I’ve been working for mostly the same client for some time now, and on their side, they have a project owner (let’s call him John) who is responsible to overlook the development work done for them. Let me set you up a bit : John doesn’t have any experience in programming nor in software development, he achieved the status of Project Owner by staying at that company for a long time. That being said, you must see me coming : John really dislike me. Why? I don’t know, I’ve always been polite with him, and I make sure he’s on track for the work being done. About two months ago, John decide to throw me a curve ball; After telling him I couldn’t fit his request into the current sprint, he decided to escalate the issue to my boss and his boss saying that he was unable what was so hard in what he was asking, and that should be done quickly. Suffice to say, my boss and his boss didn’t like the tone of that request, he had a brief dinner with his boss.

Fast forward to now: John is now full of anger and think his job is in jeopardy because of me. That make every communication with him cumbersome, because from that day he decided to throw me that curve ball, I’ve been logging and taking notes on everything he asks and what I respond. I’m now putting my boss in BCC on every email, and as soon as the tone of John become aggressive, I make sure to cc both his boss and mine.

So here’s what I learned about all that: Not every client is nice to work with (no surprise on that) but some may want to bring you down. That was a surprise for me, I’m just starting my career and for the very first time, someone tried to sabotage me (I wrote about that one encounter with John, but there’s multiple cases where he tried to make me look like a chimp and report that to my boss). The logging of every problem, communication and exchange with John doesn’t come from me, someone told me that the best way to protect your back is building documentation. Today I can say that there’s not better way to deal with it, stay professional and keep track of everything. Last week John decided to tell his boss I wasn’t releasing the right thing for that sprint, little did he know, his boss have asked access to our VSTS work board, and he knows exactly what we are working on.

That same day, John had a quick dinner with his boss. I haven’t heard of John since.

Cover you ass folks, there’s no such thing has too much protection.