Summary

A freelancer discusses strategies for maintaining professional boundaries while accommodating clients' urgent requests without compromising personal time or service quality.

Abstract

The author, an experienced freelancer, addresses the challenges of dealing with an "urgency culture" in the professional world, where clients often expect immediate responses and actions. Despite the pressure to be available at all times, the freelancer emphasizes the importance of setting clear boundaries, such as working only during business hours and not disclosing availability outside those times. The article suggests that while it's necessary to be flexible and understanding on occasion, it's equally crucial to communicate these boundaries to clients and reassure them that their needs are still a priority. The freelancer provides an example of how they handled a client's request for an early morning call by proposing an alternative time that fit within their set boundaries, ensuring the client's project would not be delayed while maintaining a professional and respectful relationship.

Opinions

The author believes that the pervasive "urgency culture" in many organizations is unproductive and leads to chronic issues, including unreasonable demands on freelancers' time.
Freelancers should not be expected to work 24/7 and must establish and maintain clear work-life boundaries.
While setting boundaries is essential, freelancers must also communicate their commitment to serving their clients' needs effectively within those boundaries.
The author disagrees with some boundary-setting strategies suggested by Dr. Nicole LePera, finding them unrealistic in a client-facing business context.
The author advocates for a balanced approach that respects both the freelancer's personal time and the client's urgency, proposing creative solutions to meet deadlines without compromising personal boundaries.
It is possible to be service-oriented and still enforce boundaries, ensuring that the freelancer does not feel bitter or resentful towards the client.

Say No the Right Way: How I Deal with Urgency Culture as a Freelancer

Service versus boundaries: the ultimate balancing act

Just another day of freelancing / Photo by Dalton Touchberry on Unsplash

“We need to have this call as soon as possible. The only availability I have early next week is Monday at 7:00 am. Does that work?”

My client asked me this question during a Zoom meeting yesterday. Their project, like most other projects clients bring me, is “urgent.” This usually translates to ‘I’m going to make unreasonable requests and imply that you’re not service-oriented if you don’t comply with a smile.’

I’ve been freelancing for 8 years now, and it seems like “urgent” has become the new normal. Dermot Crowley, the Director of Adapt Productivity, reports that “Unproductive urgency and the resultant reactivity it creates has become an acute and chronic issue in many modern organizations.”

In other words, everything is now considered urgent, all the time.

Urgency culture, a long-time staple of the business world, seems to have gotten even more pervasive in recent years thanks to two factors:

Smartphones mean we always have access to work no matter the time or place
Globalization and the rise of remote work means we are often working with people who are nowhere near our time zone

For freelancers, this perfect storm often means clients have unrealistic, boundary-crossing requests. When I hesitated on taking the 7:00 am phone call, my client tried to push me by saying we couldn’t afford to lose any time.

Freelancers don’t get medical benefits, maternity leave, paid vacation, or severance pay. I choose this life because the ability to be my own boss and lead in a way that works for me is worth the trade-off.

That means I work 40-hours per week maximum (often less), and I only take calls during business hours.

When I start working with a client, I let them know that I’m available Monday — Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. There are times when I work evenings or weekends, but I don’t let clients know that. They mustn’t count on me doing things during my free hours because that sets a bad precedent.

I let those boundaries slide on occasion at my own discretion. I have taken the odd call at 8:00 am or 6:00 pm. Now and again, I’ll agree to do something in my off-hours if a client genuinely didn’t know it was required until it was too late.

In other words, I try to maintain boundaries but still be service-oriented and understanding.

However, there is a point at which a line is being crossed.

For freelancers, this is the tricky part. I refuse to work 24-hours a day to service a client. But I know the deadlines many clients set are simply reflecting their organization’s culture to me.

It’s not something they want to do. They feel they have to do it.

Dr. Nicole LePera recently posted about setting boundaries around urgency culture (below).

Author’s screenshot of the.holistic.psychologist on Instagram

While I think Dr. LePera has good intentions, some of these are just flat-out unrealistic. I can’t ever picture telling a client I need space with myself to process my emotions.

Setting boundaries is important. But the key element she’s missing is that you must also reassure the client their needs are a priority while doing so.

This looks like finding the best possible solution for both parties while making it clear to the client that their outcomes are important to you.

When my client asked me to take a 7:00 am call, I said: “Do you have any other availability on Monday? I can do a call anytime after 9:00 am.”

This response says — I won’t take a call at 7:00 am, but I am still trying to meet your needs.

When he couldn’t find another available time until Wednesday, he fretted that we would lose two days on the project. In response, I suggested we send the other participants the draft version of the document to come back to me with changes before the meeting even takes place. That way, we will review and approve what is hopefully a final document on Wednesday, effectively losing no time.

The document itself is relatively short, so I don’t anticipate the changes will be too onerous. I’d need to make those revisions at some point anyway, and I have time early in the week to do it.

The important thing here is that I am fulfilling my clients' needs, but I’m also not agreeing to something that would make me feel bitter and resentful.

Freelancers must be service-oriented to succeed. However, it’s also important to have boundaries and be able to advocate for those boundaries productively. The balancing act is in doing that and still making your clients feel like you take their needs seriously.