TLDR - are other people finding that professional standards are at their lowest and people's brains don't work the way they used to?
Long version -
Curious to know if anyone else is having this kind of experience with professional standards.
I freelance and I sometimes have to get other workers and other services in. As well as lack of motivation, there's lack of standards, people missing really obvious basic things that need doing, and here's the one that really throws me... quoting, billing and invoices.
it's really difficult to get prices out of people and then they don't want to send you an invoice for ages either. I'm baffled as to how anyone's making money! I can't plan unless someone gives me accurate pricing. It seems like a lack of interest rather than people trying a con.
In terms of the attitude. I'm currently having to do a lot of work with a guy who is either gaslighting for entertainment, or totally incompetent and he talks so much rubbish, I can't even work out which it is! It feels as if it's become so normal to just talk complete rubbish and do no actual work, it's hard to tell what's happening. I suppose that's the result of loads of training courses that teach you how to talk shit!
This week he's come a cropper and he's paying the price a bit. Sadly it will mostly impact other people's work - including mine. My stress level is up massively now as I don't believe he will sort his mistakes and that will impact me. He's in his 50s and successful so I presume he's done all the work and also came into the workplace at the same kind of time as me.
he has apologised to me but seemed panicky and angry.
now he seems baffled as to what the next steps are... which doesn't make sense because he has built a successful career...
I'm coming across so much of this kind of thing. It feels like professional standards are in the toilet. A lot of my most valued people have retired early and I don't blame them. It feels like a massive cultural shift from what the workplace used to be like.
I sometimes describe myself as suffering from Twitter brain - you know when you've got the brain to process several short pieces of meaningless information but not much else. I actually worked quite hard to get out of Twitter brain but maybe what I'm experiencing is that kind of thing in others. But again, don't people need to actually send invoices in order to get paid?
after 30 years in the working world, the general lack of focus and common sense is the worst I've ever seen it And it feels like there has to be a reason why.
For background, I have been working from home a lot since 2016 and so have all the people I'm talking about. So we have situations where we need to be on site and do the rest of the work from home - historically it's been fine. I'm not having any issues with getting people on the phone during office hours. I don't think anybody's looking after their kids during office hours, etc.
Is it just me having this experience? I had to remind somebody today that I owe them over £1k! I can't pay the invoice until it actually comes in.
I will return to my work now! Thanks for any thoughts or advice on how to get people to actually do stuff.