Can we talk about clients who "just want a quick 5 minute call" that eats 90 minutes? | Client Nightmares - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
Can we talk about clients who "just want a quick 5 minute call" that eats 90 minutes?
Every single one turns into a 90 minute zoom where nothing gets decided and I lose a half day of billable work. How do you all push back on this without sounding rude?
This happens everywhere, not just work calls. Think about when someone says they just need a minute of your time in the hallway or a quick question at the store. Suddenly you're standing there for 20 minutes while they dump their whole life story on you. It feels like people use "quick" as a magic word to get past your guard and then take as much as they can. Setting a real time limit up front and saying you have a hard stop is the only thing that works. Say it before the call starts so there's no surprise when you actually leave.
So what do you do when the person ignores the hard stop anyway? @shane170 like you say the time limit up front, they nod, and then at the 15 minute mark they hit you with "one more thing" and keep going. Do you actually just walk away mid sentence? Feel like that takes a certain kind of nerve some of us don't have. Curious how you handle the person who nods at the limit and then steamrolls right past it.