Can’t Wait To Free Yourself From This Freelancing Contract

All of us freelancers have had a few nightmare contracts — but hey, the good thing is that we’re only usually tied in for a few months, so we generally try to keep our heads down until it’s over and politely decline a renewal. This was one of those.

I was subcontracted as a designer to an agency that was building a website for another company. The agency usually had enough employees to do the work, but I soon found out that they’d been haemorrhaging people… especially with this client. It wasn’t hard to figure out why. They were a shouty, “I know everything” bunch. They were based in the USA, and they expected us to complete a full day’s work in the UK while they slept… and work the full US day, too. I’m not sure when they expected us to eat or sleep.

There were a few incidents, but one that stuck with me was with someone from the agency. While I was (on paper) more senior than this person, his being a permanent employee meant that he was the project design lead. I had no problem with that… except that he would often pass off my work as his own, claim I’d made mistakes or missed things when presenting my designs (because he hadn’t taken the time to understand what he was looking at), or talk down to or over me in front of clients. Not cool.

One day, I had an appointment that meant I wasn’t going to be available for the weekly check-in where we presented the latest designs. As such, I made sure that I’d shared everything with [Project Design Lead] more than twenty-four hours in advance, written out all I’d done in an email, asked him for time to explain the details, and asked him several times to check if he had everything he needed. It was always a condescending response: of course, he had it all under control. He didn’t need me to explain anything to him. (You might see where this is going.)

The time rolled around and I logged off, but my phone still got notifications for work things. My messenger started exploding: “Where am I?” “Where is the design?” “Which bits are new?” He apparently knew nothing about the work. He was freaking out because he needed to present this to the client in a few minutes.

Then… my personal phone number started ringing. My WhatsApp and messages started exploding. I had never given this guy my personal number nor shared it anywhere within the company.

When I got back from my appointment, I went straight to the hiring manager — the only person who had my personal contact information — and gave him an earful about handing out my details. Of course, [Project Design Lead] had told him all about how I’d left him in the lurch and that he’d had no other choice. You’d better believe I set him straight, and [Project Design Lead] seemed extremely meek the next time we spoke.

The moral of the story, I guess, is that even if you are a “lead”, always listen to the people who are trying to help you out instead of dismissing them. Oh, and don’t give out people’s personal information at work without their permission!