I finally stopped pushing through fevers after a client called me out

Had a freelance graphic design project for a small biz in Portland last winter, and I was working through a 102 degree fever trying to hit a deadline. The owner, Sarah, straight up told me my color choices looked off and asked if I was okay because the file timestamps were all 3 AM. She was right, my brain was fried, and now I just email clients saying I'm sick and delay by a day or two instead of delivering garbage. Has anyone else had a client give them feedback that made them rethink their whole sick day approach?

3 comments

3 Comments

coleman.hannah8d ago

Nah I gotta push back on the "clients appreciate hustle" thing. You said they didn't notice until you pointed it out later. That means you were self-correcting bad work after the fact. Sarah didn't call her out to be mean, she called her out because the work was genuinely off. Portland small biz owners talk to each other. If you send in bad work and the client has to redo it, that hurts your rep way more than asking for one extra day. I've been on the client side of a freelancer who "hustled" through a fever and handed me a logo with wrong kerning. I remember that headache way longer than I remember someone being on time.

corap618d ago

Man, I gotta be honest this take feels a little soft to me! I mean, yeah Sarah meant well but you could have just owned it and told her you were working through a fever instead of letting her call you out like that. Clients appreciate hustle way more than they appreciate perfection, especially in a small town like Portland where everyone knows everyone and reputation is everything. I've sent in work with a fever before and my clients were actually impressed I was still pushing through, they didn't even notice any mistakes until I pointed them out later. Seems like you gave away your leverage for no reason when you could have just said "hey I'm running hot but I'll still get this done" and let her decide if she wanted to push the deadline or not.

brooke_murray4d ago

Haha oh man, this whole "hustle through a fever" thing is wild to me. Like sure, you can be a hero and send in a fever dream logo, but then you're just making extra work for yourself fixing it later. No thanks, I'd rather just take the day and not have to explain why my kerning looks like a ransom note.