How I Almost Got Fired From My New Freelancing Gig Within 24 Hours

Obioma Ihionu

Sep 18 (edited) in Learn & Share 📚

@Louise Aquino

@Chris Wilson

@Sofia Tahanova

Y’all need to hear this story,

@Louise Aquino

specifically asked me to share this.

So here’s what happened. This is a project management gig, my client needed me to take over his role. Now here’s where it gets interesting, 24 hours into my onboarding, he requested to see my screen and wanted me to walk him through what I learnt the previous day. After watching me struggle for a few minutes to navigate the project he got frustrated and disappointed and requested I stopped working until he figured out how to move forward.

I knew that was an introduction to "You are fired" and I wasn’t going to sit down and let it happen so I sent him a message to remind him it’s only been 24 hours and he’s been in this role for years and it would be unrealistic to expect anyone to take over within 24 hours. I also reminded him of my capabilities and experience and everything I bring to the table which convinced him to hire me in the first place. Long story short, he apologised and acknowledged he is just traumatised by his previous experience with the last Freelancer who wasted his time for 3 months. Fast forward to the next day, I accomplished in one day tasks he said I wouldn’t be ready to accomplish in 2 weeks, and now he is asking I stick with him long term 😂. Imagine if I kept quiet?

22 comments