It’s tough to relax over the weekend when you know your day is going to start early and end late Monday, isn’t it? That’s my day today with three client calls and one project due. I’m exhausted thinking about it.
Worse, last week ended with rather rudely. Incompetence threatened to ruin my day. Not my incompetence, thank God, but the lack of attention to detail by at least three other parties. Without going into tons of detail, I would like to send thanks to those people or entities that threatened to harsh my mellow:
– If you put me on hold to help me fix a problem, how about remembering to come back? It was 35 minutes and three renditions of White Christmas later that I figured someone was on a lunch break. Funny, mine never came until 3 pm. And now I want to throw up every time I hear Bing Crosby. Thank you.
– If I put it in the mailbox with a stamp and a return address, I expect it to be delivered or returned. No compromise on that. Thanks to you, my payment never arrived (22 days late as of today, you bastards), I had to make a 25-mile round trip to pay the bill in person, and my credit now has a little black mark next to it. Thank you.
– If I tell you I don’t work weekends, don’t think that telling me “Oh, well just have it to me by Sunday at 4” is going to work. I don’t work weekends. Period. And telling me to have it Monday morning by 9 am? Are you joking? Do you think I can’t figure out that it means, oh hey, I have to work the weekend to meet that deadline? Thank you.
– If you tell me Option A and Option B are options and if you type the words “These are voluntary options – you may take them or not” (and I refrain from correcting you lousy grammar), you cannot threaten to fire me for not taking those options. They’re options. If they are requirements, say so. Otherwise, you look like an unfeeling tyrant. Thank you.
– If you make a mistake and I have verified proof that it wasn’t my mistake, you can insist all you want. It’s still not my mistake. Sorry. And thank you.
Who’s harshing you out these days?
Clients who don't feel the need to answer e-mails unless they need something. Clients who don't answer project questions until the last minute but then expect you to still meet deadlines.
The movers got my goat, with fees never discussed in the estimate.
Oh, stop by today's blog, Lori — I write about seeing my play and how it feels to watch my work . . .
My favorites are the clients that have the attitude that they paid good money for you to do a project for them, so that means that you should be at their beck and call 24/7. And you should be jumping to their every whim.
Also, you are expected to respond to their emails within 5 seconds of them sending it. It doesn’t matter that it might take 5 minutes to read through their emails and another 5-10 minutes to type out a response. If they don’t get a response within 5 seconds they will send another one to ask why you haven’t responded to the first one. By the time I get done typing out one email, I’ve got 3-4 others asking why it’s taking so long to get a reply.
The postal delivery gets to me too. We’ve had some of our bills get stuck in someone else’s box and I don’t get it back until the day before the bill is due or I don’t get it back at all. (Filing complaints hasn’t helped so far)
– The cable company. Two of their employees promised my VCR would still work with the new digital cable box. They left out the part that it will no longer be able to record something I'm not watching, or program the VCR to record shows on more than one channel while I'm away – it only records the channel the cable box is set at. And there is no volume control during playback. When I complained, they tried to upsell me on their DVR service for "only" $10 a month. This is the same cable company that said the digital cable box was FREE. On my bill this month it states I'm receiving a credit of about $3.24 per month for the cable box, and that "credit" expires in April. I hate hidden fees.
– The postal service. I had the correct address, the correct postage, yet the papers I'd mailed to a client were returned to me about two weeks later. Even my letter carrier was perplexed. She said the local carrier on the other end should have stamped and noted on the left-hand side the reason it was "undeliverable." She also didn't understand why it took a couple of weeks to come back. I triple checked that I hadn't transposed any numbers. There were no mistakes on my end. I just hope my second attempt goes through.
– The (now former) president of the neighborhood group. I volunteered to edit a quarterly newsletter for the group. She e-mailed me exactly what she wanted it to include. At the next meeting she cornered me, crossly saying, "Who told you to say there wouldn't be a December meeting? That hasn't been decided yet." Um, you did, honey. She denied having told me to include it, and went on about the "conspirators" going behind her back to get their own way….so when I got home I forwarded her own e-mail back to her, highlighting the part she titled "Things to be sure to include." The top thing on the list? No December meeting. Naturally, she never apologized for accusing me of trying to subvert her authority, and she never acknowledged that she had indeed told me to include that information.
I saw your experience, Devon! How cool is that? I'd be like you, too – a bit nervous and feeling somewhat exposed. How neat, though!
Ditto that, Krista. I hate the dead silence, especially if it's followed with all sorts of hell should you get it wrong.
Wendy, exactly! I had one client send seven emails in less than 30 minutes. It took me longer to read them all than to respond with a "sent it yesterday" note!
Paula, volunteer jobs are pretty awful. You take abuse for no pay. Where is that fair? I wouldn't suspect she'd send an apology – people who fuss for control rarely do.
Today's annoyance – waiting for the conference call that isn't happening (it's been an hour). If it were the first time, I'd understand. However, this makes at least eight times. Repeat behavior requires extra payment to compensate my waiting. However, I no longer wait. I schedule work right through the appointment times. If anything, I've learned the pattern and have learned to be pleasantly surprised should the call actually go through as planned.
Was just about to post an "actually, things are fairly frustration-free at the moment" comment.
Then I read this article about how Time Inc. is offering pay freelancers (a) what they're owed and (b) in a timely manner — just as long as the freelancers don't, ya know, mind GIVING UP A PERCENTAGE OF WHAT THEY'RE OWED: http://bit.ly/7vqnCO.
Sigh …
[Note: My anti-spam word for this entry was "chill." Perhaps the computer gods are sending me some not-so-subtle guidance?
My gawd, is that ever ridiculous, Hugh! They actually have a chart showing how much of your pay you have to give back in order to receive your damn check in a timely manner.
I say write the copy yourselves, fools. When the hell did we allow this denegration of business ethics to take hold?
Lori, you had me standing up applauding as I read this post. You deserved your weekend off!
I have a new client *trying* to harsh my mellow by rushing me to start a job I have yet to receive the deposit for. He's trying to make it seem as if it should be no big deal to go ahead and get started on the work, but if it's no big deal then where the heck is the deposit???
You are SO smart to hold out, Kimberly! Too many people have tried the same thing with me. It's ridiculous. No money, no work. Stick to your guns, girl!
Well, I've only done the one volunteer job. Past tense, thanks to what that ex-president pulled. (Somehow, single-handedly, and with no input from any neighborhood association members, she declared the association "legally dissolved" yet after a year will still not provide any evidence of her imaginary dissolution. So now our Community Police Officer – a special department of the city's police force – and a non-profit city-wide neighborhood organization is trying to revive the association, but now need to get the City Attorney's involved to clear up the mess made by the ex-president.)
I haven't attended any of the monthly meetings in quite a while. I might go to the one next week, just to see who's there. The tragedy is we're in a "transitional" neighborhood that is transitioning in reverse, due to 17% unemployment and an influx of gang members and drug dealers who were ousted from the really bad parts of town thanks to a successful (for those neighborhoods) Weed & Seed program. So right now, more than ever my area needs an active association. As a property owner/life-long resident, I have a vested interest in the success of the group. So if I can help in the future, I will. as long as that woman is not involved.
Oh Paula, I sympathize completely. What a mess! Oddly, my sister had a similar run-in with a woman who took over my sister's committee chair A) without telling her and B) fired her via voice mail from a group she never belonged to or ran. I hear the committee is in shambles and the organization that benefits is up in arms over the amount of donations lost thanks to this woman's mismanagement.