‘No more Mr. Nice Guy’: Employee refuses to work for client after they take him out of project for being too expensive, client admits they made a huge mistake

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Mar 15, 2026 9:00 AM EDT

Some clients are simply not worth the effort.

When you work with clients, as the employee in the story below does, you know that they always come and go. No matter what line of work you do, there is always at least one client who is sure they can find someone cheaper and better to do the work for them. So they leave you, they insist they would be fine without you, and you never hear from them again.

… Until you do.

They can whine about your prices and go looking for someone else who would do it for less, but they seldom find that. Instead, they end up spending months looking for someone who can do what you did, until they realize they made a mistake and come crawling back to you, demanding you take them back. The question is, should you? Should you spend more time and effort on a client who doesn't appreciate you, and would drop you the moment they find a cheaper service? 

When the nonprofit client below decided they didn't need the employee's expensive hours, they easily dropped him from the project and ghosted him for over a month. The employee didn't fret over it much and proceeded to find other clients to take up that lost time. In the meantime, the old client realized their mistake, as they failed to take over the employee's important work. At the beginning of this year, they reached out to the employee, basically demanding that he be brought back onto the project. The employee, however, is not in any rush to go back to work with a client who has no respect for him, and who would ghost him the second they think they can do better.

 While the client is facing a $500k nightmare because they refused to keep hiring the employee in the first place, he is contemplating the best course of action to proceed. Should he agree to take the client back, should he raise prices, or even demand to be paid in advance in case something like this happens again?

Scroll down to read the full story and share your thoughts in the comments below.

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  • Businessman talking to a client on the phone
    via svetikd

    Businessman talking to a client on the phone.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Management ghosted me to "finish the system themselves." A month later they're drowning and shocked I'm not rushing in to save them.

    Management at a nonprofit client decided they didn't need my "expensive" hours and the ED who has been there just over a year, took over my technical project management tools because she wanted to 'show how its done'.
    via Significant_Tea9352
  • They told me I was off project, ghosted me for a month and their finall message was they would get in contact if they needed me in April.
    via Significant_Tea9352
  • So I stopped working, found 4 other clients, already signed 2 contracts and am waiting for 2 more contracts.
    via Significant_Tea9352
  • This week they called me to "onboard" me for the new year in april. I told them I'm now capped at 10 hours a week because I'm fully booked.
    via Significant_Tea9352
  • They tried to guilt-trip me into "accommodating" more time. I told them my priority clients come first and hinted at the $ per hour amounts that I am getting so they know I have better options.
    via Significant_Tea9352
  • The best part? They admitted the tools the ED took over are totally broken/unfinished. They're facing a $500k end of fiscal year nightmare, the second stage of system redo is coming up and haven't done anything to prepare for, or to fix it.
    via Significant_Tea9352
  • What's the best way to handle the inevitable "Emergency" call I'm going to get in two weeks when they realize they're S ed?
    via Significant_Tea9352
  • zephyrseija2 Huge emergency hours charges paid in advance. Like triple+ whatever your normal high rate would be.
    via zephyrseija2
  • Significant_Tea9352 Original Poster's Reply Paid in advance is a sweet idea.
    via Significant_Tea9352
  • BisquickNinja No, you definitely need them to pay you in advance. They tried to cheap out a few dollars and if you do this on invoice, they will cheap out on that too. Pay it up front...
    via BisquickNinja
  • Significant_Tea9352 Original Poster's Reply Yeah, there's no more Mr nice guy that's for sure
    via Significant_Tea9352
  • Businessman talking to a client on the phone
    via svetikd

    Businessman talking to a client on the phone.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • No_Rec1979 Send over the maximum non- ridiculous hourly rate you can think of, minimum commitment 100 hours or so, and this is the - important part - ask them to reply within 48 hours. They will say "no" now, and then panic in a week and call you again, and then you can re-send the same proposal with the rate bumped another 50%.
    via No_Rec1979
  • Significant_Tea9352 Original Poster's Reply Lollll this gives me a lot of joy, quick deadline, they react negatively and every week they dig themselves into a bigger hole
    via Significant_Tea9352
  • county259 You are not a non profit. Double or triple your usual rate.
    via county259
  • Significant_Tea9352 Original Poster's Reply Yeah, I saw the director trying to figure out how to put me back in my box, but I reminded him I'm not his employee and won't be treated the same way
    via Significant_Tea9352
  • inductiononN Not an idea - a requirement. These knuckleheads are completely unreliable and trying to find a way to not use you and possibly not pay you. If they really want the work, they have to pay for an agreed upon number of hours. If it goes over that, you don't do a single extra hour until they pay for another chunk.
    via inductiononN
  • Significant_Tea9352 Original Poster's Reply Yeah, this retainer idea is the way to go. Every meeting has been painful, they demand more, they try cut stuff from me and my team, they don't reply to their emails, chat messages, dont update the8r budgets and then tried to get me to defend myself from their own inadequate work. How can I figure out the budget if they gatekeep everything?
    via Significant_Tea9352
  • Qprime0 File a duress pay bill as well for psychological harrassment in the 4 figure range. List individuals that have given you sh as line items and stuff it up their HR department's nose.
    via Qprime0
  • Significant_Tea9352 Original Poster's Reply Ugh I wish... one of the jobs I did for them was HR policies and implementation cos they don't have a dept for that.
    via Significant_Tea9352
  • Qprime0 Well, then, pull up the protocols you almost certainly still have and find a way to make them eat every single word. Even better if you use their own rules against them.
    via Qprime0
  • Significant_Tea9352 Original Poster's Reply Ima be right back, just gonna find those policies cos I did write this into a code. of conduct
    via Significant_Tea9352
  • Good Teletubby Honestly, I wouldn't touch it, short of "set for life" money. They took your work to finish it themselves, and f ed it up. You don't know what they've done to it since you left them, and anything they f ed up that you don't catch and fix, they'll want to blame on you. You've got good work already lined up for people who aren't a h les, take that, and enjoy your less problematic customers. If you need the emotional satisfaction of getting back at them, think about how much worse a
    via GoodTeletubby
  • Significant_Tea9352 Original Poster's Reply Thank you for taking the time to write this out, it really helps me put it into perspective. I know already that they've had a meeting with the funders, who I've known for 4 years now. For sure they were put in a tight spot trying to explain what's happening with the project.
    via Significant_Tea9352
  • Toddw1968 Can you ask that your $ comes straight out of idiot ED's salary? That might save them some money (jk)
    via Toddw1968
  • Significant_Tea9352 Original Poster's Reply Hahaha actually, one of my thoughts of why they did this is because maybe my consultant rates were actually adding up to something like her salary, and she needed to cut me down a bit, for her own insecurities
    via Significant_Tea9352

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