Overworked and Under-appreciated - Assistant Editor Arcade Edit Employee Review

Arcade Edit scouted me for contract work and presented itself as a tight-knit company with long-time staff employees that had occasional overtime but not frequent. Was booked on a month long job, and found very quickly that overtime was not only commonplace, but often and highly pressured. I was asked at 5pm on a Friday to work over the weekend, and many days as people were leaving at 7pm a bunch of unexpected work was dumped on me, keeping me working until late hours of the night. Expected to be on-call all the time at all hours. NO work-life balance. Communication was lacking, whether it was info needed for everyone to do their jobs, schedule updates, or just clarifying questions left unanswered. I also was very clear about the extent of my abilities for one task, and I was frequently pressured to do more and more than I was really comfortable or capable doing, and no one asked if it was manageable or thought to push back on those asks on my behalf. And there was just no humanity in my experience. To be fair, we were working from home, but I would Slack "good morning" and the reply would be "here's this stuff I need you to do". My clarifying questions were often brushed off as people were "so busy with other projects". And when I brought up the issue of overwork and the tasks outside my skill level, I got a curt "I'll take care of it" and no follow up. I'm all for a professional relationship and fully understand that people are busy, but these attitudes are just unkind and unnecessary in any professional setting. Overall, I felt very taken advantage of, overworked, under-appreciated, and just like a replaceable pair of hands rather than a valued team member.