Client demands their contract be serviced by worker's in an office, get footed with a hefty bill for remote workers' increased compensation and time: 'Turns out the contract was very clearly written and the client had to pay'

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Jun 27, 2024 10:00 AM EDT

When making demands from someone who you're paying to provide you with a service, you'd do well to be certain that you know what those terms are. See, industries that work for clients on a contract basis have a habit of not notifying you that your additional requests will be incurring additional charges once the original terms of the agreement have already been agreed to. And why would they? You've already agreed to them, so it's fair to assume you already know the cost of what you're requesting.

Some old-hat managers still have a tendency to assume that anyone not in an office isn't really working, labeling at a glance anyone who isn't sporting what they deem to be "proper" attire and a clean-shaven haircut to be a "slacker."

Well, you're entitled to your own opinions… But sometimes you have to pay for them, just like this grumpy curmudgeon of a client was when they demanded the (usually) remote staff servicing their contract do so from the respectable drab-grey confines of an office building.

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    Sure everyone can come in MOC Friend of mine, who we'll call Buddy said I could share this. Background: Buddy worked for a company that got on the hybrid/WFH train early. He got his job around 2012, these events take place around 2016. We live in NJ, and his office was in NYC. His contract said that he had to be in 1 day a week (same day each week), and up to 5 days a month (so one additional day on top of his weekly day). If work brought
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    him in more than that, he got paid his hourly billable rate for his commute and any extra hours. His commute was 1.5-2 hours each way, so that could quickly add up to hundreds or thousands of hours. Other than a couple of full time in office. folks, his coworkers had similar contracts, and had to be in 1-8 times a month and some lived as far away as Boston or DC. They worked in a well paid niche consulting field, so I guess this was worth it to everyone.
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    On to the story. Buddy's company has a client who is very old school and their . On a video call, point of contact is a the client notices that some staff do not appear to be in the office (before blur was as common) and demands that all of the work done for their contract be done in an office, rants about professionalism. Buddy's manager simply says "ok".
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    Manager calls a meeting afterwards with Buddy's team. He knows they're upset but asks them to prepare to come into the office daily for the next 4-6 weeks. Tells them to keep very careful track of receipts, costs, time etc. And asks them to trust him. For the people who live further away, tells them he'll help set up accommodations for them (and their families if necessary). Because the company treats people well, everyone goes along with it with minor grumbling.
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    About 5 weeks go by, everyone is coming in daily. Remember when I said that most people didn't come in? So yeah, not much space in the office, the company liked teleworking because it allowed them to have an NYC headquarters but not much space. Everyone keeps careful track of commuting costs, etc., time, and is getting reimbursed for their travel time. and everything they are owed. This includes some folks who had contracts that covered lodging if they had to come in more than a day or two in a
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    Later on, Buddy finds out what happened. As per the terms of the contract, the client had to pay for all of that overage. Frustrating for the employees, but Buddy said no one was too mad knowing that it was temporary. Buddy's manager also knew that the same point of contact had been a . He had apparently gotten tired of being asked to sign contract modifications.
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    Buddy said usually these were set at modifications over $1k or something but this guy had thought these signoffs were below him, and so set that threshold much higher something like $100k. Due to the wording of the contract, this was $100k per change, not total. So, in the five weeks that everyone was coming in full time, he had managed to cost his company a few hundred thousand dollars, but since each individual employee was a single change, no one noticed until the next billing cycle. got call
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    Turns out the contract was very clearly written and the client had to pay. On top of that, this is a pretty niche field, and so the client didn't really have many other options if they wanted to change consultants at that point. point of contact got fired, and, according to Buddy's manager, couldn't really find work in their smallish field. Buddy and his coworkers got a nice chunk of money.
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    LordJebusVII This is how you show your employees that you care about them, rather than accept the terms of a demanding client and shrug it off as a necessary cost of doing business you ask your team for additional support in exchange for appropriate reimbursement for the hassle while setting the client up to pay for their own arrogance in a way that will inevitably result in everything going back to normal for your team and showing the client why your team prefers to work this way.
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    I had the opposite, client demanded return to office, we got no reimbursement and as they had demolished one of the offices we had to share so productivity tanked resulting in the whole team being yelled at for trying to sabotage the company and our annual bonuses being withheld. The union stepped in so they had to pay the bonuses and in order to reduce conflicts some of the staff could go back to WFH 2 days a week (from 5 for many
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    but still better than 0) but the management continued to tell the client that they had scrapped our WFH policy to ensure the level of professionalism they expected. Dozens of us ended up quitting or retiring early as a result. Last I heard the client had failed to meet the contract payments and the company was scrambling to get their money and had let everyone work from home full time to cut costs.
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    1piperpiping OP Yeah Buddy is still at this company from what I know. He's said that he could make more money elsewhere but that this place has good work life balance and genuinely seems to care at least a little about their people, and they have pretty low turnover for his industry.
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    DaBooba That's so great. What a fantastic manager. I'm sure he told everyone that it would be worth the trouble and to trust him. That's how you keep good people
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    MistraloysiusMithrax They say words are silvern, but silence is golden. Couple 100ks worth of gold in this event haha
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    LittleGravitasIndeed How many out-of-towners had "fancy" expenses, OP? I would have stayed in a nice hotel and sampled all of the best restaurants for sure. 1piperpiping OP I know Buddy pretty much got train fare and extra time paid out. He was pretty sure. too that like there were limits, like you got a pretty basic hotel and a set per diem.
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