It Started Like a Dream Client

When Kate Viana first began working independently in 2021, she was focused on helping nonprofits with marketing and social media.

Then a Texas nonprofit reached out.

Kate already cared deeply about the organization’s mission, and the relationship seemed fantastic. She went above and beyond, taking on extra work and even building the organization a WordPress website for free while they were getting established.

For months, everything appeared professional and positive.

But Kate was about to discover that the way someone treats you isn’t necessarily the way they treat everyone else.

The Workplace Was Nothing Like It Seemed

Kate’s first in-person meeting with the organization’s leadership team changed everything.

At dinner, employees immediately began complaining about other employees, volunteers, and board members. Kate was stunned by how openly negative everyone was about the organization.

Then the employee survey responses started coming in.

People described the workplace as a nightmare. Employees were crying. The culture was deeply unhealthy.

And the next day, Kate saw the reason firsthand.

The executive director screamed at employees, called them names, and cursed at them—then instantly transformed into a warm, professional person whenever clients or service recipients walked through the door.

Kate even noticed a bulletin board featuring supposed motivational messages that were anything but motivating.

During her employee interviews, people repeatedly broke down crying.

That was when Kate realized she had made a dangerous assumption: because the executive director had always treated her well, she had assumed that was simply who this person was.

It wasn’t.

The Report That Ended the Relationship

Kate returned to Atlanta and completed her culture assessment.

She documented what she had observed, included recommendations, and outlined potential next steps.

About a week later, the executive director fired her.

She accused Kate of lying and making damaging, false statements about the organization.

Kate responded professionally and assumed that was the end of it.

It wasn’t even close.

When a Small Invoice Became a Huge Fight

A few weeks later, the person taking over the organization’s website contacted Kate about transferring it.

Kate explained what she could do and said she would finish the remaining work once her final invoice—less than $500—was paid.

Instead of simply paying it, the executive director escalated.

She began calling Kate a liar, cheat, and thief on Kate’s personal Facebook posts. Then she moved to LinkedIn, warning other people not to work with her.

Soon, Kate was receiving calls and messages from different phone numbers.

And then the executive director found Kate’s current employer.

She emailed Kate’s boss, her boss’s boss, and coworkers, accusing Kate of theft and describing her as a nightmare.

For Kate, this crossed a completely different line.

It wasn’t just an unpleasant client relationship anymore. The executive director was now attacking her livelihood.

Then Came the Fake Arrest Threat

The escalation didn’t stop there.

The executive director claimed that an attorney had been hired and that the county sheriff’s office was preparing to press charges against Kate for “theft of services.”

Then Kate received a call from someone claiming to be an Atlanta police sergeant, telling her there was a warrant for her arrest.

Kate quickly realized the call wasn’t legitimate.

She consulted an attorney, who told her the situation had gone far enough that she could potentially pursue claims for harassment or slander.

But Kate didn’t want to spend even more of her time engaging with this person.

Instead, she followed the advice to document everything, finish transferring the website, and close the relationship once and for all.

As Kate was preparing to send the final email, her outstanding invoice was finally paid.

She sent the website anyway, completed the remaining transfer work, and responded one final time.

Then, thankfully, the executive director disappeared from her life.

The People Left Behind Told a Different Story

Later, some of the nonprofit’s employees reached out to Kate.

They thanked her for listening.

They told her she was the first person who had made them feel heard.

And some admitted they felt trapped because the local job market made leaving difficult.

Kate realized that what she had witnessed was probably only the tip of the iceberg.

The experience also forced her to reconsider one of her assumptions about nonprofit work: that working in a mission-driven organization necessarily meant the people running it would be decent people.

As Kate learned, a good mission doesn’t guarantee good leadership.

Small Amounts of Power Can Create Big Problems

Morgan and Kate also explored why someone might behave this way.

Kate suggested that people can become “drunk” on even a small amount of power. Someone who is a big fish in a very small pond can begin to believe that their position gives them more authority than it actually does.

Morgan described it as the “bouncer effect”: someone given a tiny amount of power suddenly becomes intoxicated by it.

And sometimes, that can make seemingly ordinary professional relationships incredibly dysfunctional.

Kate Changed How She Works

The experience fundamentally changed Kate’s approach to clients.

Today, she keeps things much more professional.

She uses signed, enforceable agreements. She takes deposits upfront. She doesn’t work for free.

And she pays much closer attention to potential clients who seem excessively needy, unclear about what they want, or more interested in gossip and blame than solving actual problems.

She’s still happy to guide clients who need help.

But if someone wants her to investigate something trivial—like who took brownies from the break room—or constantly validate their suspicions about other people, she knows it isn’t a good fit.

Sometimes the best client-management decision is simply saying no.

Bad News Needs to Be Delivered Differently

Kate also took a hard lesson from the culture report itself.

She believes sending the report without first having a conversation about what it contained was a mistake.

Today, when an assessment reveals serious problems, she doesn’t simply email the bad news.

She starts with a conversation.

She explains the context, ideally in person or over Zoom, and focuses on what can actually be changed.

Instead of simply saying, “Your employees are unhappy,” she works backward from the effect:

Employees are frustrated. Turnover is high. Why?

Maybe compensation is below market. Maybe leadership behavior is contributing to the problem. Maybe there are structural issues that haven’t been addressed.

The goal isn’t to assign blame.

It’s to give the leader a path forward.

The Lesson: You Don’t Know Someone Just Because You Work With Them

Kate’s experience is a powerful reminder that professional familiarity isn’t the same thing as actually knowing someone.

You can work with someone for years and still have no idea how they treat other people.

You can have a client who seems wonderful—until you finally see them in a different environment.

And when the red flags appear, Kate now has a very different response: protect the relationship with clear boundaries, protect yourself with documentation and contracts, and don’t be afraid to walk away when something isn’t right.

Because sometimes the most important professional skill isn’t knowing how to fix a difficult relationship.

It’s knowing when the relationship should never have continued in the first place.