November 13, 2005
...shit must fall.

A while back I wrote about my PITA-METER and the client involved. I'm hopefully wrapping up this particular deal with them today or tomorrow and I can say with all honestly that they are my least favorite client and the biggest PITA I have had to deal with since leaving the hospital. My wife even commented that it was stressing me out.

I think the issue might be politics. I do not typically work for companies or non-profits so much as publications. When I write for publications, the chain of command is typically clear and I'm only dealing with one person--the editor who hired me. It's by far one of the real pleasures of being a freelance writer. When I worked at the hospital I felt like I had half a dozen bosses simultaneously, often requiring conflicting things, and on other occasions it seemed like everybody I worked with--40+ people--thought they were my bosses. "Being your own boss" isn't without its hassles, but that's usually not one of them.

But clearly there are some chain-of-command issues with this client and I've been thinking a polite but probing and delicate conversation with the CEO might give me a roadmap through this particular minefield. But then again, maybe not.

Aside from The Association of Genetic Technologists, with whom I've had an excellent, relatively trouble-free relationship for over 5 years, I've worked with two other corporations. It was clear to me that both of them had internal political problems that I as a freelancer had to figure out. Often, when they hire a freelancer, it's at the expense of someone else's duties, and because it's writing or editing duties, what was probably going on was somebody didn't like the way they did it so they hired you to do it--but you have to get information and other things from that person without realizing that they're pissed off at you. This puts you at a real disadvantage and when there appears to be footdragging going on, it actually may be intentional to make you look bad, or you're only given part of the information you need.

This isn't fun. I'm relatively certain that's at least partly responsible for the problems I've been having with this new client. My solution to it--finally, I was a bit slow getting to this point--was to be extra professional, try to stay removed or above the fray, and most of all, be transparent in my activities. That is to say, let everybody involved in on e-mail communications; if a request for something makes me sound incompetent, make sure I explain why I'm asking and which materials I'm questioning and why, since it will make it obvious to everybody involved if something is inaccurate and/or being short-changed. CYA, in other words.

I'm sure that part of my problem here, besides the tight deadlines and the feeling that they hired me to do a job for which not everybody wanted to hire me to do it, is that it reminds me of all of the worst aspects of being back in the workplace--lack of communication, backstabbing, turf wars, inconsistent and often bleery-eyed priorities and goals, and more than a little skepticism about this newcomers' competence. I'm afraid that one of the reasons I like working for newspapers and magazines more than for corporations is that newspapers and magazines understand the value of a good writer, but corporations think anybody can do it, they just don't have time to. In my experience, anyway.

Take-away message? Well, although we don't always have control over the type of writing we do, we may find that ultimately we're more comfortable doing certain types of writing--for certain types of clients--for very good reasons.

Best,
Mark Terry