I can’t go into too much detail but I need to vent big time…

A large project but not our largest… a new employee starts in the unorganised clients business throwing big words and presence with no real substance or reason to back any of it up.

We have to explain what an absolute state the whole process was in and what we’ve done to secure it (we’ve rewritten the whole god damn system into a sustainable development)… water off a ducks back to it… starts talking about loads of “problems” on things that have already been given a solution ect… arranges a conference call with us and tries to grill us in front of their MD and the rest of the team… relations are certainly going sour.

Keep trying to push for a go live date and it arranges calls only to arrange other calls off the back of it… turns out it hasn’t even looked at the information we sent so the calls are always pointless and increasingly frustrating…

Really need to go live with it and sign it off and then sign them off as a client… totally fed up for the ungrateful bunch of oxygen theft that it is.

We are normally lucky and deal with very nice small/medium companies and we’re no stranger offering solutions to companies that turn over millions… however I’ve never experienced such useless aggravation from any of our clients ever…

Question is… do I walk away, buy a pair of bombers or sign it off get the cash then say thank you no thank you?!

Siggggggghhhhhh

😀 good vent! Not enough use of caps lock and expletives though.

They’re probably a bunch of conservatives who don’t like you cos you’re a (relatively) young up and comer.

The last video call I had; I managed to get the lead engineer to hold his head in his hands 😀

Sounds very frustrating; I thank God that my only frustration is with the incompetence of my overseas customers who mess things up then blame us. We have a well-developed investigative procedure under ISO and 9 times out of 10 are able to prove it was their fault.

Thats the exact reason why they liked us when we came onboard.. basically had free reign before “it” came along and we used that in such a productive way to rescue their entire system before absolute melt down… and may I say saved them a lot of legal implications!

Now it’s all wrapped up in corporate bullshit and pointless board meetings. I felt like shouting “I love lamp” and just hanging up

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gId6nrMDmUU[/video]

What’s “it” – is that one of their new employeees?

Professionally you do the job, get it signed off and move on. Act like an arse about it and you get a reputation for being an arsy company.

Reading between the lines and having to support developers, that doesn’t sound like it was the healthiest of projects to start with. I would also suggest that the client is fully aware that their new employee is being shouty and it’s an indication they know the project isn’t great and they’re happy he’s being shouty as it’s getting something done. That’s usually the case.

Learn what part you could do better if the situation happens again. Clients are absolute sh!ts at times, I agree, but they pay your wages.

Infact, just re-read.

Sounds like the new person is just trying to make a name for themselves……
I think they’re called a “company man” or “utter c*nt”

I trust you to know your stuff, so keep a cool head and get another video call set up with them all in the board room. Then tell “it” that they’re clueless and the project would have been completed hundreds of man hours (x your extortionate hourly rate 😉 ) ago saving them thousands.

alexxx – Member

a new employee starts in the unorganised clients business throwing big words and presence with no real substance or reason to back any of it up.

davidtaylforth – Member

I trust you to know your stuff, so keep a cool head and get another video call set up with them all in the board room. Then tell “it” that they’re clueless and the project would have been completed hundreds of man hours (x your extortionate hourly rate ) ago saving them thousands.

Had to re-read too, I hope I got it wrong. A client has a new employee and the suggestion is to embarrass a client’s new employee infront of the client’s management.

Riiiiighhhht, classy move.

With your email addy/name specified in your STW profile* and google being good at finding such stuff then perhaps reconsider work related rants on t’interwebs ? 🙂

You might not care who finds said rant in the future though, so in which case, crack on.

* and location is the houseshare thread.

Finish the job and get paid.

Unless your side has been squeeky clean and 100% perfect throughout the whole operation there’s no point starting a mud-slinging fight.

Had to re-read too, I hope I got it wrong. A client has a new employee and the suggestion is to embarrass a client’s new employee infront of the client’s management.

Riiiiighhhht, classy move.

Well, I mean you don’t want to make it too obvious. Just state the facts, which may well make the clients new employee look like an idiot.

Been there, more than once.

One option is the Japanese Yes 🙂

http://www.japanese-language.aiyori.org/article6.html

Points scoring is a waste of time.

If it’s causing a massive issue, then it’s a senior escalation to have an off the record conversation.

But TBH, just take the emotion out of it and focus on delivery and your profitability. Everything else is just noise.

(And I say that as the customer for this sort of stuff.)

Well, I mean you don’t want to make it too obvious. Just state the facts, which may well make the clients new employee look like an idiot.

Clear now 🙂

I was going from the premise that the new employee at the client probably has had a briefing to say sort this sh!t out, he may be being a bit OTT but the client perception is still that there’s sh!t to sort out.

That’s pretty much my experience from both sides. If the sh!t doesn’t stop being sh!t then it’s a messy downhill slope of point scoring and loss of business and reputation.

Somewhere in Africa there’s a woman who has to walk for 2hrs to get some water for herself and her children.

Been there, done that. Sounds like we are in the same business and it has happened several times.

Fortunately we set out by saying that anyone that wants to have an opinion on the project needs to be present at all meetings and we document everything / have a paper trail showing how we have come to any conclusion on design/structure/UX etc yet it still doesn’t stop some cockwombles from saying ‘ahh but you should have done X,Y & Z etc’ when they jump in halfway through a project.

The best one was quite recently when we had passed over completed site development to the client to approve ready to be pushed live and they *THEN* said ‘Okay, we just need to show it to the CEO to get his approval – he’s not seen anything yet’! 😯

Sadly you have to manage your way out of it I’m afraid – as said before, document everything, manage the living hell out of the project scope, make sure there are clear accountabilities. Get used to it.
Once it’s done, and you may end up on a score draw sort of relationship i.e. nobody wins. Move on, that’s life.

And as said before somewhere in the world a kitten died and in the greater scheme of things its not that important.

I’ve had to suffer more than a few loud mouth, point scorers in my time – it’s usually the Boss’s Son…

They seemed to be employed just to cause a lot of fuss and create the impression they’re “cracking the whip” with vendors/subbies etc, given enough space they’ll convince the Boss you’re ripping them off, or keeping them in the dark about some majorly important aspect or other which is in actual fact an unimportant rubber stamp admin task or other.

The only way to defeat them is with calm, rational explanation and a touch of condescension towards them when you explain with a labored tone they might be a bit inexperienced in this particular aspect of this particular field – which everyone knows is code for “thick as shit”. More often than not, knowing deep down they have no skills and no experience they’ll clam up, scared to be exposed as such.

The only way to defeat them is with calm, rational explanation and a touch of condescension towards them when you explain with a labored tone they might be a bit inexperienced in this particular aspect of this particular field – which everyone knows is code for “thick as shit”. More often than not, knowing deep down they have no skills and no experience they’ll clam up, scared to be exposed as such.

Chuck some of these in when you’re chatting to them

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10280244/Translation-table-explaining-the-truth-behind-British-politeness-becomes-internet-hit.html