It happens – you come across a client who is wonderful in all ways … except there’s this tendency to overreact. I had one recently who was in danger of hyperventilating because of a minor miscommunication that put us back 6 hours on a project. Okay, you’re already over your time budget by an entire month. As my father says, you can’t be late twice in the same instance. No great shakes – it was an easy fix. But the reaction made me cringe. It’s the type of reaction that’s unnecessary and certainly unnerving.
It’s also a warning sign you should heed. If you have a client who wants to write you off as a louse the minute anything at all goes wrong (think back a month to my client who thought I was fabulous and then in the next assignment wanted to ditch me altogether), ask yourself just how much more stress this could put on you. And ask yourself if you’re willing to put up with it. And please, remember – one person’s fire does not translate automatically into your emergency. If you’re the type who can ignore or not be bothered by someone’s constant overreactions, go for it. But if you’re like me and you have enough to shovel already, the added stress just isn’t worth it.
I know exactly what you’re saying. In fact, it’s pretty much my work load today.
Doesn’t it always figure? You get twelve things on your plate and suddenly they’re all urgent.
Time to get that final payment and say “buh-bye.” Plenty of sane clients out there.
It’s the same project I was telling you about over lunch, Devon. Remember? We’re near the end of it, amen. I cannot handle someone else’s frenzies, especially when the problems are minor in comparison to the reaction.