded more like a curse word and then stormed off. So I left.

The next day I came in at 11 am to find everyone in the office working hard. Madame Cunegonde said to me that I was late. She said that I was a no good employee that loved to party and drink in the office. I was taken aback by such hash criticism and voiced my concerns.  She stormed off again cursing me out in French at least I thought so.

The day was very busy as we were all trying to meet the deadline for a project.  At about 8pm, I had enough for the day and gathered up my stuff to leave. Madame Cunegonde saw me leaving and accosted me. Asking me where I was going. I said I was going home as I was done for the day. She said that I should take a look around. Could I not see that everybody else was still at their desk working hard? I told her that I was done for the day and needed to take a break. She then shoved me and then yelled at me saying that I was the laziest son of a bitch 3d artist she had ever met. That was it. I cursed out Madame Cunegonde. In fact, I called her Cunegonde without the Madame to really tick her off and told her she was a crazy boss and left the office.

Later that night I checked my voicemail to hear that I had been fired.  I called up Katrina my girl friend to tell her what had happened to me. She just laughed and said that she had been fired before only after one day at the job by her boss’s wife who had said that she was too flirtatious for the position. At least, I had lasted 3 days on the job.

About Me: My name is Jon Max. I am a 3D Model Artist.  I have decided to document my life. One week at a time and share it with you. It is reality TV but on a blog. You will get the truth, no sugar coating of events instead raw and unedited. It’s my life baby!