I’ve been following the various threads about General Discontent
related to being Paid On Time for services rendered and Not Being
Paid at all. And this is what I have to offer: I make a living in a
completely unrelated field, that is, Veterinary Medicine. And the
stress level is very high. Just about as high as it could get if you
had crying, screaming people holding a just-run-over-housepet with
kids running amok and oh-by-the-way, we forgot our wallet the very
first words out of their mouths: Save My Cat but We don’t want to
pay for your services. All that aside: If a client is very very good:
honest, diligent, follows our basic instructions on how to take care
of the housepets: we give them a discount on services rendered and
allow them to pay over time if their vet bill is very high due to
some unforseen circumstances. We are happy to grant these
privileges. But if the client is completely uncomplient as we call
it; they feed their cat/dog crappy food, let them run loose in the
neighbourhood, never spay/neuter them etc etc we do what is called
firing the client. That is, we say, nicely, patiently, Mrs/Mr
dead-beat pet owner, please avail yourselves of Hospital XYZ’s
services down the road. We feel that your needs would best be served
elsewhere. Thank you and have a nice day. It feels good because we
never have to feel that we are selling ourselves out or selling
ourselves short: we get to reward excellent clients and penalize the
less than responsible pet owners. Believe me there is no law in the
land that says I have to treat anyones pet if I feel that the “scene
is going to be a bad one”. I feel that this allows me to take
control of my working life and my interior life too. You wouldn’t
believe how this eliminates stress. For what it is worth.