The Expectation of Continued Employment (when a contractor disappears)

So you had an assignment, an emergency came up, and you didn’t think to contact the person you were contracting with.

This hasn’t happened to me directly, but has happened to someone I know personally.

They hired someone for a project and the person just…disappeared….for three days!

I’ve had people late on assignments before, but never has anyone just been gone for three days. Which is good because I have no idea how I would deal with that.

Here is a tip for the self-employed. If you would get fired for doing it at Starbucks, don’t do it to the person paying you to do the work from the comfort of your office. You can’t just decide not to go to work for three days and not let anyone know in advance. Really. To come back and explain after the fact there was an emergency, cold, flu, or other problem is a joke.

If you think it’s okay to do that because the person paying you will "understand" think of it this way:

Your boss at Starbucks has been sick before, but you still wouldn’t have the balls to just be a no-call, no-show for days and come back and your manager would "understand" – you know better.

So what makes someone think that work is different when they do it from home?