Don't growl at a freelancer

Introductory

For many who ordered something on freelance (design, code or text) or on outsourcing, there is a negative attitude towards such cooperation. There are a lot of unscrupulous workers who constantly delay delivery, do not respond for a long time and go to ignore. The terms are burning, you have to contact another freelancer who may not be better.

I will not justify anyone in the article. I myself have not engaged in freelancing and outsourcing for a long time, all observations of colleagues. My task is to tell how and why this happens from a psychological point of view on both sides. What influences such behavior and how to avoid or correct it in the future. For example, I will describe the simplified interaction with the designer in freelancing.



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Act 1. Why hate edits

Sasha is the product manager of a new mobile application. Sasha has very limited funding, because this is a kind of startup. And in the first stage, the profit center does not make sense to assemble a team, because it is unclear what will happen to the project further (although in his dreams everything is rosy and with a pony). He finds and hires freelancer Dima for a project job.

Sasha gave Dima materials that he considered necessary and sufficient for work. And since Sasha has a lot of other work, he agreed with Dima that every Thursday he would throw off mock-ups, and every Friday to get in touch to correct the course of work.

First friday Dima on Thursday sent mockups. On Friday morning, Sasha and Dima call up on Skype. Sasha gives feedback in the form of edits - says what and where does not coincide with his vision. Dima writes and is ready to start working further.

Analysis

It seems everything is normal and normal. But what happens in Dima's subconscious? He worked for the " Law of Effect " by Edward Thorndike - he did the work, and as an inverse effect he received edits. Now, Dima has a pattern in her head that begins to take shape - he hands over the mockups and gets edits. Editing is negative. People tend to stop doing things that cause negative. This leads to the fact that Dima eventually will avoid the time of delivery of models.

Sasha has not changed anything, because he did not receive any reinforcement effect from this meeting.

Act 2. Why delay the delivery of layouts

When next Thursday came, Dima seemed to finish the work, but did not make some changes. He convinces himself that he did not have time. Therefore, he told Sasha that he would throw layouts in the morning and they would discuss lunch. Sasha agreed. When they phoned on Friday, Sasha said that it was impossible to delay the layouts and should be done on time, and then moved on to the edits for the new layouts.

Analysis

Dima has a new effect - when layouts are delayed, he gets reprimanded for being late. This is a new negative marker. And the effect of the edits begins to increase - this is the second law of Edward Thorndike - " The effect of exercise ." That is, the behavior begins to be fixed in the head. Filing layouts leads to edits.

In fact, Dima has a choice how to start avoiding edits. The first option is to do better, not to lose any details and that the layouts do not require revisions. But you don’t get into the customer’s head and his vision can still cause edits. That is, this option does not guarantee that there will be no edits. The second option is not to make layouts. It is to the second and to seek Dima's subconscious.

Sasha had a different effect. When he waited for the models and the time came, he did not receive them. This was noted in the brain as a negative effect. Sasha wants to avoid him and tries to correct not his behavior, but Dima. Therefore, this effect has become a negative marker.

Act 3. Why go to ignore

When next Thursday comes, Dima is not ready for anything again. And on Friday, he does not get in touch. Sasha starts to get nervous, panic all weekend, since Dima is not available. On Monday, they still managed to contact. Dima apologized and associated his absence with extraordinary circumstances.

Analysis

The fact is that Dima has cognitive dissonance in his head. On the one hand, it is necessary to hand over the layouts and then he will receive edits. On the other hand, if you delay - will receive a reprimand. Not the one or the other effect does not suit him. Therefore, he begins to avoid them as long as possible. First, he finds an excuse for himself. And then simply ignores these actions so that they do not lead to negativity. This leads to the fact that this behavior in his head is fixed as positive - he does not get edits, does not receive a reprimand. In the future, it is fixed as correct in such situations.

Sasha again got his negative marker and fixed it to others - not contacting the designer leads to nerves. Sasha does not know what to do and change in order to get rid of this negative effect.

Fastening

Sasha, disappointed in Dima, who stopped communicating altogether, is looking for a new artist. Sasha is more strict with the new designer, does not want to give advances, and is more stern with delays. And he gets the same result again. Later hires an employee in the office.

Dima is looking for a new customer. The new customer turns out to be exactly the same as Sasha and Dima’s behavior is fixed, he repeats the same actions.

Analysis

Sasha has a strong stereotype - working with a designer leads to nerves and feelings. Every time Dima disappeared, Sasha was fixed in his head. And when he started working with others, he finally fixed it. Sasha no longer wanted to work with freelancers and is ready to move the marketing budget, only to avoid negatives.

Dima also fixed the effect when working with other customers and he developed his own positive marker - go to ignore.


The trend of such events

Conclusion

In this case, you need to organize the correct feedback, so that with the edits Dima also received a positive one. This would have contributed to the desire of Dima to further make layouts and edits would not cause a desire to get away from contact with the customer. Dima himself can take care of this - to establish a rule for the delivery of layouts, so that the customer must comment on positive and positive places so that they can be repeated in other parts of the layout.

Sasha just needs to learn to give feedback. This will help encourage remote employees to work with him. Nikita Efimov told very good methods at the workshop “ How to give feedback? ".

When working with any people - it is important to correctly give feedback. Behavior that you consider good should be encouraged. And influence the one you think is bad. Very well about this is said in the book on the training of yourself, animals and others " Do not roar at the dog " by Karen Pryor.

Post Scriptum

The above may apply to employees within the company, but there will be other trends, as there are various other factors in corporations that soften or worsen the relationship, regardless of feedback.

Post Post Scriptum

There is also a reverse situation, when feedback is given correctly, and is not perceived correctly. This is a topic for a separate article, maybe in the future someone will write it and call it “Don't growl at the customer”.