

My client was a bully and I fired him - astrowilliam
https://medium.com/@littlesparkvt/my-client-was-a-bully-and-i-fired-him-ed3863e501b1

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SSH007
I can't tell what purpose your article serves. You are a contractor, you work
your own hours, and if you don't like work with someone then you don't have
to. I don't think there are any new information that is contained within your
article that people don't already know.

I guess it could have gone differently, and you may not have had to "fire"
your client if you had confronted him the first time he was out of line,
instead of assuming that he was having a bad day. You waited and your
irritation and anger grew inside until it boiled over and you snapped.

You could have told him right from the get-go that nature of a contractor's
schedule is that there are no set hours. You have a timeframe of delivery you
agreed upon (probably listed in the contract), and that's the deadline you'll
honor. Also, that if he's having a bad day due to something else, the
relationship between the two of you needs to stay professional. He may not
have been aware that his behavior was out of line, and when you mention that
to him at the first occurrence he'll know that you've noticed his behavior.
When you waited so long, and then just went off at him over the phone, he
probably thought you were the nutcase and continued the same behavior with
others. You could have made him aware, professionally, and made a difference.
You chose to be just as unprofessional as he was, and neither of you made
money.

Biggest lesson in your article was that nothing changed, both of you have a
story, you are still bothered about this years later, and you both wasted each
others time.

~~~
astrowilliam
I have talked with so many developers that have had very similar clients and
they let them run all over them, even after they explained the terms of the
contract.

He and I both went over the contract together, we both knew the details. He
treated me like garbage and bullied me until I couldn't stand it any more.

I didn't let the bully win and he didn't get the satisfaction of bullying me
any more. Not a bad deal, if you ask me.

~~~
SSH007
With that experience under your belt, if the same thing happened again, would
you do the same thing? Wait 'til you couldn't stand it anymore and then go
off? You aren't the first and you won't be the last person that gets hired and
the client tries to get more work out of you. There are lots of other
developers that would try to get more money out of the clients too. Its not
one sided. Most people don't stick exactly to the contract. Developers try to
get more money for performing less work, and clients try to get more work for
less money from the developers. Are either of them "bullies"? Nope, they just
protecting their interests. Everyone tries to get a better deal, there's
nothing wrong with that.

BTW, nothing you wrote in your article seemed like he was "treating you like
garbage". He was aggressive, and perhaps thats the way he works. He won't
change until he gets push back. Terminating the contract was not push back,
that was just quitting. He hired someone else, and lost nothing and learned
nothing. He probably has a story about a Developer he hired to do work and
after a couple days the developer blew up at him and quit.

In either case, you posted this online to share with others. Are you just
sharing a story that happened to you? or are you trying to teach them
something? Whats your goal? The way you wrote the story, it seems like it
happened several years ago. Why are you still thinking about it? He was a
jerk, you quit. So what?

------
damm
Good Job; what a horrible client.

~~~
astrowilliam
Thanks :) He even had that tough guy voice. HEY YO! Cringe when I even think
of it.

~~~
damm
Yeah I've started to listen to my Spidey sense on people's tones of voices.
It's helped me avoid a few bad clients

