Client not happy with piece of work

[Lushmetender]

Managed to get off to a good start with a customer from a strategic point of view. Wrote a piece of work and today on a call got told it was “under standard”. I’m gutted but they are being constructive and asking if there’s anything they can do to help us make things easier. Truth is in consulting it’s been a while since I did this work so while I had experience some time ago, I’m really on the hood esp as my job is high pressure and I’m at a reasonably high level. My issue is I’ve had a few car crashes at work and am so worried I’ll be taken off this project as it’s great experience. How do I move forward. I’m under a lot of stress like we all are with children at home re home schooling. Plus work is really piling on the pressure as we have more work than we can cope with yet our staff will be put on PIPs in they refuse work.

Does your work know you don’t have much experience in this subject? You should discuss with your manager and see if there’s anyone with more experience who can help you with this.

It sounds like right now you need to decide if you want to maintain a professional reputation at work or keep the project.

In normal times you could ask your manager for training and support on how to develop your skills to meet clients expectations, but due to staff shortages, I think best course of action is to tell your boss the feedback and say you'd like to stay on the project but will understand if they want to assign it to a more experienced resource.

I am struggling to understand if it is the customer / client asking what they can do to help or if it is your employer / manager or if you are a consultant?

If it is the manager then think about what support you need and tell them. Sorry that is vague but I am not sure how anyone can be more specific with advice in this one.

I would try not to bring home schooling into it, you are unlikely to be the only one doing this.

Is there a colleague you trust who can help you with this?
Has client advised which aspect(s) needs addressing? Not sure I understand how they are offering to make things easier- simplify the scope?
If it feels too complex but you don’t want to flag to boss that it’s a bit much I’d be trying to pull in an experienced colleague you trust, maybe under the auspices of needing extra recourse.
At the end of the say at your level I presume client is paying a lot of money for your time & work so you have a responsibility to deliver for them, which is greater than your reputation all concerns.

*resource

Another thing on rereading. You need to tell your manager or head pronto, before they do. They pretty much told you that they would at the session.

Consultants are expected to manage their time, they are expected to speak us about their current challenges at home and the adjustments they might need - they are expected to do this before they fail to deliver an excellent piece of work. They are expected to let their line manager know if they screw up so it can be fixed.

You need to speak to your line manager, letting down a client because you are struggling at home or out of practice should not happen - it should have been raised as a concern before you agreed/were given the work.

Someone senior will always sign off a piece of work before it gets submitted to a client -(especially if someone has been out of practice,) I thought this was standard practice?