Ah, the freeloaders! The people who want work done, intros to connections, your experience, your time, for free.

When I teach or lecture at unis and trade schools I get asked how much of one’s work, time, insights, network is ok to give away for free at the start of one’s career. This question occasionally pops up among seniors in the workplace too as freeloaders sadly are everywhere, all the time.

So, of course I'm not talking about the healthy part of working life, i.e. being there for colleagues and dear friends and collaborators offering to support each other and help each other succeed. I’m talking about the takers, the non-givers.

The key to handling the situation is in reframing. From “how much am I comfortable giving away” to “what do they have of equal value that I want”.

When someone wants your skills, time or network for free, ask them for an equally valuable trade. Their time, their network, their product. Not in the future, but here and now. Offers of future compensation should be considered, but if you give something now they should too.

This puts the discussion on equal footing. Let’s make a trade, complete a “transaction”. This has the added benefit of moving focus away from you both as individuals and putting it firmly on work and the transaction itself.

If they say yes, it’s all good. A fair transaction. If they say no you say no.

Clean. Simple. Professional.

⫘ Wired magazine has abandoned it's fluff piece techno hype b*llocks and started delivering proper journalism under the guidance of Katie Drummond. Predictably the tech billionaires aren't happy, but everyone else should be. Great piece by David Karpf, including an overview of each of Drummond's predecessors.

“I felt that one of the only ways to break through in media in this era was to break so much news that you become indispensable to an audience.” – Katie Drummond

⫘ Blir som snö ▷ new track from Swedish band Ambivalensen. And don't miss their Jag kan släcka eld ▷ from 2022.

Over to you!
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/Jaan ⎚-⎚

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