My client said 'just rest, I'll wait' and it wrecked my schedule worse than working sick

I had a graphic design client in Austin tell me to take a sick day and not worry about her project. So I took two days off with the flu, but then she needed revisions on day three and I had to cram everything in between four other jobs I'd pushed back. Her advice was nice but it ignored the reality that freelancers don't have backup for urgent fixes. Has anyone else had a well-meaning client offer grace that backfired because your other deadlines didn't move?

2 comments

2 Comments

aliceharris9h ago

Gotta say this is a bigger thing I've noticed everywhere, not just with clients. People offer you "grace" or "flexibility" but they don't actually change the hard deadlines that come with it. So you end up with this fake cushion that makes you feel worse because you should be grateful but you're actually drowning. Kinda like when someone says "take your time" on an email but you know they'll follow up in two hours. Or when a friend says "no rush" but you can hear the urgency in their voice. The real problem is everyone's nice words don't connect to the actual machine of deadlines and expectations that keeps running. We just get this weird gap between what people say and what the situation actually needs.

xena_hernandez988h agoMost Upvoted

And isn't it funny how "I'll get back to you" really means they hope you forget about it first.