Knee-Capping The Client

If you're not interested in office drama, this story will not interest you. Move along.

All names have been changed or omitted to protect... me. If you think you know who I'm talking about... you don't. This may or may not be in reference to a company of which I currently may or may not be an employee.

For the past 10 or so months I've been working on a project that was estimated to take 200 hours. It has gone way beyond that. Something in the range of 500 hours at least. I will say that I and, by extension, the company at which I may or may not be an employee, has gained technical experience that will be useful and profitable in the years to come.

The project was underestimated, yes, but the client has been given free rein to expand the scope of the project ad infinitum. I've been complaining for months now in staff meetings that the client was asking for "free" work completely outside the scope of the original specs document. I was told that I was absolutely correct, but nobody told the client. Thus the client continued to contact me (the programmer) directly to ask for free enhancements to his web site.

Finally, 2 weeks ago the client was presented with an invoice for work done. One week ago the client refused to pay claiming unmet requirements.

At long last the company owners are taking this seriously. They've told the client that his weekly meetings with me will come to an end this coming Wednesday. At the end of the meeting on Wednesday, he will be presented with (again) the invoice for the project and a second invoice for additional work requested.

I have a lot on my plate these days. It gives me great satisfaction to know that my bosses are standing behind me in this quest to stonewall a client who has been getting work for free.

Yeah. Happy dance.