Readers!
As a self-employed person, I am very protective of my time, and set sharp boundaries with clients to maintain it. Otherwise, some can (inadvertently or not) treat you like a full time employee, and ask you to do things outside of the scope of your assignments, without paying you for it. I have had some very close, long-standing working relationships with clients over my 20 years of freelancing, but here are six things I won’t do, for anyone.
- Join a company’s communication platform. No, I won’t be on your Slack, and no you can’t GChat me. Clients can email me and call me, but I draw the line at these methods of instant messaging, because the expectation is that I’ll respond instantly in return. As a self employed person, my clients are buying a slice of my time, not all of it. When a potential client recently ask me if I’d join their platform, and I said no, pointing out that I’m not an employee, and besides, it’s very easy to reach me on email anyway. She was satisfied with that answer. I’ll add this caveat: I’m not working on collaborative projects, so I realize this may not make sense for everyone. But for people like me, who are mostly given an assignment and sent off to write them and often don’t return until I’m done, why I’d need to be available on something like Slack is beyond me.
- Allow a client to give me a company email address. See above. They need to reach me? They can email me at the address I give them.
- Change my social media profiles or email signature. If they want to have control over how I represent myself on my social media pages or in my email, they’ll have to make me an employee. I don’t want that, but they can’t control what I do with things I own (yes I know some publications say that freelancers should always follow their social media policies, but I never did, and it didn’t hurt me then. It may now, but if someone doesn’t want to hire me because I am very loud about about my support of trans people, then I don’t want to work with them anyway).
- Go through company training without compensation. A few years ago, I got an email from a regular client’s HR department saying I needed to do their sexual harassment training. Apparently they sent it to a bunch of people without looking at whether they were contractors or employees, with the idea that anyone who writes for them should do it. I asked my contact if I’d be paid for my time, and she said no, so I said no. She argued with me on it, saying it’d be a nice thing for me. Sorry, no, I’m not in this business to be nice to international corporations just because they ask. If you want me to give more of my time outside of my assignments, you have to compensate. Besides, I know another freelancer who agreed, thinking it might give them a leg up when they applied for a full time role at the company. The company didn’t even bother to send a response to their application.
- Do promotional events for a client without compensation. I’ve appeared at New York City Marathon events twice on behalf of the New York Times, and you’re damned right I got paid for it. I had to ask, and yes it surprised the person who wanted me to appear, but I had to remind them I was not an employee, and if they wanted me to do extra work for them, I would have to be paid for my time. Even further back, a different client tried to “order” me to appear at an event they were throwing for their sponsors. This event was a two hour drive each way, and no they were not going to pay for my time or my travel expenses. I got the same song and dance: it would be a nice thing for me to do, blah blah blah Bullshit. You want to drive two hours on two toll roads to go to an event for your sponsors, smile and shake hands and let them take pictures with me, then drive two hours home on toll roads, out of the goodness of my heart? I ended up firing them because this was the first in a series of escalating requests where, again, I was not going to be compensated. It was just not worth it.
- Travel without compensation. Twice I’ve been offered story assignments that would have taken a full day of travel, and both editors expected me to do the assignments for the same rate as if I talked to the person from my office. One of them, where they offered me a rate below what I’d work for anyway without travel, didn’t even want to pay mileage. No thanks!
If you think I can only place these boundaries because I’ve been freelancing for so long, know that these aren’t new. The first “travel for a full day without us paying you for it” instance was in 2008; and the “travel on toll roads to me our sponsors for free” one was 2012. It might be easier for me now, but that’s also because I’ve been doing it for so long that it’s a reflex.
Recent Bylines
“Columbus is now an Italian American myth. Let’s name the day after someone else,” New Jersey Monitor
“FAU mobile hatcheries help restore threatened queen conch,” Responsible Seafood Advocate
What I’m Reading
- Biscayne Bay Breach by Caridad Pineiro. This is part of the same series as Lost in Little Havana. I picked both books up from the same Little Free Library, so why not. In this Harlequin Intrigue, we have a social media influencer and a tech millionaire trying to track down who’s trying to harm him and her family. WILL THEY FALL IN LOVE? Of course they do. It’s a romance novel. That’s not a knock on it of course. Genre fiction like romance — and mysteries and thrillers — have a format, and I’d be shocked if a Harlequin book didn’t stick to it. I picked this up after I realized I was avoiding reading because I didn’t want to continue the heavy-topic book I’d selected. And that’s why I always have romance novels around. I’d rather read something than not read at all.
What I’m Watching
- The Phillies forgetting how to hit the baseball in the playoffs. AGAIN.
- Game Night. Brian Grubb has recommended this movie a zillion times, but I couldn’t find it on streaming without having to rent it. I went to check out my local library’s recent renovation and ah ha! There it was. Dusting off my DVD player + new high speed HDMI cable later, and I finally saw it. BREAKING: It’s very good. It’s about a game night gone awry, with enough “oh THAT actor” appearances that I don’t want to spoil it for you. Great for a rainy afternoon.
Nail Polish of the Week
Millennium Mocha by OPI. A shiny, deep brown. Perfect for the season.
Until next time,
Jen A. Miller (she/her)
Notes from a Hired Pen ebook series
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