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Writer's pictureNeal Moore

HOW TO ESCAPE THE 'VENDOR' TRAP

Brands and big business avert your eyes, this is for my agency brothers and sisters, my freelancer fraternity, my creative crowd.


Friends, freelancers and creatives, are you sick of being treated like a 'vendor'? I HATE that word. Its purpose is to put you in your place, to let you know where you sit in the hierarchy, to remind you of your lowly rank as a mere supplier of services at the beck and call of the 'client'. It is designed to disempower you, undermine your expertise and devalue your experience, all of which are detrimental to your work which, presumably, the client actually wants you to do a good job at, so why do they treat you this way? Well, as the cliché goes, it takes two to tango but let's start with the client.


I have worked in the US, UK, Singapore and its surrounding countries and I can tell you there is a large cultural component to this issue. I can tell you first hand that, in America, you are more likely to be treated as a colleague, co-opted into the same mission as the client, working hand in hand to deliver a joint solution (at least until you cock up!).


In the UK, you're a partner; you sit outside of the inner circle but are still valued for your unique skills and contribution to the team. But, in East and Southeast Asia you are most definitely a 'vendor' whose job it is to simply to do as you are told. Why?


Across Asia hierarchy is rife and rigid. It would be deeply arrogant, nay colonial, to proclaim this as 'wrong'. As I constantly remind myself when encountering unfamiliar work practices in other countries, it is not wrong it is just different. There is comfort and order to be had from hierarchy. Everyone knows their place and exactly what is expected of them. It's just that your place, as a vendor, comes way down the pecking order, which can leave you feeling frustrated and worthless.