In freelance work, trust between a contractor and agency is everything. But some agencies don’t seem interested in keeping up their end of the bargain.

After weeks of excuses and no deposit in sight, one freelancer realized the agency’s “admin issues” were masking something deeper. So they decided to stop working until the company coughed up the cash.

Read on for the full story.

AITA for pausing work (and skipping meetings) until my agency actually pays me?

I’m an independent contractor doing project work through a small agency.

Contract = weekly pay once timesheets are approved.

But soon, they started noticing troubling delays in their payment.

After several weeks, no money hit my account; the agency kept saying “admin issues.”

When I pressed, I discovered they hadn’t even finished the internal approval steps.

Only then did they push the payment late in the week, so it’s still in the platform’s security hold.

So the contractor decided to take a stand, and subsequently face some backlash for it.

I told them I’m pausing new work until funds are available.

The agency says I’m being difficult, but I feel like they tried to float their cash-flow problem on my back.

They are also in violation of our contract terms. My amazing client does not deserve this mess.

AITA for refusing to keep working (and missing meetings) until I’m actually paid?

No payment = no work!

What did Reddit have to say?

This contractor is 100% justified.

Being a contractor means having to constantly stand up for your needs.

Perhaps they could go around the company and right to the client with this issue.

This user agrees the contractor could try other avenues to get paid.

Respect has to go both ways in any partnership.

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