Ask FreelanceSwitch: Clients with Bigger Problems

In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, we look at clients with underlying problems. Ask FreelanceSwitch is a regular column here that allows us to help beginners get a grip on freelancing. If you have a question about freelancing that you want answered, send an email to [email protected].

Question

Schizophrenics may not know they’re schizophrenic. And telling them is pointless – they’re too nuts to see themselves as such.

I recently got a client who isn’t awful out of spite – she’s mean and rude because she’s clinically off-the-wall, and the thing is, she doesn’t know it. This woman is decision-phobic: she refuses to make any final decisions on her own, down to the size of bullets in a bulleted list, creating utter chaos as she goes from designer to developer to CEO to designer asking “What do you think? Because the other guy said…” until someone finally just implements whatever they feel like implementing, and everyone wants to kill each other.

She is also passive aggressive as a matter of course, and not very honest. She sends up to 20 emails a day, calls minutes after she sends an email to check that I “got it”, and is unbelievably controlling. Yet, because of some strange twist in her decision-phobia, she’s only happy when someone on her team is literally screaming at her (I’m dead serious) – at which point she turns into a docile, smiling lamb. I don’t even want to begin to psychologically deconstruct what *that’s* about.

To top it off, she’s incredibly incompetent. If I had known the woman had little to no experience in tech, I feel I may have been able to mitigate the situation by teeing decisions up to her softly and without any tech jargon and taking on some of the decision-making duties of this project – but she lied in the beginning of the relationship, referring to herself as an “experienced project manager”, and talking about “other developers” she’s worked with. I soon came to realize that she’s not only not a project manager and probably never has been, she’s clearly never worked in tech before.

Normally, I’d tell someone like this to leave – I’ve been freelancing for a long time and have no compunction about ushering nasty clients out the door. The problem is, she’s extremely volatile. This is the kind of person that, when they feel slighted, posts negative reviews online, tells all her friends and generally does everything they can to destroy someone’s career.

When we first began this project, she mentioned she had done this to others – she sounded pleased with herself. At the time, I thought, “wow – these people she was working with must have been terrible!” Now, I completely understand, and I feel sorry for them. I can’t have a heart-to-heart with her, or tell her the truth that she’s being rude – she sees herself as an organized go-getter and a “people person”.

I feel like I have a tiger by the tail, and I don’t know how to back away slowly. Should I try to finish this project (though it may go on forever and ever and ever) and then fire her and run run run, or do I stick with a project that may go on interminably, costing me sleep, peace of mind, and leeching time away from my other super-awesome clients? Or is there another option?

This is an incredibly tough situation, unfortunately. Im generally of the opinion that a freelancer should wait until a project is over before firing a difficult client, but this is an exception: youve described the sort of project that will go on for months, if not years, making it harder and harder to get away from the client in question.

Yes, youre pretty much guaranteed that this client will say nasty things about you and your services when you leave. If she feels that she hasnt gotten exactly what she deserved out of working with you, that will be the case whether you fire her now or a year from now.

So do it now. Be civil about it and, if you can, spin it as positively as possible. This is a situation where its not you, its me wont help the next guy down the line, but it might help you get loose a little easier.

Be prepared for the blow back. If you know the sites that this client frequents, you may be in a position to deal with at least a little of her negativity. You can dispute posting on some sites that discuss these sorts of matters.

Its also worth while to take a look at what comes up in your search results now and make a plan for bulking up the good stuff about your business. Guest post on highly ranked blogs, create some linkbait on your site and do whatever else is within your grasp. If nothing else, not worrying about a crazy client should free up some time in your schedule for this work.

If youre in the same geographic area, youre probably going to have the chance to defend yourself in person. Any time the topic comes up, discuss it calmly and rationally without describing the client in question as crazy (that can open you up to a lawsuit).