Working as a freelancer means getting used to a certain level of unpredictability.

After dealing with constant late payments, one designer was pushed to their limits.

So once they stopped playing along, their client quickly learned just how much they had been taking for granted.

Read on for the full story.

You want things done “By The Book”? Alright, let’s do that.

I work as a freelance artist doing advertisement, ticket, and program booklet designs for various Police/Firefighter events that give to children’s charities.

It’s not consistent work, but it pays pretty well for what it is.

The people I work with directly are a promotions company that was created to sell the advertisement space and tickets.

I’ve been working for them for a long time.

But the contractor-client relationship was far from perfect.

Throughout COVID, these people were essentially my only source of income, so I had to put up with their antics.

Mostly having to put up with hearing “the check is in the mail” for two or three months before it actually arrives.

The freelancer tries to get the client to do things their way.

I convinced the owner of the company to download PayPal so I could be paid in a reasonable time.

He was confused on how to use it.

So I told him about CashApp.

But the client put in a weak effort, to say the least.

I was paid through CashApp only once before he said, “I just want to keep doing this by the book. These websites you’re sending me to look scammy.”

And because “I don’t work for him, I work for the unions and they’re the ones cutting the checks.”

I asked him if he really wants to do that. Of course, he said yes.

Suddenly the freelancer took a much less flexible approach.

Cue malicious compliance…

He’s becoming quite upset with me since he realized doing it by the book actually gives me ALL of the leverage.

From that point forward, I had begun putting my logo watermark on every single thing I send him.

The boss realized just how much this would start to set him back.

The first time he experienced this was with show tickets.

He asked me to remove the watermark and send it to the printers.

He was satisfied with the work.

I told him the watermark will come off when there is money in my account.

Still, the boss had nothing but excuses.

He told me that he can’t start making sales until he has the tickets to sell, thus he doesn’t have the money to pay me.

The freelancer was quick with a solution.

“Oh man, that sucks. Better figure out how to pay me electronically then.” Here’s my BTC and ETH wallets, PayPal, and CashApp info, as well as info for direct deposit.

He insisted he couldn’t pay me before he had the tickets, so he agreed to a fifty percent price increase for me to release the files to him without pay (and with my company’s logo on them).

I actually got paid for that today.

When it happened again, the boss made the freelancer jump through more hoops to get their payment.

The second time was with a show poster.

The same instance occurred, only this time I was told I’d have to talk to the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) about being paid, since I “work for them.”

They were very confused when I called them.

An hour later, I got an angry phone call and was paid via direct deposit from the promoter’s business account, not the FOP’s account.

So when everyone came together to meet, tensions were high.

This morning was pretty interesting.

He called me up while meeting with the police association to talk about cutting me a check for the last show that happened yesterday.

On this call, I was asked about bank transfers, asked how to make a Bitcoin wallet, and all that good stuff.

But the promoter asked why my invoice stated that I am no longer accepting checks as a form of payment.

“Are you sure you want me to answer that in this meeting?” I asked him.

So then the truth started coming out.

He said yes, so I told him while he was on speakerphone with his boss, “Because you don’t pay me for months when we do checks. I only accept online or bank transfers.”

There was a little back and forth between him and the guy from the police association.

It didn’t sound like Mr. Promoter was having a good time.

I was told I would get a call back about payment.

Luckily, it didn’t take long for the payment to come through.

Well, I received that call from the police association, not the promotion agency.

I’ve been paid via PayPal and apologized to profusely.

When I got the call from the promoter afterward, he had a very upset tone.

He asked why I’m doing all this.

The freelancer told them the truth.

“Well, Sir. You told me you wanted it done by the book, right? This is by the book. We didn’t do it by the book before because I’ve worked with you for years and your son is my best friend. So this is how it will be from now on.”

We’ll see how it turns out.

The freelancer feels confident they will come around to their way of thinking.

I’m confident I won’t be losing any work, since the police associations, firefighters, and other organizations have repeatedly told me how great my work looks and how I often work at half the price of other freelancers.

He wanted by the book, so that’s exactly what he got!

What did Reddit have to say?

If this boss had a shred of self awareness, he could have saved himself a world of grief.

For any responsible business owner, paying your contractors on time is just as important as making new sales.

If you’re going to tell someone to play by the rules, you can’t get mad when they actually do.

This commenter has a word of advice for the freelancer.

This designer traded their flexibility for accountability, and suddenly excuses started disappearing.

Now the only thing getting delayed is nonsense!

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.