Comments on: The Worthy Writer: Bending Without Breaking

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 21:29:29 +0000

Absolutely agree, Devon.

Lovely to see you here. I miss you. :)

By: Devon Ellington

Devon Ellington — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 20:28:34 +0000

I'm a big believer in rush fees. It's important, because if you get into the 24/7 habit, you become on-call without the on-call fees.

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 17:40:47 +0000

I'm very glad to hear that, Paula. :)

I'm doing something similar this weekend. Hopefully it will go as smoothly as I expect.

By: Paula

Paula — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:55:06 +0000

I'm actually getting better about not working on weekends. And when I do, it's usually because I took off time during the week, not because of a client deadline.

Rushing through a big special section in eight days was the last time I really had to work over the weekend, but my client said she'd tack on a bonus rush fee - I didn't even have to ask. It was a fun thing to work on, too!

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 12:49:48 +0000

Cathy, I can imagine just how you protect your weekends after being in corporate communications for so long. A friend of mine used to work every weekend, work long hours during the week...she was young and thought she could stick with that schedule for five years. She made it a year and then walked away.

Given that, I wouldn't let anyone encroach on my free time so brazenly, either.

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 12:47:29 +0000

Isn't that frustrating, Emily? You work your hardest to meet that deadline...silence. Then the "We haven't had a chance to review it yet" or "We're hoping to get to it next week."

I'm sorry -- I busted my ass to get it to you because you HAD to have it to meet a deadline ... what happened to the deadline exactly?

It's exactly why I push back now. In this current case, they have a print date that's etched in stone. In most cases, though, that deadline is in someone's head and not attached to anything too pressing.

By: Cathy Miller

Cathy Miller — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 12:47:18 +0000

The only time I work a weekend (and it's been rare) is when I choose to do it. This was such a big life change need for me from my corporate days that I just won't do it. Like Emily, I simply let clients know I don't work weekends.

Anyway, I have too many "Mom things" on the weekend. I don't say no much to her. :-)

By: Emily Fowler

Emily Fowler — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 11:19:26 +0000

I learned the hard way - I had a client who had the most super urgent time-critical deadline in the whole entire universe, and being very new and eager to please I worked over the weekend to make the deadline for them. A week later they came back with questions.

Yep, you guessed it, it had taken them that long to get around to looking at it.

Now all of my clients know that I don't work weekends, I don't mind an occasional hour in the evening because my weekday hours tend to be fairly flexible (I like to meet friends for lunch a lot :) ). I haven't yet had to charge a rush fee yet, because as soon as it's mentioned the deadline doesn't seem quite so urgent . . .