Asked to Work Before the Client Replies? What to Do
Updated September 2026: in 2020 I wrote about a week of hard work on an onsite team's task list, only to learn they were still waiting for the client to answer their questionnaire and had asked us to prepare documents in case they were needed. I have rewritten it as a guide to handling requests for work before the client's requirements are known.
For a week I worked hard on every task the onsite team and my manager gave me. I wanted to know the submission date and kept asking my manager to confirm it. Finally, on a call before the weekend, he asked the onsite team. Their answer shocked me: they had only just sent an initial questionnaire to the client contact and were waiting for a reply. In the meantime, they thought the client might need some information and wanted the offshore team to prepare documents before any requirements existed. I asked my manager to tell them I would support the request once the client clarified its needs. Instead, he sent emails with information that did not help.
Why do teams ask for work before the client replies?
To feel prepared. Onsite teams worry about short deadlines once the client does respond, so they start early. The intention is reasonable, but without requirements much of that work is guesswork.
What should you do instead of waiting idle?
- Prepare reusable material, such as company overviews and standard solution slides.
- Draft a response structure based on the questionnaire that was sent.
- List likely questions and where the answers will come from.
- Avoid detailed, client-specific content that depends on answers not yet received.
How do you raise it with your manager?
Ask for a simple rule: detailed work starts when the client replies, and until then only reusable preparation. Put it in terms of saving effort for when it counts, not refusing work.
Why ask for the submission date early?
Because it tells you how much effort is justified now. My persistence in asking revealed there was no date yet, which changed everything about how the week should have been spent.
What if your manager does not back you?
Write your own short note to the onsite team offering the reusable material now and the detailed work after the client responds. Copy your manager, and keep the tone helpful.