Am I Really That Greedy, or, Shoot Me If I Take Another Freelance Project
It's partly because my previous employer just stopped paying me one day, along with everyone else in the office, the landlord, our insurance company, our 401K accounts, the electric company, the phone company, and... well, you get the drift. He gave us all no checks followed by bad checks, and drew it out as long as he could in order to get himself as deeply into debt to all of us as possible. What with back vacation pay, unpaid benefits, and whatnot, well, he owes me a significant wad of cash, which I'll probably never see. (Second stab at a labor board hearing coming up the end of this month.) So, I take out a loan to live on. Much better than borrowing from family or friends. And my co-workers and I start picking up some freelance work from former clients. We all need the money. It's all good. Then I get a job. It's a hectic job. It spills over into all hours. And there's still freelance work trickling in. Freelance money starts coming in, and it's nice to be in the black. But my job plus freelancing is too much. So, I take one last freelance job that's supposed to last a couple of weeks and then be over with. Why? Money. Money. Money makes the world go 'round, that happy jingling sound. Then, after a week the job gets put on hold. They're rethinking the whole project design. They're doing focus testing for content. The author's making changes. The project is on hold for over a month. It's totally revised. It comes back suddenly today and now we're supposed to finish it in two weeks. So now I'm kicking myself. This was supposed to be over and done with, and money in my pocket. Instead, it's hanging on and a pain in my neck. What gets me is this: I know these clients. I know what they're like. This is not the first time they've done this. They always do this, without fail. How could I have thought it would be that easy? This is the sound of me kicking myself.