That co-working space off Main Street is a trap for freelancers with bad clients

I swung by that new co-working hub downtown last Tuesday (the one with the neon sign) and overheard three separate freelancers on calls with nightmare clients. One guy was stuck trying to explain why a $50 logo revision wasn't free after his client already changed the design five times. Another lady had a client yelling at her because she didn't reply to a 2 AM email within 10 minutes. The third person just looked defeated, scrolling through a thread where their client kept asking for 'just one more tiny tweak' for the third month in a row. It hit me that these places can feed into bad client behavior, like you're always on the clock if you're visible. Made me glad I work from my kitchen table where I can mute people without feeling guilty. Has anyone else noticed clients acting worse when they know you're in a shared workspace?

3 comments

3 Comments

alex8206d ago

Ugh, that's rough. So do you think the clients get worse because they assume you're in a professional setting with fewer excuses to dodge calls?

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gray3146d agoMost Upvoted

Three times last week I had people try to "catch me" on a bathroom break just so they could launch into a 20 minute complaint. One guy literally said "I know you're at your desk, I can hear you typing" when I was just trying to grab my coffee. It's like they think if you're physically in an office chair you owe them your soul for the next hour. The worst is when they start a call with "let me just ask you one quick thing" and then it's a four paragraph email they want you to read back to them. I swear I got trapped for 45 minutes once because someone saw I was online and assumed that meant I was just sitting there waiting for their call.

black.oliver6d ago

The "let me ask you one quick thing" line is SUCH a trap, I feel that.