Imagine graduating from college and experiencing a huge learning curve as your company takes on a project with a client who seems to have lots of complaints. If your project manager refused to attend a meeting with the client, would you refuse to attend as well, or would you go alone?

In this story, one person is in this exact situation and attends the meeting alone. But that doesn’t mean the project manager is going to be able to avoid the client’s wrath.

Keep reading for all the details.

PM doesn’t want to see the client; PM has to see the client anyway

Long ago I had this Project Manager (Richard, for obvious reasons) who was quite a character.

The project we were working on was, to be very honest, a disaster. Tiny mom and pop company hired to take on a massive project with a big multinational engineering / construction firm.

We had a huge team of three (3) engineers and a rotating cast of PMs who typically didn’t last more than a few months before either their contracts were renewed, Big Boss decided they were too expensive, or simply weren’t up to the task.

Anyway. We were expected to produce copious amounts of paperwork, from project schedules, engineering manuals, engineering datasheets, drawings, schematics etc et al.

There was a lot of learn.

The team was awesome – we got along well, we worked hard.

However there really was only so much we could do, and we were inexperienced dealing with huge projects or the standards that multinational megacorps typically enforce with their paperwork, so that led to a lot of documents being returned with lots of comments, lots of recycle time, lots of frustration on both the clients’ and our side, and a lot of nasty language.

Still, my colleagues and I learned A LOT during this time, all three of us fresh from university.

And to give due credit to the client, once we’d gotten to know some of their team and shared our situation with them, a few of their engineers were kind enough to spend many hours literally tutoring us on various things.

I spent a whole week, 9-5, every day, with one guy in particular who taught me how to draw P&ID diagrams professionally.

Richard refused to go to a meeting.

One particular day, we got a call from the client asking the team to go attend a “mediation / expediting” session, basically “go listen to the client cuss you out”. We had this pretty often, like once or twice a month.

So Richard decided he simply didn’t want to go to this particular meeting. He said, “I am not going. If you want to go, go on your own.”

I called the client to decline the meeting, only to get cussed out, and told in no uncertain terms to attend the meeting (mentioned me and Richard by name) or else there would be hell to pay.

Big Boss sighs and says “Just go.”

Richard was not at all helpful.

I consult Richard again, asking him what to tell the client.

He said, I quote, “I don’t care. Tell them whatever you want.” Then kicks his feet up on his table, pulls out a newspaper and starts reading it.

Dumbfounded, I left his room and went back to my desk seething.

Next morning, I turn up at the client’s office alone, get ushered into a big meeting room and sat down in front of 8 people. 4 of whom I knew as the regulars we dealt with; and the rest were introduced to me as Senior GMs and a manager from the end user company.

OP was honest.

Boy oh boy. Me, a lowly lowest-of-the-low peon, versus 4 mid-level bosses and 4 end-game bosses at the same time.

Granted, they were professional when giving me a good earful about our company’s abysmal performance… And then they asked the golden question: “Why are you here alone? Where is your PM to address these concerns?”

Cue MC. “My PM declined to attend the meeting.”

“Why?”

“Richard said he doesn’t care and for me to tell you anything I like.”

The meeting was over, but it was quite awhile before OP was able to leave.

The meeting ended shortly after that. But wait there’s more!

The 4 regulars then dragged me into another meeting room, giving me a God-awful verbal lashing and cussed me out for another hour.

Then, 1 out of the 4, an “Expeditor” named Joe who had stayed silent throughout the 2nd meeting, dragged me off to ANOTHER meeting room, where I got cussed out again for another half hour over “why do you let [Client’s project team, the other 3 guys] verbally abuse you during ALMOST EVERY meeting like this? You should walk out or decline to attend when it gets abusive.” Saying this whilst cussing me out.

Crawling back to my own office, I retold the events to my Big Boss (Richard had taken the rest of the day off).

He just sighed and told me to go back to work.

The client insisted on meeting with Richard.

That same afternoon, a nastygram came in requesting for ANOTHER meeting the next morning, this time with a demand for my PM’s mandatory attendance.

I forwarded it to my Big Boss, who then called Richard and voluntold him to attend.

Richard then called me and angrily insisted I attend with him, then hung up before I could answer.

OK, fine then… Cue second dose of MC.

This time Richard had to attend the meeting alone.

The next morning, I called in sick, texted Richard and stayed home.

Shortly after the meeting started, Joe calls me to ask why I wasn’t present – to which I replied, “You told me yesterday to walk out or decline if things get abusive – I thought today’s meeting likely wouldn’t be very amiable, so per your advice I’ve declined to attend.”

Joe simply laughed and said “Fair enough.”

Richard got cussed out by the client for well over two hours that morning. Two glorious hours during which I lay in bed.

Two weeks later, Richard got replaced by a New PM; who was much better and lasted till the end of the project.

This sounds like a horrible place to work and a horrible client to work with.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Here’s some advice for next time.

A PM weighs in.

Another PM shares their perspective.

This person makes a good point.

The project manager got what he deserved.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.