I'm working as a freelancer for a long term client on a complex project. In fact, this project is so complex that I cannot do it all on my own and as such a third party (an established company) was brought in to the game to speed things up and do the project management.
Initially that worked fine, although the company has been making a lot of demands on their behalf regarding my freelance working style. There are few things that bother me the most:
I am not allowed to work remotely and have to be physically present in their office (6000 miles from home)
I have not been getting any project management from them, but they do demand to review my work to "assure they can deliver quality" to our mutual client based on my work
Questions that I have asked their expert employees that are in on the project were billed to our mutual client for their time spent answering
Personally I don't mind having my work reviewed if that was done on a "Hey if you need some help with anything let us know" kind of basis but they make it feel like a Spanish inquisition. (The one time I had some question marks on quality of work done on their end I virtually got the contract shoved in my face with the remark that it adheres to the contract.)
In the beginning I have mentioned to them a few things that I have difficulties with but the only strict answer I got is that they as a company protect their own interests and literally "as an external I am a risk and they should have appropriate risk management".
Currently I am on a visa run. It's my second day out and I conveniently "forgot" to hand in my work for their review while I am away. At the moment I have messages about the review in three different social media outlets (one of them being a private account) while the deal was that I would have a certain amount of work finished on my return next week.
All in all I am not sure being able to work with them any longer. Because by now I dread going to their office and a project that I used to really love has now become a burden to me. It affects me so much that only now I am away from them I realise how much it stresses me out.
I have also discussed this with the client and although he feels my frustration, he also cannot back out of the deal (which I wouldn't want him to either) for financial and contractual reasons of course. My backing out would also put the client and myself in a difficult financial position.
I'm not so sure if this is a good question or too vague and ambiguous but despair is very near and any help or guidance is appreciated at this point.