When I first met this new client, he actually reminded me of my very first client because they had similar facial features and so I felt immediately comfortable talking to him.
During the consultation, he was relatively easy to talk to, his wife was also present and they shared all their requirements with me and honestly everything went pretty well, and then they told me that their apartment was located in Punggol and that was when I felt like this project suddenly wasn't worth my time anymore.
But I decided to not turn it down so quickly and attempt to give it a shot, I can handle having a project at an inconvenient location once in a while, it is fine. I did up a space planning proposal, prepared a quotation and emailed him the quotation a few days later, he responds almost immediately and thanks me for the quote but not before asking me to send him some mock ups because if it was just the quotation, he couldn't really base it off anything, I then told him I would be able to let him see a rough 3D in person, but I wasn't going to be able to actually send him any softcopy to refer to because I am not going to just let a non-paying customer get copies of my 3D drawings so they can just take my work and have a contractor do it for a cheaper fee. He was still pretty insistent on having something to see, so I begrudgingly agreed to sent him a copy of the space planning proposal.
About 2 hours later, he creates a group chat with his wife and adds me into it, which I thought was great because it is not a very common occurrence for a client to immediately open a group chat to discuss, normally this only happens when a client is interested to engage me for my services, but right after the initial...
"Hi Tim..."
... he just started criticizing my initial space planning proposal, telling me how bad the layout was, how he didn't like the way the bed was place, how the kitchen felt strange because it looked really empty and of course the complaint about the price being on the higher side.
I was immediately turned off because I felt like he was very tactless with the way he was phrasing his words, the main feedback I got from that wall of text he send over was that I did a poor job with the space planning and then after criticizing that, he finishes off by requesting a new proposal by Monday.
The only reason why the layout was badly done was because I was following the request he had shared with me during our consultation.
The bed in the main bedroom was faced a certain way because he didn't have any empty walls left, the other walls were either had doors, windows or wardrobe, the last item he had requested a lot of in that very small room, so I didn't really have much room to play around with.
Another bed in another room was also compromised because it literally didn't have enough space for the bed to fit anywhere else, he wanted to fit a queen size bed in a room that barely had space for it and he tells me it was positioned badly.
The kitchen is empty because he had requested to do minimal cabinetry, he literally told me he didn't want both walls to have cabinets because he was afraid it was going to be too cramp, and then now he tells me my proposal looks strange to only have one wall of cabinets.
The problem I have when clients talk to me via text messages is my inability to recognize the tone they are using, with this particular client, when he shared all his comments with me, it just felt like he was being a prick about it and then the final
My impression of him just plummeted after the text messages and I have no interest working with someone who is nice in person but a complete prick via messages, had a couple who was also like this for one of my past projects, really nice people in person, able to have great conversations with them, but absolutely hated working for them because of how nit-picky and difficult they both were. Well, this current one will only get his keys in June, so he isn't in a rush, I, on the other hand, am contemplating to leave and look for a new job in the middle of the year, maybe after going for one more company trip in June. If I for some reason end up taking on his project, then it will only be a repeat of what happened during my last attempt to leave, companies being unwilling to hire me because my notice period is too long, so now it's really a matter of making him turn me down.
I spoke to my insurance agent a few days ago and he was also surprised to see me still working in the same place because I have told him multiple times over the past 2 years that I am planning to leave the company soon to find a much more stable job. I am not financially struggling, but I am also not saving anything with my current state of income, everything that I earn, every big cheque that I get every 3 to 4 months is only able to cover what I spend over the last few months and it is very worrying considering the fact that I do plan to get an apartment when I hit 35, that is my long term goal.
When I gave up looking for a new job and stayed in this career path, I told myself that it was possible to make this work, to not be so picky with my clients and just try and get as many projects as possible, but then I meet clients like the one I just talked about and the one I blogged about previously and it just doesn't feel like a very viable option because I know working for those clients, especially Mr & Mrs Tee, will induce an unprecedented level of stress that I will not be able to handle.
I enjoy the creative aspect of my job a lot, that's why I have been working for as long as I have in this line even though it isn't working out for me financially, but I don't think I can waste anymore time lingering around now that I will be hitting 30 in a few months. I am slowly passing my peak period of companies willing to hire me because I am "still young and have potential to grow".
A few days ago, I also met some of my ex-colleagues from bakery for a get together and one of the first things my friend ask me was...
"Are you getting enough sleep? Your dark circles look quite bad."
... and I didn't realize I had dark circles until she brought it up to me and that was when I realize that work has really been getting too stressful for me. Even though I am not required to be in the office 70% of the time, I am still constantly in work mode, even as I am writing this post, I am anticipating a text from my clients or sub-contractor, there really isn't any down time for me except during the holidays when clients would also have the decency to leave me alone and let me breathe a little or when I do not have any projects to run, which then makes me feel like I am not doing anything productive and am wasting my time because no projects equates to no income.
I do have to make actual career changes before it is too late and it has to happen this year, I don't do New Year's Resolution, but I will make this year an exception, my New Year's Resolution for 2020 is to finally leave my current company and look for a career that offers financial stability.
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