Frustration: clients who schedule meetings for me without checking if I'm available, wait for me to then reschedule everything else to make their stupid meetings, and then go ahead and postpone the meeting on the day it's supposed to happen.
Grrrr.
Yip, my interviews for this afternoon, which necessitated me dropping all my other committments and making special plans to fit them in, have now, as of five minutes ago, been postponed. And, to make things even easier, they haven't set a new date for the next load of interviews yet. And we only have next week to get them all done because this story is due the following Monday.
To me, that is just plain rude. It's like they are saying to me, "Our time is more important than yours, so f*** you, we'll schedule the meetings whenever we like."
This, my friends, is what I like least about being a journalist. If this weren't a report on a specific company, I would find new interviewees.
*sigh* Off to bang my head on my desk now.
17:35 update: I've just received an email with meetings scheduled by same client for Monday 2-5pm, Tuesday 11am - 4pm and one that will take place "sometime on either Wed or Thurs". KILL. ME. NOW.
Showing posts with label clients I'd like to kill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label clients I'd like to kill. Show all posts
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Yesterday, today and tomorrow
Yesterday:
- I got meet Damaria IRL for the first time. She very kindly agreed to give up a big chunk of her afternoon to chat through some of the things I'm going to have to deal with as a fulltime freelancer. What an awesome, knowledgeable lady! And so willing to share her experiences and the lessons she's learned.
- TSC spent the whole day studying for his first exam. He was so desperate to get out of the house that he came along with me when I met Damaria and he sat on the other side of the coffee shop with his books and an Americano coffee. His brain was fried after doing a squillion hydraulics calculations, so we decided to see a movie last night to give him time to unwind.
- We saw Iron Man 2. I was expecting to be disappointed because sequels usually suck big time. But I actually really enjoyed it. Yes, the plot is totally ridiculous (c'mon, people - it's based on a comic book, not a biography) and it probably doesn't do justice to the original Marvel characters (I'm not a comic book fan, so I wouldn't know). But the explosions are big, the CGI is impressive, there are nice touches of humour and there's even a Grand Prix scene. I was sold. If you haven't seen it yet and are still planning to do so, make sure you stay till the end of the credits. There's a (very) short Easter Egg scene that links the film to the next big Marvel adventures with Thor and The Avengers.
Today:
- I woke up this morning to find that I had managed to get rid of the mouthguard I was supposed to be sleeping with sometime during the night. I must have spat it out in my sleep. Even my subconscious objects to wearing the thing.
- I arrived at the office to find an email from one of the PR clients wanting to know how the writing is going on a piece I haven't been briefed on. The deadline for this piece is apparently Friday.
- The freelance client I am supposed to be meeting this afternoon has not responded to my emails requesting confirmation and address details. Why is everyone seemingly incapable of adult communication?!
Tomorrow:
- Is the only day of this week without meetings scheduled. I plan to enjoy that.
- I was supposed to have a cupcake order due, but it has been cancelled. I am relieved. I would have had to fit in the baking between meetings and church small group this evening, which would have been a mission.
- The day before Friday. Yay!
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Lanyards
Right. Cam, Po... take your pick. What colour and which type of attachment at the bottom?
In other news, today has been one of those days that starts off slow and then snowballs into craziness. Clients who think they can send you a meeting request on the day of the meeting without any explanation as to why they want a meeting... they suck. So do clients who consistently leave it until the day before they need something before letting you know. And clients who pay late.
Thankfully the sun is shining today, which has had a positive influence on my mood. Also, I just had leftovers from last night (curried chicken pancakes) for lunch, so I'm now feeling warm and sleepy and not particularly in the mood to fight with anyone. Or throttle them with a lanyard.
Thursday, 3 December 2009
The Mood
Description:
Personal storm cloud hovering over head, short temper, twitchy, bags under eyes... kinda like a zombie with Tourettes syndrome, actually.
Causes:
Personal storm cloud hovering over head, short temper, twitchy, bags under eyes... kinda like a zombie with Tourettes syndrome, actually.
Causes:
- Rampant PMS
- Insane last-minute freelance job with huge workload and ridiculous deadline
- Having a host of guests for a year-end life group braai who only left at 11.30 last night (not that it wasn't an awesome time - a blast was had by all)
- Having a house that looks like a whole host of guests trooped through it in last night's storm - muddy floors, wrapping paper everywhere, paper plates in the strangest places...
- A certain phone call at 6am this morning from the in-laws to ask if they could arrive this eve and stay for the weekend
- A certain argument with TSC on the above point
- The knowledge that a certain Doodling Journo will surely be blamed for the fact that the response to afore-mentioned phone request was 'no', despite the fact that said Journo's partner is responsible for most of the weekend engagements and has an interview tomorrow, meaning that there will be no time to actually see the in-laws at all
- Having to cancel Friday night's dinner engagement because of afore-mentioned ridiculous deadline
- Stressing about the logistics around a particular Christmas open house this Sat and how everything will ever get done on time
- Not being able to think of a final bullet point to make it an even number
Plan of action:
Any or all of the following:
- Beat head repeatedly on desk until unconscious
- Practise the ancient art of escapism by ignoring problems and reading blogs
- Collapse in a heap of snot and tears
- Put on big girl panties and suck it up
- Vent on blog
Friday, 11 September 2009
I want to SCREAM!
I have just had THE most frustrating client meeting of my life. It's a wonder everyone who was present is still alive and in one piece.
Do you know that feeling where you're so angry you start shaking? I had to grip my pen and pad really tightly to a) stop the client from noticing that explosion was imminent and b) stop my hands from grabbing him around his neck and shaking him until he turned blue.
I have met with the lady before (lovely dear that she is), let's call her Em. She set up this meeting to discuss the plans with her fellow head honcho and me today.
Em briefed me to rewrite the organisation's website copy and make recommendations as to how they could improve their "completely outdated and hideous" website (for example, stop using an off-red colour for all the text). She said the organisation has a web developer that can implement the changes and that she hates the site and wants to start by removing the sponsors names (they feature prominently on every page of the site and detract from the actual copy). I agree with her recommendation and add it to my list.
In preparation for today, I came up with homepage copy and some recommendations, which were to keep the site template pretty much the same but move certain elements (from the random right-hand navigation bar to the left one and get rid of the right-side nav bar to allow for more white space and less clutter (they currently have four navigation bars. Super confusing!).
I present this to her and Mr I-think-I'm-God at today's meeting. I can tell he's going to be difficult from the minute he walks in and starts crapping on me because the map to my offices (that everyone else has used without issue) is not to his liking.
He stops me about one-second into the conversation to tell me that I was contracted to write copy, not redesign their entire website. I calmly explain that I understand this and that I have not redesigned the site, but just made the recommendation of moving some elements to another place in the template. I have not suggested we delete pages, create new ones or scrap the whole site and start again. I also explain that part of my brief was to recommend how to improve the site's flow.
I try to continue.
He interrupts again, telling me I have "not fulfilled my mandate" and that I basically don't know what I'm doing... That my recommendations will mean they have to change their website. "Yes," I say. "I was told that you have someone who can do that who works for you." He tells me that they don't plan to demolish their site and start again. I once again explain that this will not be necessary - the site design will remain almost the same, with a few elements shifting from one side of the page to the other.
This conversation happens a total of seven times during the hour.
Em, who is also taking a bashing from Chief Moron, is trying to hold back tears. She keeps saying she's sorry she ever got involved with this project, that she washes her hands of it, that I must bill her for my time and that she's sorry to have wasted my time.
Poor dear.
He keeps telling her that he's not saying they shouldn't do this project, but that there are ways of doing it and that this is not the right one.
I think I came closest to losing it with him and smacking him on his bald, stupid head with his own teacup (especially seeing having requested tea, he ignored it and didn't touch it once) when he started telling me that he is in the business of web development and everyone knows that it's best to have all your company's information on the home page becuase people don't click on links on websites.
According to Dipstick, having a looooong homepage where people have to scroll for ages is far superior to having a short, uncluttered homepage with clear navigation options that will take people to the specific info they want without them having to spend years searching for it.
He also doesn't believe in having lots of webpages. When I said that the more pages you have, with quality content on them, the higher trawlers will rank you, he told me (patronisingly) that my point might be true, but only if you're interested in attracting people to your site who haven't been there before.
Uhhh... and you're not interested in that, Bright Spark?! That explains a lot.
Every time I tried to make a point or bring him back to letting me explain the copy I'd written, he told me "There's no need to get defensive about it, Tamara."
In the end, Poor Em apologised for the millionth time and closed the meeting by simply standing up to leave. I stood up too and Ego Maniac grudglingly halted his lecturing and finger-wagging(easiest way to piss me off) and left without even greeting me.
I would so like to hit something (well, a particular someone) right now. Thank goodness for blogging, hey?
And for Fridays.
Woosaaaa, Tamara. Wooosaaaaa...
Do you know that feeling where you're so angry you start shaking? I had to grip my pen and pad really tightly to a) stop the client from noticing that explosion was imminent and b) stop my hands from grabbing him around his neck and shaking him until he turned blue.
I have met with the lady before (lovely dear that she is), let's call her Em. She set up this meeting to discuss the plans with her fellow head honcho and me today.
Em briefed me to rewrite the organisation's website copy and make recommendations as to how they could improve their "completely outdated and hideous" website (for example, stop using an off-red colour for all the text). She said the organisation has a web developer that can implement the changes and that she hates the site and wants to start by removing the sponsors names (they feature prominently on every page of the site and detract from the actual copy). I agree with her recommendation and add it to my list.
In preparation for today, I came up with homepage copy and some recommendations, which were to keep the site template pretty much the same but move certain elements (from the random right-hand navigation bar to the left one and get rid of the right-side nav bar to allow for more white space and less clutter (they currently have four navigation bars. Super confusing!).
I present this to her and Mr I-think-I'm-God at today's meeting. I can tell he's going to be difficult from the minute he walks in and starts crapping on me because the map to my offices (that everyone else has used without issue) is not to his liking.
He stops me about one-second into the conversation to tell me that I was contracted to write copy, not redesign their entire website. I calmly explain that I understand this and that I have not redesigned the site, but just made the recommendation of moving some elements to another place in the template. I have not suggested we delete pages, create new ones or scrap the whole site and start again. I also explain that part of my brief was to recommend how to improve the site's flow.
I try to continue.
He interrupts again, telling me I have "not fulfilled my mandate" and that I basically don't know what I'm doing... That my recommendations will mean they have to change their website. "Yes," I say. "I was told that you have someone who can do that who works for you." He tells me that they don't plan to demolish their site and start again. I once again explain that this will not be necessary - the site design will remain almost the same, with a few elements shifting from one side of the page to the other.
This conversation happens a total of seven times during the hour.
Em, who is also taking a bashing from Chief Moron, is trying to hold back tears. She keeps saying she's sorry she ever got involved with this project, that she washes her hands of it, that I must bill her for my time and that she's sorry to have wasted my time.
Poor dear.
He keeps telling her that he's not saying they shouldn't do this project, but that there are ways of doing it and that this is not the right one.
I think I came closest to losing it with him and smacking him on his bald, stupid head with his own teacup (especially seeing having requested tea, he ignored it and didn't touch it once) when he started telling me that he is in the business of web development and everyone knows that it's best to have all your company's information on the home page becuase people don't click on links on websites.
According to Dipstick, having a looooong homepage where people have to scroll for ages is far superior to having a short, uncluttered homepage with clear navigation options that will take people to the specific info they want without them having to spend years searching for it.
He also doesn't believe in having lots of webpages. When I said that the more pages you have, with quality content on them, the higher trawlers will rank you, he told me (patronisingly) that my point might be true, but only if you're interested in attracting people to your site who haven't been there before.
Uhhh... and you're not interested in that, Bright Spark?! That explains a lot.
Every time I tried to make a point or bring him back to letting me explain the copy I'd written, he told me "There's no need to get defensive about it, Tamara."
In the end, Poor Em apologised for the millionth time and closed the meeting by simply standing up to leave. I stood up too and Ego Maniac grudglingly halted his lecturing and finger-wagging(easiest way to piss me off) and left without even greeting me.
I would so like to hit something (well, a particular someone) right now. Thank goodness for blogging, hey?
And for Fridays.
Woosaaaa, Tamara. Wooosaaaaa...
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