Showdown With Showtime: Never Ask Professionals to Work for Free

Startups have tight budgets, so often want to get the best deals for everything. The best deal is not free.

Dan Cassaro does awesome design work. So awesome that Showtime (yes, the premium television network which earned an estimated $692 Million in 2011) asked him if he wanted to participate in a contest to create a piece of art that reflects the “intensity” of a boxing match. The winner would win a trip to Las Vegas! Woo-hoo!

To keep reading, click here: Showdown with Showtime: Never Ask Professionals to Work for Free

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2 thoughts on “Showdown With Showtime: Never Ask Professionals to Work for Free

  1. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this! There is a huge movement in the arts community to refuse ‘donating’ or ‘volunteering’ work, and the same should go for any type of employee. Volunteering is ‘voluntary’ which means that I WANT to offer my time to help you out. If I WANT to donate my time, I have probably already worked it into my own schedule and worked it around my other responsibilities and obligations. I have probably decided that I can afford to do it, and that I personally support the cause that will benefit from my time, donated artwork, donated services, etc. IIIIII make that choice, rather than you planning my time and making the decision for me. That’s why it’s ‘voluntary’!

    My last job was working for a non-profit, arts organization. When the new manager came in, she would create ‘work-bees’, ‘brainstorming sessions’, etc. – all after hours that we were all ‘required’ to be at. Meaning we were SUPPOSED to attend, but it was labelled as ‘volunteering’ and we were ‘paid’ with the ‘warm fuzzy feeling that one gets when they volunteer’!!! – her words!

    Although I didn’t mind helping out every now and then, I have a home, kids, pets, a husband, yard, life, etc. and my time was worth much more than what I was getting for mandatorily volunteering my time to her – for free! The warm fuzzy feeling wasn’t paying my bills or for my babysitter when my husband had to work late. I was the first to refuse all of the extra unpaid overtime, and the first to be shunned by the manager, and the first to feel her wrath. I left a few months after she took the position.

    If you want quality from your workforce, you have to pay for it. If you wear people’s time too thin and can’t be bothered to show their appreciation with pay, you will surely lose any future ‘voluntary’ help from them.

  2. people in americant expect free. They want free–most are moochers, deadbeats, freebie seekers, and brain pickers-can you, can yous, coffee times–whereby you are supposed be oh so delighted with coffee and sharing tens of thousands of dollars of experience/strategy with imbeciles looking for free. If there is no contract/sub-constract with BUDGET–tell them pound sand. You dont get free gas, you dont get free mortgages, hairdressers, bassoon teachers, car repairs for free or BS exposure nonsense. Listen to Harlan Ellison’s pay the writer segment–wonderful and spot on. Pay me.

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