Client: We won’t pay you if you don’t submit the reports by midnight tomorrow.
Me: But you haven’t even given me the complete data sets yet! I only have 6 out of 10!
Client: We’ll give you the rest of them tomorrow, but we need to see your drafts timestamped March 31. Otherwise you won’t get paid.
After pulling a 30-hour writing marathon, I sent six drafts off via email, with three minutes to spare before the midnight deadline.
Me: Did you receive the drafts I sent to your email?
Client: Yeah, thanks. I’ve forwarded them to upper management.
Me: Right. So what about the rest of the data sets I asked for.
Client: Yeah, about that. We still haven’t received the data sets from the other project sites, so management is asking if they can send them by April 10th instead.
Me: …
Client: And we still need to discuss if we’re going to pay you for your time.
