Anyone ever had a client with zero boundaries? How did you handle it?

I got a request from a client last Friday to review a document and have it ready in the form of a presentable deck for a meeting last Monday morning. It consumed my entire weekend.

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I'm pretty open about the fact that I am too old to be playing those kind of games. My free time is my free time, I don't live to work and I won't be available 24-7. If a client can't respect that, I'm not that hard up for money that I need to keep those kinds of clients.

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Yeah, I just say no. Set the boundary and stick to it.

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I have superiors that don't like us saying no to client requests :/

I've worked with a number of these types over the years. You have to set clear boundaries from the jump to avoid getting walked all over. My email notifications are muted the second the clock hits 5 PM, and the only phone number my clients get is my work phone, which is also shut off right at 5.

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We aren’t taught to set boundaries with clients or management “I can get it back to you by Monday 5pm”

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I need to get better about it

Oh, this happens to me all the time. It actually never occurred to me that this behavior from clients wasn’t normal. I just assumed that this was what it is like working in PR. Maybe I should set better boundaries.

I completely relate. I’ve gotten better at pushing back, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. I will say I’m very lucky with senior leaders now who support setting boundaries with clients; at past agencies, my leaders let clients walk all over us which made it incredibly hard.

For me, I’ve found it’s easiest to frame it in a billing situation (this task isn’t within scope or if we take this on, it’ll burn our hours for the month)

The billing situation is a good approach. I think the push back is a skill to learn and how to do so diplomatically. I'm also in a situation with leaders that aren't as receptive to telling a client no.

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