To feel completely miserable/hopeless about this situation at work?

[Maria53]

I work in marketing and started the job less than a year ago with decent experience behind me, over 10 years in the industry. Although other clients have given excellent feedback and I otherwise enjoy the job, I now have a client that I cannot please no matter what I do.

The long and short of it is the client fired their previous employee doing PR saying she was hopeless when in reality she seemed capable but not listened to. I felt from the start this wouldn't go well.

The client went behind my back and offloaded lots of negative things to me to my bosses. They insulted more or less every aspect of my skillset and lied, saying I hadn't done many things when I had (no problem, I have the email proof!). My immediate boss was sympathetic, knowing what the client is like, but the boss above her is just keen to iron the situation out and keep the money rolling in. In reality this client is in big trouble financially with the virus and has even got us to agree to free work.

I have essentially been told to 'turn this around' within the week. I find the pressure overwhelming because I HAVE been proactive. It's harder to cope with because I am alone during a pandemic which is stressful for all of us. I don't think I will ever be able to please this client and therefore i don't feel i will be to able to fully turn it around regardless of what I do.

The client hasn't even hinted of an issue to me, the just went straight to my managers when I would have welcomed a dialogue.

Any advice?

Go to your boss boss and explain what the client is like and that you have never had any complaints in the past and feel like nothing you do will be good enough. Tell them whatever your PR strategy is and see if the boss likes it before putting it to the client.

I will write an email to my boss and the boss's boss outlining all I have done and also say that while I am already being proactive/willing to review the content planned I am concerned that nothing will fully meet their criteria or satisfaction.

I want to make it clear that I am ready to try to meet the goals but I also feel they are going to be difficult to please?

To make things worse I was told they may bring a colleague on board to assist me if it isnt working. Frankly that would be the final humiliation as everyone knows they are my client.

The crux of it is I otherwise enjoy my job but don't think I will continue to do so when I feel that my client thinks me incompetent. I feel they have belittled me and not come to me directly and while they praise me directly, they did nothing but trash me to my superiors. I am now wondering what sort of future I can have in this company if I have to continue like this

Could a colleague take over? Maybe a male colleague. I’m realising the previous PR was also female. Client could be sexist

Stand up for yourself. I realise that's hard when you feel you are in a junior role but you do actually have experience and expertise so speak up on that basis. Stay calm and professional but state the issues clearly. You can say e.g. with all due respect it won't be possible to turn this client around because x y z. Then make a positive suggestion for what needs to change. If I were you I would personally refuse to work with that client anymore and state another colleague would have to take them on. I'd make it my boss's problem to manage. That's what they're paid for after all. But I'm probably in a slightly more senior role by the sounds of it so have more confidence to tell the powers that be to F off.

I’d be letting the client know you know he has been going behind your back and ask him what he would like you to actually do. Your big boss sounds like a spineless twerp.

You have nothing to lose.

The customer isn’t always right. The customer can also be a cantankerous entitled arsehole. If he had been criticising your work to you, You could maybe have worked with him.

As is your boss is already undermining you. I would be raging.

Hi Pippa. I have only been at the company for 7 months and in the middle of a pandemic I don't really feel I can be telling them f off to any real extent.

I think I need to provide evidence of what I'm doing and outline positive changes. But also say I feel I am being proactive and that I am concerned that are going to be impossible to please.

If another colleague then takes them on I will find that extremely embarrassing. yes I think they may get on better with a male colleague. They talk about championing women but then all I see is belittling of now several women including me.

Yes I am not happy. I have spent years building my skillset and to have it trashed like that made me very angry. Then to be told I need to turn this around - I am upset because I otherwise enjoy the job but see how this could run it.

Another employee left last year after reaching the end of her tether with a client.

Do not see being moved off the account with embarrassment. Maybe send your ideas to the client as you and then as a male colleague to prove a point but only after taking my original suggestion about clearing things through the big boss.

@LouiseTrees but how can I avoid being embarrassed? To me it's like they're saying you cant do the job, let's see about someone else.

I mean...as much as I would love for them to be taken off my case. The reality is I would still have to see them when they are in for meetings and surely my colleagues would be thinking I had done a bad job. I can't do anything apart from be honest.

Swap the account with someone else at your level. Someone else will have their nightmare client who you click with better. Swap if you can.

One thing, consider if you really want to do anything about this at all, or just turn the work around and move on. We’re all pretty sensitive at the moment and you may be feeling this more than if the criticism had come a few weeks ago - try to put ‘previous you’ in the decision seat.

I am worried about suggesting a swap in case it comes off as trying to get rid and not make further effort. Do you know what I mean?

I think I would be just as angry, but at least I would have been able to blow off steam with loved ones or at dance class etc. Because I don't think this client can be satisfied and because I feel my reputation partially depends on 'turning this around' I feel very stressed. I just hope the positive feedback from other clients continues to balance this out.

Any other thoughts? Woken up still feeling very unmotivated to work for them when I know what they think of me.

I would send an email to your client asking for some feedback (a progress update), not mentioning the conversation that you've had with your boss.

State everything that you've done already in bullet points, what you're going to be doing during the next few days and ask if there is anything else that they would like you to concentrate on or any feedback on what has been done already.
End with a final goal and the approximate date this will happen.
(obviously then send their reply to your boss).

I suspect that they're just trying to wriggle out of paying your company, I wouldn't take a personally.

Put yourself in your superiors shoes. They're in the middle of a pandemic, trying to keep the money rolling in, trying to placate a difficult client. I'm sorry if you feel undermined but sometimes this happens. It happened to me recently, I was RAGING. I spoke to someone in my company and they have a different POV. When the senior bosses get involved, when it gets escalated to their level, they just want it sorted in the quickest and easiest way. They are not going to back you up to the client right now, not in the way you want, but they will be handling it.

What would your options be? Have you made any suggestions? Have you looked critically at your work and are you 100% sure it's spot on?

Is the client asking for something ultimately undeliverable? What are their measurement techniques? Output? Lead generation? Have they been clear on their requirements or are they Woolley and that's what's causing the disconnect?

If you look at all the information and evidence and determine that, in fact, it can't be turned around, then say so but offer a solution. It's not passing the buck, it's managing upwards.

Some clients are just like that. I had that with one (female) client recently who was really just a nasty bully. She did exactly the same. I refused to work with her.

I think you should say to your manager clearly in writing what you have tried and that you do not consider this client reasonable. Suggest that the manager substitutes someone else to work on their account. Ultimately it is their job to manage and yours to speak up.

I think you are being too anxious about how it looks bad for you and usually the truth is everybody knows the client is a bully. You say that client wants free work & that your boss wants you to "turn this around". Sounds like you are being scapegoated in a no-win situation. This is a job to leave as soon as possible and move up. Outline all you have done, keep records of anything new you do and shrug your shoulders when client complains. Bullies gonna bully. Plainly management are not doing their job and you need to remember that there will be other jobs in the future, and build your portfolio.

Thanks folks. I feel utterly exhausted with this. I woke up much earlier than usual this morning and sleep disruptions only honestly begin for me when I am overwhelmingly stressed.

I have spent a significant amount of time building my evidence as per the demand of my boss. She is being very picky and asking me to make continuous edits- even though she mentioned today the annoyance of having to do this on top of my other work. Meanwhile the other tasks at work keep piling up and the meetings are endless and unproductive. I am struggling.

Meanwhile the client has been in touch praising my work and being nice as piece, all of which I forwarded to my boss.

It's not worth making yourself ill over. File it in the life's too short folder, document your work so far and hand it over to someone else. It sounds like a no win situation and the only way out of it is to step back.

I had a virtual meeting with my boss today and she made it clear I am to continue with this client. I have to come up with a shiny new plan.

I agree it is not worth making myself ill over but I need the job. It is a shame because I enjoy the rest of my job but projects are piling up. I am not able to delegate to junior staff because my clients are particularly niche/technical and I would spend more time correcting work. I am really hope things will get better but I just see months of this stretching ahead of me, all while I never get the chance to just rant and laugh it off with a friend over a wine!

OK.Time to take an objective look at this.Leave yourself out of the scenario,I know,that sounds odd,but bear with me.
The client is dissatisfied to the degree of complaining to the manager in a company of the skill set of the account handler, and lied about what has been done on the project.There is evidence demonstrating what was done.The Client is known to be difficult.Management want a speedy solution,as does the account handler.
The account handler has received an email from the Client, praising their work.
Great !Absolutely fabulous opportunity.
Here's the suggestion:Respond to the Client acknowledging the praise and asking for specific feedback regarding what has been done that met with satisfaction,so it can be built on.Cite this as an opportunity to seek comprehensive feedback.Are there any areas the Client would like dealt with,or would like to discuss?
Run this suggestion past the boss as a solution:say you will build on the positives and will seek any specifics to address.Suggest to your boss that when you do send it,you will copy in your boss,so the client can see total transparency from you and your Company.
This handles the matter professionally on the Company's behalf as well as your own and will put the control back with you.
Be of good cheer,it's not you.
Hope this makes some sense.Others may disagree.

There's always one nightmare client wherever I've worked OP. It's crap, I know, when you're good at what you do. There's nothing wrong with offloading the Client to someone they'll relate to better (sexist idiots tho they may be). If it helps, when I was in Marketing my male boss routinely sent in 'Mary' who was easy on the eye, knew her stuff & amazing with crochety or difficult clients (it was automotive industry , so v male & plenty of them were dinosaurs with egos bigger than their intellect). It's not you, it's them. You're back is covered by your emails, so good luck.