Re: anyone else in the same boat?

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>]

Christine -dot- Anameier -at- seagate -dot- com wrote:

> (2) Producing swill makes me queasy. Any job satisfaction I might derive
> from my work goes right out the window, and I am reduced to working solely
> for a paycheck. If the job/contract market gets bad, I may have to lower my
> expectations and produce swill with a smile... but until that day, my drive
> to do good work outweighs my aversion to confrontation, and I'll fight
> swill-producing directives.

Andrew was talking about contract work. If you've tried to make
helpful suggestions, and the client ignores them, you're still under
contract to finish them. Aside from the legal position, walking away
from a contract because you couldn't do things your way does nothing
for your rep - and contractors survive by their rep.

Of course, if you decided not to work for the same company again,
you'd be perfectly justified.

At the same time, demanding clients are just one of the restraints
that you work under, like deadlines. As a professional, you simply
have to deal with the problem.

Anyway, to a certain extent you can usually work around troublesome
customers to deliver results that are in the client's best
interests, regardless of whether the client is aware of them.
Obviously, you need to be extremely careful, and deliver results
that meet the client's demands in other ways, but it can be done,
especially if you establish your relation as a consultant, not a
temporary wage-slave.

For example, on several jobs I have been told not to worry about
formatting, to just get the basic facts done. However, I am a
hopeless tinkerer, and almost constitutionally incapable of not
tweaking if I can find the time. In each of these jobs, I did add a
little formatting - and in each case, that was one of the first
things that the client praised. In fact, in a couple of cases, the
clients even admitted that they were wrong with their initial
instructions. None of these clients complained about the extra work.
Nor would they have had any reason to, since they got the extra
value at no additional cost.

-- 
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
Contributing Editor, Maximum Linux
604.421.7189 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com

"Dow Jones going into a stall,
Spray paint saying it on every wall,
The rise was fine, now it's time to decline and fall."
- Richard Thompson, "Yankee Go Home"

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