I took an hourly job with a client whose feedback I should have reviewed before accepting it, and it didn't go well. He paused the contract and disputed my hours after a single work week, and while I won the dispute, I'm not sure how to proceed with the contract (which is now paused). I think I have the following options:
- do free work and hope that leads to a positive contract closure
- ask him to unpause the contract so I can finish the work and try to eke out a successful outcome
- close it and leave honest feedback
- ask him to close it (although I don't see an advantage here)
Since I don't have a lot of contracts, I'm expecting a massive hit to my JSS. I'd like to minimize that and the potential impact on getting future clients. Not sure I can do anything for the JSS except #1. I could refund the whole amount and prevent public feedback, I guess, but I'm not sure how to value bad public feedback vs. the dollars earned already, esp. since the JSS will be impacted on its own.
My inclination is to close it and leave honest feedback. How dumb is that?
