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Them old consulting blues

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Solutions to work problems that are not, strictly speaking, happening in a "workplace" framework? Weird details inside. I could give many fanciful titles to my work—developer, designer—but really I'm a consultant. Our small company has been working with a larger agency for almost two years now. We've done several projects together and it's been really lucrative and productive for both sides. I'm familiar with nearly everyone in the company, we're friendly and they do really good work. However—and this is the best part—they understand that I'm a consultant. Their risk and mine are not the same. They keep the late night phone calls and emails to a minimum, and they make sure the work is highly structured, on budget, and in scope.

A few months ago I was approached by a new employee at the agency to bid on a new, large project. I did and we were awarded the contract. It seemed like any other project. But soon after starting the scope began to change under the direction of "B"; I get the idea that B is from an agency background and may have been an art director. As a developer and former art director myself, I know how to manage this personality type pretty well. However, I'm pretty stymied in my attempts to do that here for some reason. It seems as though B is positioning themselves to the management of this company as a real hard charger. In our interactions, this manifests itself as lots of "URGENT" emails and requests for me to be on site (which is something this company knew I would be willing to do, but which I was seldom asked to do since we always worked well as a telecommuting team). Worst of all, B is throwing their weight around now by lowballing me on another project offer, something no one would have considered before.

The issue, in a nutshell, is I'm being micromanaged as an employee—as a bad, recalcitrant employee who needs hand-holding—when I am none of those things. The level of difficulty is that while I've met the partners at this company a handful of times I feel awkward going to them about this. Firstly, because it weakens my position and forces me to frame the conversation in a way that makes me seem like I'm an employee; and secondly because it seems absurd to have to go through this at all, or to be so stumped about how adults would deal with such an issue.

There is a trusted project manager I've thought about going to, but doesn't that seem like I'm going behind B's back? Part of me doesn't care, but a larger part of me wants out of all the politics and nonsense of the situation by any means necessary. I like being a consultant because I don't care about people's baggage and "management styles". Help?

In case you want to get really in depth about it, throwaway email is hepritrotr@voidbay.com.

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