What I Learned About People From Being a Freelancer
If any alien-being from another planet is reading this, I’m totally available for a Zoom call.
A long time ago during my early years of going freelance, I overheard someone say, “It’s my turn to babysit the freelancer.” Is he talking about me? This was back when I used to go in part-time at the client’s office, which was such a naive move on my part. If only there was a handbook.
First of all, we don’t need babysitting. A freelancer comes equipped with all the tools, the snacks, matcha lattes and the correct mindset to get the project started and completed. It’s primarily the reason for freelancing full-time, because there’s no boss breathing down our necks and keeping tabs.
In the many years I’ve dedicated to being a full-time freelancer, the learning experience has been vast, informative and at times good novel fodder. People can be nuts. But people can also be good mentors and reliable citizens of the community. However, this is mostly about the people that are nuts.
LACK OF BOUNDARIES.
I once had a very short-lived client who was so charming at the start of our project timeline, only to come out of it with her becoming somewhat of a creepy client. It was one day when during a Google meet call with another client that I had missed an actual phone call from her. In 2018, phone calls (that weren’t from a family member) were already extinct in my book. Then I noticed there was no voicemail left, checked email and nothing from her. Strange, but I paid it no mind assuming that maybe it was an accidental dial, which was even more odd being that our only form of communication was on Skype, which meant that she could’ve only dialed my phone number that’s listed in my signature email. I went on with my day and then later that evening past 8pm I saw again 3 consecutive (within 2 minutes apart) missed calls from her. What is so important that you need to call your freelancer past 8pm three times in a row and again with no voicemails or emails to follow. I got spooked, because in the past I have had a real stalker. This will be a future post, but tbh I don’t have the balls of strength yet to rehash that time in my life.
Naturally, I was hesitant to call her back, especially since the pattern of behavior was odd and abnormal. Why not email me or text whatever concern you have that was related to the project? Then I thought, what if it’s not related to work, and she’s just calling - to talk. I dismissed it for the night and days after, because it was all too weird, yet nothing of importance to stress over. Our next video meeting was scheduled the next week and it was totally fine. There was absolutely no mention of the missed phone calls and I wasn’t going to bring it up. I felt a bit relieved - until the next day she rang me again in the late afternoon. I just stared at my phone screen, the words Incoming Call felt so divisive in my imagination, but in reality it seemed just as hostile. Why can’t she just text or email me like a normal adult?? The phone became silent. I breathed a sigh of relief. And then almost 5 minutes later it rang again. I stopped myself just as I was about to press the do not disturb let let it go to voicemail. See by doing that, well we all know that it means the Incoming Call was acknowledged but refused. I couldn’t let a client think that I didn’t want to speak to them, so I just allowed the rings to come in full annoyance. By the third call I was peeved and very bothered. She was revealing herself to be not just a hindrance, but now a creep. Who was I dealing with here?
Thing is, the project went smoothly as it could’ve regardless of her strange offline behavior. And still we had video meetings with no mentions of her unwarranted phone calls. Then one time we met in person, she was in town for something and I agreed to meet her for a coffee. It was a summer Friday, so my attire was semi-work, but casual appropriate for the shorter work day. She chose the place and in hindsight I should’ve grabbed that as a red flag. I won’t go into detail of the type of establishment it was, but I personally don’t frequent there, but also have no problem going there with friends. It was an interesting spot to choose if you’re the client meeting your freelancer, let’s just put it that way. It ended up being a weird lunch, meaning she ordered for me, like it was a date and side note, I’m not into another person ordering for me, especially if it’s the first time meeting. We talked about work, well I did, she kept asking me little questions about my personal life, which I remained vague about. I needed this lunch - meeting, whatever it was to be over. Nearing our good-byes, she asked if I wanted to meet up at some club later that night. I answered that I had friends in town and that they were actually arriving soon from the airport. (Lies) She said to bring them along. I said maybe but that we kind of have plans already. She seemed I don’t know, disappointed and I could’ve sworn I caught a snarl from her face? That was the first and last time we were ever face to face. The phone calls stopped, our project was nearing completion and that was that. She became very distant with me, almost like annoyed at my very existence. Personally, I didn’t care as long as the project was completed, final payment cleared and yes, the phone calls stopped.
So boundaries. Even though this was a peculiar situation that doesn’t happen to everyone (or does it?), people need to remember that the people who work for and with them have personal lives after 6pm. Unless it is a day before a launch, sure late night calls, emails, texts may need to happen. But if it’s not work related, none of that needs to happen.
Also clients, try not to say “can we jump on a call right now or in a few minutes?” I always say no, even if I do have some time to spare, which is rarely the case. What I hear in the question, “can we jump on a call right now or in a few minutes” is = why don’t you drop everything you’re doing and do what I think is more important. Hey bud, save that line for your full-time employees. My day is structured because it has to be, mixed with different clients who have different needs, deadlines and other projects. No, I will not jump on a call that could always be put in an email.
PREDICTABILITY.
This is where we manage expectations. I always feel that part of my job is to figure out what kind of mood my client is in and then act accordingly. This seems to be a one way action, I highly doubt that a client has ever taken a minute to decipher what kind of day their freelancer is having. I could be wrong, but when your core team is yourself and often times an intern or freelance/virtual assistant, predicting the needs before the client mentions it is important. We can read your mood from the simplest email reply or the paragraph form question on Slack. It’s not okay if you’re not okay, because that means there will be questions with revisions and possible delays.
QUESTIONS vs TROUBLE-SHOOTING.
Instead of asking a zillion moronic and possibly time-wasting questions, sometimes one sentence can do the trick more effectively: “Can you walk me through your process so we can figure out how we got to this problem?”
Sometimes people talk just to talk and I always watch for it. Normally, if I can catch the moment in the right time, I say that I have a meeting that’s about to start, but after, I will spend some time to solving the issue. Then I say, “In the meantime can you email me some questions you have that could help me figure out some solutions?” Be direct, make a point and give your client a task. I almost think they like that (if they’re serious thinkers they do), but if they’re talkers they’ll lag on emailing you what you asked for. It never surprises me anymore.
THE VALUE OF TIME.
Here’s the thing. I consider freelancing a service job, not in the same context and aptitude as a bartender, food server, healthcare worker, etc but we are still providing a particular kind of service and obvious skill set to the client. Freelancers prefer to “turn and burn” projects just like servers do during a restaurant shift. We want more projects, of course, which means time is everything. Deadlines mean something to us, it means not just completion, but also billing for our services. $$$ Many times I’ve found that some clients don’t realize the value of another person’s time. Time is work, but also time is for family, friends and having a personal life. And whenever there’s an overtime of work needed to get to the finishing line, it’s always nice to be appreciated for the extra time put in. Some people get it, others are totally oblivious to it.
CHOICE OF WORDS.
“Don't say "just a few things..." if you're going to send a large list of edits.” - Morgan Light, Freelance Designer
Freelancers are the most attention to detail people you’ll ever meet (besides doctors). As a client, you should only and always say things you really mean. Be transparent about your expectations and steer clear of nitpicking. - Excerpt from The F Word: Things You Should Never Say To a Freelancer
The clients that I’ve been fortunate to work with off and on and for seasonal projects, are people who I’ve learned to know really well - professionally that is. I’ve memorized their likes about certain things, the people they talk about, and what I believe is very important, is to know how their attention span is for certain situations. During all my years freelancing, the one kind of person I’ve learned to avoid is the client who wants to treat you like an employee. Nope. Unless you want to offer me a very attractive salary with benefits and perks to match, this work relationship is doomed from the start.
The other kind of client I’ve learned to avoid is the one who wants things for free. Or “trade”, which is still free because offering goods or a weekend stay at a spa does not pay my rent. Trust me, I’ve heard them all.
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