In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, Travis King and Thursday Bram look at freelance fashion and bosses who take advantage.
Ask FreelanceSwitch is a regular column here that allows us to help beginners get a grip on freelancing. If you have a question about freelancing that you want answered, send an email to askfreelanceswitch@gmail.com.
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Question #1
My primary focus is Web Design and Development but the thing I am usually the most confused about is how I should physically present myself.
I’m a lax kind of person, and I’m sure many freelancers are. I mean, essentially the job allows you to sit at home and become a slob — a very professional one in many cases. But presentation means a lot and one of my biggest worries is overdressing or underdressing for an interview with a prospective client.
-Tyler
Thursday: It is incredibly easy for freelancers to fall into the habit of dressing extremely casually — I often refer to sweat pants as my work clothes. My general rule is that if I’m meeting with a client, business casual is the best option. Business casual is a lot easier for guys, by the way: nice pants and a button-up shirt is generally fine, although a blazer can add a nice touch. Women have more options, which can make the decision harder. I had to get one of my friends with a day job come in and approve the outfits in my ‘meet with clients’ collection, because dresses, skirts, slacks, sweater sets, dress shirts and other items of apparel are all acceptable under business casual.
When possible, I like to scout out what the level of dress in the office I’m going into is: I’ll look online for any photos in the office or anything like that. If the general rule seems to be more formal than business casual, I recommend dressing to match. However, business casual has become the norm in most industries. Gallup did a poll a few years ago that concluded that 43 percent of U.S. employees wear business casual and 28 percent where casual street clothes.
Travis: I’m glad you came to us with this question, Tyler. Now I don’t want to give you the wrong impression and pretend I’m something I’m not, but I pretty much know everything there is to know about fashion.
The first mistake that new fashion freelancers make is to listen to what other freelancers say about what to wear. Many freelancers will tell you to wear whatever you like. Their reasoning is that people pay for your skills and not for the way you look. But these are the same people that wear socks and sandals. Outdoors. Where people can see them!
*shudder*
A good rule of thumb for maintaining a professional appearance is to always dress a little better than the people you are going to see. If it’s a jeans and t-shirt kind of place, kick it up with a nice pair of slacks and a fashionable tee or an open-collared shirt. Lately I’ve seen some of the Aussies around me pulling off the deep cut v-neck shirts with a healthy splash of man rug peaking out. That’s a hard look to pull off; I would suggest staying away from it.
The thing about looking good is that it gives you a confidence boost when you walk in the door. And who couldn’t use a little confidence when landing a new client?
Oh yeah, and don’t forget the shoes. Grab a nice pair of leather dress shoes that will look good even with a pair of jeans. For extra points, match your belt and watch strap to your shoe color. Just remember to forget about the white belt and white shoes…those will make you look like a doffus…or an Australian.
Question #2
This is a long one, but trust me, it’s good.
Two years ago, the boss at my primary job put up her own venture with two friends and asked if I wanted to help. The part-time job involved developing my skills as an e-mail marketer, one of several things I was already doing. Thinking the project would be great training and a worthwhile way to earn a little cash (a third of my salary), I said yes.
I worked on this other job after work and on weekends. But since the venture was so new, I ended up working late at night and throughout most of the weekend. I felt exhausted and had little time to do anything else. After three months, I decided that ‘moonlighting’ was not working, and so I ‘daylighted,’ doing most of the work at my primary workplace to save time. My boss promised me I would be paid double, but she never followed through. A year later, my boss and her two partners asked me to be part of their monthly staff meetings so I was ‘kept in the loop’ as to what was happening in the company. This involved taking time off my primary job for four hours a month.
All this time, my boss expected me to dedicate time to this part-time job as if I were a regular employee. And yet I’m still paid the same amount for my efforts. There have been times when I’d spend almost a week doing nothing but the second job, or the other way around, depending on which one demanded more attention.
Earlier this year, my boss agreed (based on my recommendations) to tap an e-mail marketing service to significantly lessen my workload. Signing up for the service certainly helped but, during the first three months, the service dues were deducted from my paycheck. At our last meeting, I was asked to now monitor the company’s social networking presence (as I set up most of their social networking accounts), although a full-time marketing and events coordinator is in charge of posting content. I feel that this is beyond the original scope of my work (which is e-mail marketing, press release distribution, mailing list maintenance, and very basic website development). My boss’ venture has become such a huge hit among customers, that their full-time employees have their hands full.
What I’d like to ask is: How do you get out of a second job, especially if you’re working with the same boss both in your day and side jobs?
– Maria
Thursday: This is going to call for a sit-down conversation with your boss, tough as that might be. There is plenty of room in a situation like this for misunderstanding and there is no guarantee of how your boss will respond to your need to end the secondary contract. Sitting down and talking about it calmly, in a situation where you are able to just lay out the matter has the best odds of success, but I’d be prepared for some problems as a result. To the extent that you can, you’ll have to ride them out.
You can handle the meeting in a number of different ways, depending on your boss’ personality and your preference. Personally, I’d go with the following approach: I’d tell my boss that I need time for some personal projects and that I need to step away from the email marketing work. If your boss has developed as many projects of her own as you mentioned, she should be able to understand that sort of need. I wouldn’t describe any particular projects (given that your first project may be focused on recovering from your busy schedule rather than on anything else). Other options include laying out the financial considerations (although that might get you an offer of more money rather than a chance to resign) or resigning and not giving a reason.
It sounds like your boss isn’t treating you fairly in this situation — the fact that she took the costs of an email marketing service out of your pay is something I consider unacceptable. That isn’t going to cease unless you start protecting your time from your boss.
Travis: I had to put most of your email up there Maria, because it has the makings of a screenplay for a wonderful freelancer horror flick. I think I’ll call it “Attack of the Life-sucking Boss.”
Thursday has the right advice, it’s time to sit down with your boss and bang things out. In fact, I think you’ve already left it way too long. You should have spoken up a long time ago.
I used to find myself in similar situations to you. I would let myself get walked all over until the point where I could take no more. Then I would introduce the office to my Irish temper. That’s when things got interesting.
If I were you, when I found out my boss was subtracting service fees from my pay check would have been the point when chairs would have started flying. That’s just infuriatingly stupid.
I think the problem is that your boss is a workaholic and loses herself in her projects. These types of people can’t understand why other people are not as excited as them or work as hard as they do. It’s time to tell her that you’re burning out and she either needs to scale you back or find herself a new whipping girl.
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