When the work is wrong
Rejection, rework, withholding, and why none of it is a disciplinary process.
Reads as a businessReads as employmentCuts both waysDepends where you are
Four factors, and no total. Every bar is the same length: the side is the claim, the size is not. Correction is commercial here, and it is slower and blunter than the thing it replaces.
Rejecting Work Against a Specification
Rejection is the central instrument a buyer holds, slower and blunter than correcting somebody, and it works only if there is something to reject against.
Rework, and Who Pays for It
Who absorbs the cost of doing something again is decided in every engagement, including the many where nobody decides it, and the answer shows what was sold.
Withholding Payment
Not paying is the sharpest instrument a buyer holds, available only where the work fell short of what was agreed, and routinely used instead of a conversation.
The Conversation That Is Not a Warning
A commercial conversation about whether an arrangement is working is available; a warning is not, and the two sound alike enough to be confused.
When It Is Wrong Three Times
A pattern of poor work is what an employer handles with development and a buyer handles with a decision, and the decision is taken later than it should be.
Ending an Engagement Early
Stopping is the instrument of last resort and the only one with no weaker substitute, which makes it both the simplest move and the most consequential.
What You Lose When They Go
Everything the supplier knew leaves with them, no handover period is owed to you, and the only defence is having bought the knowledge while the work ran.