by Leo Wiles
09 March 2016
In the past three months I’ve been asked to do a project for rates so low they’re not even worth it, and several blog posts for ‘the exposure’. I’m not that experienced so I’m wondering if I’d be crazy to say no. So – your thoughts to a relative newcomer to the industry? Does working for free ever pay off? Debbie
Debbie, I feel your pain. Back in the 90s, I would’ve said yes, it does – because as a newbie starting out it was called ‘paying your dues’. Nowadays, however, even journos as seasoned as I are regularly offered exposure in lieu of payment and ‘great opportunities’ with prices that look like inflation has been ignored since the 18th Century. And I know I’m not alone because the Facebook group Stop Working for Free is full of such stories.
That said, the results from the new survey we’re running show that working for free is really a grey area and a very personal choice. I know because I almost agreed to it the other day when an acquaintance approached me about taking some shots of her daughter. As the conversation went on and she complained that the other photographer was going to charge $250 for five different looks, I should have walked away immediately but I didn’t – blame a slow patch.
Ultimately, my belief after meeting people willing to knock down my rates OR expecting me to work for unacceptably low rates is that doing so has the very same effect as working for free. And, for an extra bonus, that ‘paying client’ now feels entitled to be a schmuck.
The client who screws you on money or lack thereof will always do so. Re-educating anyone with a Scrooge complex – as I’ve tried to do with one regular client – is tedious and almost not worth it. Worse still, the blame is all mine as I sold myself embarrassingly short in the opening negotiations. To say it has been a long road back makes Robert Falcon Scott’s Antarctic adventures look like a stroll in the park.
Then there’s the scoundrel who dresses up working for free as some great opportunity to be launched into a pool of paying clients they can introduce you to. The reality in this scenario is that they’re offering you the opportunity to fend off would-be clients who’ve been told you’re desperate and a cheap alternate to anyone else.
My personal favourite though is the outraged client who can’t believe that you would want to be paid. In my case, I was dealing with a GM who expected me to work four days for nothing (and pay over $700 in childcare to do so), while he drew a salary. The fact that he also drove a sports car and owned a luxurious home helped me put a stop to my professional and financial suicide. And, his outrage showed me that in being amicable, all I was actually doing was undermining his ability to see me a professional who commanded his respect (or at least his pocket book).
I now won’t work for free on a company project where other people are being paid to work on it. In fact, no matter how good the gig, unless I can see the real tangible returns, my policy is ‘show me the money or I’ll show you the door’. Because I no longer believe that if you work hard rewards will come unless you demand them.
What do you think, List members? Am I wrong? Should we expect to work for free? If so when does it pay off?
