Some years back I was scheduled to do a packing line startup in Vietnam for a multinational. We talked on Wednesday and confirmed that the line would be ready on the following Monday for the startup. I duly took a Taxi to the Toronto airport on Thursday for my flight - Toronto - Tokyo - Saigon. Monday morning I arrived at the plant as scheduled and asked for my host. He showed up and said the startup had been delayed for a week and could I take a week vacation then come back the following Monday. A bit of a drumming of fingers here and a strained smile......that's not really the way we do things and I usually take vacation with my wife.
I offered the customer the option of paying our standard layover fee for non working days + expenses or I could try to fly home that day and do the whole thing again on Thursday, or I could look into flying my wife over on their coin (business class of course). Oh, no, said the customer we can't afford any of those options....
I don't know what the negotiations were like, but I ended up with a week in Saigon staying at the Intercontinental, paid by the customer - during the day I billed against other jobs where there was work that could be done remotely and in the evenings I enjoyed the sights, sounds and foods.....
Biting the hand that feeds IT
