Pet Sitter Accused of Manipulation for Raising Rates After Increasing Demands
Media Personality Accused Of Manipulation After Raising Rates Of — A Professional House And Pet Sitter — With A High-Maintenance House And Pet Wearethestory.com When a cat sitter was first hired to care for a sick, elderly cat and was then asked for more unacceptable demands, they had only been paid $2.50 extra a night. Such as distributing Halloween candy (as opposed to leaving a bowl) and performing housework chores such as vacuuming and dusting even if the client already had the house cleaner.
The escalatory move was when the client now was required to administer the blood pressure medication into the cat orally, an act in which if not done properly carries inherent risks. The client responded by criticizing the sitter, saying she was being manipulative when the sitter upped her daily rate to compensate for the added labor and anxiety. So she’s left wondering if she did something wrong by expecting the client to pay an appropriate wage.
The author of the post had been working as a house/cat sitter for another lady for several months
The author’s main duty was to take care of an elderly, sick cat, but the client also demanded chores from her
Fair Compensation and Setting Boundaries in Pet Sitting
Examples like this highlight the difficulty of managing good pay and boundaries around freelance or service-based work such as pet and house sitting. Let’s break this down.
The Importance of Fair Compensation for Increased Responsibilities
As responsibilities, inflation, and the intensity of expertise grow, freelancers and service providers do have to re-evaluate their rates on a regular basis. Looking after a sick or old pet is a very specialist and needs administration of medication. Improper medication administration can injure the animal or cause considerable stress for both the pet and the sitter, PetMD notes. That additional responsibility warrants extra money since it does take extra time, care, and who wants the liability?
The sitter was raising her rates — which is not unusual. Pet sitters usually charge $25 to $75 per night, or more, depending on where you live, your responsibilities, and what other specialized tasks you have to perform. This is to say, her adjustment was not only justified but probably still below the market value of that level of care.
Why Boundaries Are Crucial in Client Relationships
When others are pushing boundaries or asking too much from a sitter—like asking them to pass out Halloween candy or do silly chores—it becomes exploitation. When you are in a service-based work, boundaries are crucial they can save you from burning out and having a home/work detachment. Forbes quotes professionals that say when clients cross boundaries, they are often bending their will to determine how much they can be given for free, a phenomenon that will break to the toxic relationship.
The sitter is not being a manipulative a-hole — she is establishing a professional boundary by raising her rates to match the larger workload. This accusation by the client has more to do with her not knowing the value of her services than it does with the sitter doing anything wrong.
Manipulation or Fair Business Practice?
The act of manipulation means deception or coercion to gain an unfair advantage. In this instance, the sitter was upfront about why she was increasing her rates. She cited the additional burden and the specialized nature of the work she had been asked to do. Transparency and honesty stand in stark opposition to manipulation and misinformation — which makes the accusations of the client outrageous.
People in the comments, however, mostly criticized the author for being unprofessional by changing her rate last minute
This only emphasizes the importance of respecting your time and skills, if you are a freelancer or have a service-based business. In this situation, the raise was deserved because the sitter has been having a very busy schedule and her client is starting to expect more than the sitter can offer. Such claims are not only unfounded, but reveal the client’s refusal to honor the boundaries of the professional relationship the coach is providing. Pushing for remuneration is just good practice—without proper compensation it can be hard to sustain a healthy working relationship.