Friday, June 03, 2011

Last Minute Assignments

By Pamela Moeng

Don't you just hate it when you are given a job at the last possible moment - right before disaster is about to strike the job giver - and they make their own time management incompetency your problem? The older I get the harder it is to say a grateful 'yes' and take on the job.


Why is it that editing and writing seem such soft (and easy to execute) skills to those who've never written more than a four-word sentence or edited anything more than a forged sick note as a child?

The world is full of such misguided individuals (mentally referred to as idiots!) and it would seem, if the groans of my freelancing sisters are anything to go by, that these creatures exist throughout the marketplace.

3 comments:

Damaria Senne said...

You touched a sore spot, Pam. I had a client who used to email me urgent gigs wanting a 3-hour turnaround, and I don't think said client was impressed when I said I had deadlines and would have to pass. Then there was a friend who used to sit on her overflow work for weeks and then outsource it just when it became critical. So she'd pass work that was very urgent to me ( and other writers) and I used to wonder why her clients always gave her such short timelines. It eventually dawned on me that clients were not the problem; she was the bottle neck. Now I politely pass on urgent work from her too, because handling it was very stressful and it was a treadmill that never ended!

Pamela said...

Ouch! That IS really sore! Clever of you to pass on the urgent, last minute stuff she sends through though. Someone else's lack of time management skill shouldn't impact on your own peace of mind - unless it's your child or your partner in life! And even then a serious intervention should be considered. :-)

Tamara said...

Wow. I feel like I could've written this post! I've also started saying a firm 'no' to people who can't manage their projects timeously.

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