Some days you’re the windshield, some days you’re the fly. Yesterday, I played the part of said fly as the projects around me went from confusing to downright frustrating. One is a long-time regular client and I didn’t get very far in asking for some collaboration so the work process might somehow ease up for both of us. The other one is an ongoing issue involving scattered client communication, lack of organization, and instructions-after-the-fact. Needless to say, I was mentally toasted by 5 p.m.
In both cases, I know I was correct in my perception of each situation. The first one is a process that, because of one misstep or another, has me doing the same thing twice, wasting billable hours in the process. Come to think of it, the second one is the same. Because of lack of instruction at the outset, a rather large project is now being basically redone. It’s costing them in time and money as much as it’s costing me in time and lost projects.
Thing is, there are times when you’re going to be right, the client’s going to be wrong, and there isn’t a single thing you can do about it. They want it done their way, even if it means you take the heat or you have the egg on your face. All you can do is CYA – email communications showing your concerns, suggested fixes, objections to specifics, etc. Sometimes, despite your best efforts to the contrary, the projects are going to head way out of control and you’re going to be expected to forego your free time in order to fix what they perceive to be your fault.
Things to learn going forward (I say this as much for my sake as for yours):
1. Get all the information at the outset. Clarify any unclear stuff, ask specifics to pinpoint the goals and get as much of the details as you can.
2. Do your major communicating in writing. Don’t leave anything to chance of misunderstanding. If your client is scattered or prone to finger-pointing, keep things in written form. That doesn’t necessarily guard against defending yourself in phantom conversations you never had with the client that they’re convinced you did, but I digress. And yes, that bizarre situation happened to me.
3. Do voice your concerns in writing as soon as they arise. Okay, give it an hour or so to make sure you’re not simply misinterpreting something or misunderstanding the text or the work process. But if issues come up, tell the client as soon as you can. Just make sure you don’t send out seven or eight frantic emails at a time as you come across more and more problems. One will suffice. (Yep, been victim to that, too)
4. Explain your process and explain where things went wrong on your side. This one’s tricky, but if it’s clear to you they’ve screwed up, you have to find a nice way of saying, “Yes, I’m happy to fix this for you. My concern is that the files have come in rather quickly and in no real order. Could you please take a moment or two to go over what you expect and how you’d like it all to go together?” That’s a nice way of saying “You need to stop screwing around, organize it, and get back to me when you have your head screwed on properly.” But without really saying it that way. 😉
5. Let it go. People screw up. No one likes to be caught messing up. Unfortunately, freelancers are easy targets for blame transference. If you can look beyond the emotional crap and the indignation, you can find a workable solution. Don’t let emotions enter into it. At all. You can scream in the privacy of your study or bitch to almighty heaven to your sister on the phone. But better yet, just find a solution and move on. Emotions are huge time sinks and aren’t billable commodities.
6. In the end, it’s their project. If they want to pay for you to spin your wheels and double your efforts, who are you to argue? Own the process, but don’t own the project. Oh, and know when to cut your losses should their vision and yours be so far apart that duct tape couldn’t hold you together. Not every client is right for every writer. If you have issues that you think are unresolvable, find a gracious way to bow out, or complete the work and lose their contact information.
Maddening. Maybe you could send faxes to those hard clients and get them to sign approval and return to you, each step of the way? eww. Sounds like unmedicated root canals to me.
I’m sending emails as a way to cover my tracks and make sure they understand what I’m doing, just in case.
Good lessons to learn, bad way to learn them. Sorry to hear you’re having a rough time!