by Rachel Smith
31 August 2018
It’s hardly surprising that out of our recent piece on #badfreelancer stories, the tales of freelancers who ‘ghosted’ editors – ie, got a commission then disappeared off the face of the earth – generated the most debate. Freelancers ranged from mildly pissed to apoplectic about it (quite rightly, too). But it got me thinking about professional ghosting in general. No longer just the bugbear of the dating world, ghosting is happening a lot – but as a freelancer, can you stop it happening to you? Sometimes, yes. Here are some common professional ghosting situations, and what you can do about them.
If you’ve been in this position, you have my sympathies. There’s nothing worse than doing a heap of work in good faith for a new client, only to have them suddenly ghost you when the project is done and dusted and you’ve sent off your invoice.
The solution… Get a deposit for new clients and progress payments for milestones so you’re not left out of pocket. If any payments aren’t met, you stop work; it’s as simple as that. Sure, some clients may balk at your practices and you may even lose some jobs because of your payment structure. But it’s better than being burned.
You swapped your tracky-dacks for an ironed, professional outfit, battled through public transport to attend an interview, and submitted to a gruelling series of questions you were thankful you’d prepared for. Maybe they asked you back for a second or third interview. Or told you that you were on the short list. Then… crickets. Of all the professional ghosting scenarios you might encounter, this one is irritatingly common for many job-seekers.
The solution… Recruiter Jane Ashen Turkewitz thinks after several interviews you’re within your rights to contact the company and let them know – politely but firmly – that it’s not okay to interview someone then provide zero feedback or even let the candidate know they haven’t gotten the job. (Many disagreed with her sample response to companies who do this, but others felt it might help to change things). She felt that if you were ready to walk away, speaking up for yourself might help out the next person. Your other option, of course, is to blacklist that company – and warn others about them.
I have heard this story far too often for my liking. You work your butt off for months and months for editors you trust and have possibly worked with for years, only to realise you’re owned a LOT of money and your invoices date back to last quarter.
The solution… Say firmly, ‘I’d love to take that on, but unfortunately I can’t accept any more work until my outstanding invoices is taken care of’. It’s better than ending up in the position of having to withhold finished copy until they pay you, but sometimes that’s all the power you have.
A shiny new lead approaches you, goes to town on the flattery, wants to take you out to lunch / brunch / dinner / drinks to chat about an amazing opportunity he/she has for you to work together. You agree to meet up and, excited by the prospect, share some of your awesome ideas for the project. Then that person skips off with all your ideas and, yep, you guessed it: you never hear from him/her again.
The solution… Keep things professional from the get-go. If you even get a whiff that it’s a ‘pick your brains’ scenario – and trust me, many people will use those exact words – make it clear that you have limited time and have to allocate meeting times to existing [read: paying] clients, or you offer consulting phoners for a fee. (We have scripts in our ebook for dealing with this exact situation.)
Another common professional ghosting situation that I hear about A LOT through the Facebook Gold group. And I had this situation recently with an editor from a digital agency who chased me repeatedly. We had an inital chat, got on famously and talked at length about working together. Their rates were too low for me, but she said she’d consider upping it and asked me to provide a quote and examples of similar work to what she wanted. I spent a lot of time on the quote and the examples and offered quite a generous discount, trying to meet her halfway. I sent it off, optimistic. Never heard from her again.
The solution… Create templates and stock responses you can use when asked to pitch or quote. It’s much easier and you’ll spend less time on it and feel less resentful if the person doesn’t respond. I get that it’s business… but it’s extremely rude behaviour, so I make a point of following up a week after sending a quote, then if I’m still getting radio silence I let it go. (And of course put that person or company on my black list.)
Have you encountered professional ghosting as a freelancer?
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
Some great advice here Rachel…thanks
Just had a #5 through LinkedIn. Annoying, tedious and unprofessional… but when I looked at her profile in more detail, I saw a whole lot of spelling errors. She claims she is the editor of a fairly well-known site but I reasoned it was best to be ghosted by an editor who can’t sort their typos on their own LinkedIn page!