So, I'm a freelance writer and for the most part I love what I do. My hours are flexible, it pays the rent, and it's something I usually enjoy doing. Most of my income comes from a handful of clients I've been working for for months. I have no complaints about most of them. One client is a guy just a little older than me and he works for a media company. He usually wants me to work on slideshows for the websites his company makes. It's usually an okay gig- I get paid by the slide in each slideshow. However, it seems like he expects me to drop everything and work on his stuff. A usual week for him goes like this: he'll tell me he has a project and he gives me a quantity of slideshows, usually about 10-25 slideshows. He gives me a deadline, which is usually about 5-7 days away. I agree to the terms and we go from there. However, it literally takes him about a day or two to actually give me the assignment. By the time I finally have the topics he wants me to work on, I only have about 3-4 days at most to work on them. He wants me to come up with all the content. The writing, pictures, etc. It's usually not so bad and they're very easy to write but he wants a lot of stuff in relatively little time. Each slideshow usually takes about an hour or two to write. If I have to write 25 slideshows in 4 days, that's about 6-12 hours a day of just gallery work. Not to mention, I have other clients plus school I need to work with. Granted, I work from home but if I only work on his stuff, my other clients suffer and I'll fail class. I actually just asked him to extend my deadline for a couple of days, since this would give me time to deal with my other clients and take care of his stuff. But this time he won't budge. I'm honestly really, really burnt out. Yet he pays okay. Any insight?
Hi, Based on my personal experience, I think the best thing for you is to prioritize your needs. Couple years ago, I had to make a decision about whether I should work part time during college so that I won't have as much student loans. When I did work, my grades weren't good at all. I was barely getting D's and Cs. For someone who was aiming for medical school, that was pretty much failing. To me I thought it was a huge risk to quit and rely only on student loans for college but, I did it anyway. And guess what...it paid off. You say your a student right now. Why is that? I am assuming that you want to improve yourself and that's great! Now let's see... do you really need the extra cash from making these long slide-shows? You said you work with your other clients which is most of your income. Is that enough? If so, I don't think overwhelming yourself with the slideshow is healthy for you. If the financial isn't essential for you, I suggest you quit this job. How do you feel if you had to quit working for the slide shows? You have to realize that he is not your owner. He gives you money in exchange for your time and talent. If you are not coming to a mutual benefit, you don't have to do this. Do you feel guilty by quitting on the slide-show guy? I don't think you should. If he respects your time as much as you respect him enough to quit on him, he would allow you more time. If he can't be flexible for your needs, then he, too, is quitting on you. Again, prioritize your needs and your wants. Don't live a stressful life. I know you love writing but if too much is causing stress, do less. Managing work for clients and school is handful of work. Allow yourself a break. I am sure if you have a bigger goal in you life (as I did while making a similar choice) by concentrating on it I am sure you will achieve it. Well, I am no expert on advising but, I hope my opinion helps. Best of luck, Rey
He sucks. If you agreed to the deadline previously, I'm not sure what you can do, unless the agreement was for a certain number of days and not an actual date. You can ask for an extension again, citing the amount of time it took him to send you the applicable materials and that when the deadline was agreed upon that time was not taken into account, but if he needs those slideshows on a time-limited basis then I don't think he's required to agree. If you want to work for this guy again in the future, I'd suggest negotiating a deadline based on when he gives you the materials rather than the day you agree to take on the project, if that's possible.
This is the part that really jumps out at me. It's fine to agree to a deadline, but if you do that you have to make it clear in your contract that it's dependent on him providing all necessary resources by an agreed upon date; if he delays, the deadline shifts. You're not being fair to yourself to allow him to compress the amount of work into a smaller chunk of time.
