I recently started a job as a developer. 

Client: Here's a list of 10 things that need to be done by next Wednesday.

Me: I've checked the requirements and our schedule and I'm pleased to say we can have these ready for you in time.

Client: Sure is, let me know when these are ready for review.

Friday before the deadline.

Me: Changes are complete, we can deploy with your approval.

Client: Looks great, push these live.

Later that day.

Client: Ok, here's a new list of 20 things that also have to be completed by Wednesday.

These were brand new tasks that he'd never mentioned until this very moment.

Me: This is quite a substantial amount of work, even with overtime, the earliest this could be delivered is the following Wednesday.

Client: I can't believe you would let us down like this! I don't care how you do it, these MUST be done for this Wednesday, even if you and the whole team have to work days and nights! Fix your mistake and get it done.

Don't get me wrong, with the right apologetic attitude, I'd gladly do them a favor and help them hit a critical deadline. But to be accused of letting the company down for missing a deadline that was never mentioned, and had no involvement in setting...

I can't see this job being long term.

I work as an in-house designer for a media company. It's not great. I'm underpaid and overworked and my job is to basically guess what my boss wants because I'm never given any briefs, but whatever.

Over the past few weeks, our internet has had a habit of dropping out randomly. It never lasts too long, and it's not too big a hurdle. But on this particular day, it dropped out completely. 

We contacted the ISP to find out that we'll be completely without internet for the day.

Me: So... do we go home?

Boss: No, keep working. You have a phone. Use your data.

Me: ...Will you reimburse me for my data?

Boss: Just get to work. 

Great. It was costing me money to work here. 

I get that bosses cut corners, but when your entire business model revolves around sending files back and forth, invest in good internet service.

I built a Drip emailer for a client. I delivered it and he demanded a bunch of changes - which was weird because they were actually all in the version I delivered. I tried telling him this but he insisted on version 2.

Me: Here's the second version.

Client: Not bad, but it's missing this feature.

Me: That feature was on the first version, and I confirmed with you that you wanted it removed.

Client: I didn't agree to that!

Me: ...

Seeing the writing on the wall, I asked for full payment before making final changes. 

Client: What? Are you some kind of scammer? I will call the cops if you try to rip me off. 

After a whole lot of arguing, he wound up paying me half of my fee and I delivered the second version with minor revisions. The frustrating thing is that the first version was actually what he wanted. Basically I did twice as much work to make half as much because he couldn't be bothered to test. 

I was hired to do a project that would take one day of work with a deadline in ten days. 

Day 1:

Client: What is the status?

Me: I have not started yet.

Day 2: 

Client: What is the status? I like daily status updates.

Me: ...

Day 3: 

Me: Okay, I'm looking over the project now. Here is a list of things I need from you.

Client: Okay.

Day 4:

Day 5: 

Day 6:

Me: Still waiting on those items. Please send them so I can get this done.

Day 7-10, radio silence.

Day 11:

Client: What is the status of the project?

Me: I'm still waiting for those items from you. I can't get started without them.

Client: Right, sorry. Okay, I'll send those along. 

He didn't. Day 13:

Client: What is the status?

Me: Still waiting for that stuff.

Client: Shoot, right. Here it is. 

Me: Thanks. Just so you know I've had a lot of things come up this week so I can't get on this right now. 

Client: You promised me you'd have it done in ten days. 

Me: How can I finish it in ten days if it takes you thirteen to send me important information? Tell you what: I can squeeze this work in tomorrow. I'll get it done then, I promise. 

Client: Fine.

The next day I started work.

Me: Hey, I just looked at what you sent me and a lot of the information is wrong or out of date. Can you send me an updated version? 

Client: Ok. I am busy right now and will check them in the evening. I hope this won't affect our deadline today.

Me: ...

I'm a Videographer and was hired to edit a music video.

Client: I need this in two months. Is it possible to get this edited for then?

Me: Yeah no problem, that's plenty of time. I'll get started on it later this week and should only take two days to edit. I'm working on a project now but let's schedule a meeting for Tuesday to go over all the details. 

I got to work, but had a few things come up. I contacted the client on Monday:

Me: Hey, are we okay to reschedule that meeting to Wednesday morning? I have an emergency on another shoot.

Client: Yes of course no problem.

Wednesday morning at 6 am:

Client: Okay I want my deposit back right now you haven't even downloaded the footage I sent you.

Me: I'm sorry I don't fully understand? We were having a meeting today to go over the details so I could begin the editing process?

Client: You are a waste of time, send me back the footage and give me my money back.

Keep in mind he didn't need it for two months and the edit would have taken 2 days maximum.

It was my first ever official job after graduating. This guy hired me as a designer for his newly created acrylic and sticker cutting business. By new I mean really brand new...the office were still being built by the time I start my first day and I had to design their logo right there.

Client: Your job will be to design promotion stuff and prep clients' designs from file to production.  

After the cutting machine came and was all set up, he told me that my job ALSO includes being the customer service, cashier, machine operator and the one who goes to clients' place to apply the product.

Me: That's a lot of stuff to do. I don't think I'll be able to handle all that.

Client: It's in your job description. 

I quit on my 4th day after he tried to make me operate a dangerous contraption to fold acrylic using heated metal and he dared to scold me.

Client: You're giving up so easily! You have no ambition to succeed. 

Stayed just for a couple of days to show the new guy where the files are and took off never to return.

Client: Just stay for another month. 

Nope. 

Me: This video will take about 1 week to edit but it could take longer as it's quite complicated.

Client: Okay, that's fine.

Six days later:

Client: How long until the video is done we're growing impatient.

Me, in my brain: WHY EVEN BOTHER PRETENDING YOU UNDERSTAND THE TIME SCALE THEN GAHHHHHHHHHH

I was a graphic design student in my last year of school, but I often worked with audio/video so many people knew me to be handy with recording projects. A classmate knew I had some skill so he asked me to help him record narration for an animation he was working on. Not a problem, or so I thought. Keep in mind he wanted to do this in one day. He was a friend so I thought it would go quickly.

Me: Ok, I brought my microphone, computer, and headphones. Let's get started!

Client: Thanks, this should be easy.

It wasn't. Every time he recorded a line he wanted to hear the playback. Because of his own frustration, he decided to record each line three times and choose the best take later. This took a good hour.

Me: Sounds like we're almost done.

Client: Right...with the first page.

Me: Ummmm, what?

He started reaching in his schoolbag and brought out a small collection of lined notebook paper. All together he had 6 pages, front and back. The one side we had just completed took so much time that I didn't think he had more.

Client: Now we can really get serious!

Me: ...Right.

I worked as fast as I could to finish and get out of there so he could do all the edits himself later. The worst part was, after a couple of hours during our self assigned breaks, he would write more lines down. We started recording at 4pm and finished around 10pm.

Lesson learned.

I became unemployed in San Francisco and was looking for work doing product design.

I'm used to unpaid projects being a big part of the interview process. One potential client (a company that creates branded merch for various Tech companies), had me create 2 t-shirt graphics for a popular music festival.  Then I had to create a tech pack for each design (measurements, pantones, other specs...).

I submitted the designs on a Monday and had the in-person interview on that following Tuesday. I thought it went fairly well, although it was a little weird.

Client: Hope you don't mind a bit of pressure. People cry at work here a lot.

RED FLAG.

Client: We like your designs. We'll get back to you soon. 

In fact, they called me on my way home. 

Client: Hey, we'd love to have you come in one more time for a full working day to see how you'd fit in and if you could handle different types of projects. Could you come in tomorrow?

Me: Hi! I would love to. However, I'm going to be out of town visiting my family. The trip has been planned for a while, but I'd be happy to do a project over the weekend or come in on Monday. 

Client: Could you fly back on Friday to come in or cancel your trip? We'd really like to hire someone by Friday.

Me: Well, that would cost me a lot of money, but let me see what I can do.

I had no intention of actually doing that but I needed to buy some time to figure out if this was worth it. By the time I got home, I received an email from the company.

Client: Hi, we've agreed that it's ok for you to do this project for us while you are out of town. You have to submit this no later than Thursday for us to make a decision by Friday: There is a huge hackathon event happening and you have to create 3 different designs for merch for Company A, B, C, and D

All very different tech companies.

The merch should include t-shirts for hackers to wear along with fun giveaways and potential prizes. Include graphics and tech drawings. Please turn in no later than Thursday.

Keep in mind it is now Tuesday evening. I am flying on a plane tomorrow (Wednesday) and it is due Thursday.

I actually felt guilty turning down a job when I needed work but they were so disrespectful of my time I had to say no. Even if I did do it any I work I did in that short amount of time would have been crap...they didn't even respond to my polite decline email. 

I found a much better job soon after. 

I was working as a freelance Marketing Associate with an agency. My manager needed a large number of detailed, multipage SEO data analysis reports created for small business clients within a couple of weeks.

The tasks were monotonous, required a lot of proofreading, and no errors could be made.

Manager: How's it going on the reports? You saw the examples of how I want them to look, right?

Me: These reports are more detailed than I thought they would be, but I'm making progress.

Manager: How long is it taking you to create each report?

Me: An hour and a half for each report.

Manager: It should only take you 30 minutes!

I hadn't even mentioned that I also needed some time to recover my mental energy after each report since I was focusing pretty intensely. This should have been apparent to the Manager, who was also aware that I had many other tasks on my plate simultaneously. 

I am starting to think this will be a hellish next 2 weeks…