I never thought this would happen to me before.
I was recently hired for one day of training work. The job entailed a short amount of travel and eight hours of on-site, one-on-one CSS training. I priced the work out at X dollars, to which the client agreed. When the day came, I found myself working with an interested, attentive client, and the training proceeded smoothly and successfully. At the end of the day, the client asked if I could come back again, the next week. I told him I’d check with his boss.
When I spoke with the boss, I told him I was asked back by his employee, and I’d be happy to do so, but that I’d have to charge a little more, due to the short notice—my upcoming week was already booked up with work. He agreed to this price, which we’ll call Y, and which was roughly 25% more than X.
After the second day of training, which also proved successful, I submitted my invoice of X+Y to the boss. I didn’t hear anything for a couple weeks, and then an envelope came from the company. Inside was not a check, but a contract, detailing the nature of my work, and all the typical legal mumbo jumbo that they have all contractors sign. I hadn’t signed it before starting, and they needed it on the books before I got my money. No problem, except for one thing: the contract included a breakdown of my fees, and they were not what we agreed on. Instead, they were much higher. Instead of X dollars for day one and Y for day two, it showed X+Y for day one and Y again for day two. They (or their contract-writing secretary) wanted to pay me more than 50% more than what I billed.
Of course I’m tempted to sign it as is, send it back and see what happens. There are a few strongly mitigating factors: 1) I’ve already sent them an invoice for the proper amount; 2) if they catch their mistake and my subsequent exploitation of their mistake, it could come back to bite me in the ass; 3) it feels gloriously unethical.
What would you do?
Responses to “Dear Freelance Ethicist”
April 29th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Now that you’ve confessed your sins to the Internets, the only way you’ll be able to pull this off is to open an off-shore account and deposit the funds under a pseudonym, like Wandor Seisz or Santheo Huckstable. But seriously forks, honesty is the best policy…you’ll be racking up freelance karma points (points not redeemable in CA, HI, and PR).
April 30th, 2007 at 11:09 am
I’ll come clean — when I wrote this, I’d already mailed the contract form back, with the numbers crossed out and the proper amounts written in. I had come to the same conclusion you both did — better to earn the karma and not the extra, filthy money. But I wanted to see how y’all (all two of you) would handle it.
I’m glad I did correct it, but it’s unclear if the karma points will evem come through. When I called the company to clarify the situation, whoever I spoke to didn’t seem too impressed by my forthrightness, and I’m not sure the word ever got back to my original client. So it goes.
Ethics are followed because it’s the right thing to do, not because we count on being recognized for it.
April 26th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Definitely call the boss. It is almost guaranteed to be a mistake, but in the off chance that they intended it, you’ll come off much more honest gracious for pointing it out. If you do this and they catch it, you can probably kiss working with them again goodbye.