I work in a small(ish) nightclub in a big city. The hours are consistent and the commute is great. Over the past several months the scope of my responsibilities has expanded far beyond the initial reasons I was hired, and part of this includes managing vendor relationships. We’re an independently-owned operation and as such most if not all of my coworkers/staff are from hospitality backgrounds, not production, and thus don’t have anywhere near the ties to this world that I do… As you can imagine, this has created more friction than I think has been fully realized.
I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time cleaning up the half-assed mess left by the original integrator/installer, and I’ve done this by assembling an all-star team from some of the biggest productions + event companies around, names the more seasoned among you will surely know and love. Basically, I hired NASA to build a bottle rocket.
The issue is, in spite of all this, ownership has been conditioned to be so heavily reliant on him (OG integrator) they refuse to stand up to him in any meaningful way and continue patronizing his small potatoes biz, undermining my persistent attempts at retrieving stolen equipment, even after years of continual financial drama, inconsistent communication, and incomplete repairs, much of which preceded my hiring… This culminated in him verbally accosting and attempting to fight me on the job after I called out his thieving behavior to his face.
I am considered a high-value employee and the higher-ups as well as ownership are extremely bullish on me, but I’m finding the abuse and flagrant disrespect from management, talent and entitled VIP clients increasingly difficult to tolerate. While not a beginner to this field, this would be the first major “canvas” I have true autonomy to paint on, and we’re already in the middle of a big system redesign. What would you do?