Things We Need To Leave In 2017: Creatives Work For Free
What is the one thing anyone working over the age of 16 has in common?
They all hate being told to work for free, or for exposure or for a discount on whatever product a company wants them to review. Being a creative is very strange nowadays, it seems everyone needs and wants your help, but no one wants to compensate you for it. It’s almost as if they believe no work goes into what you do and you’re able to create and make concepts out of nothing. Working in a creative field is hard enough, especially when you don’t have experience so the added insult of feeling like your work isn’t worth compensation makes it even harder.
It’s even worse when actual companies try to rip you off, at least when it’s a single person, you can kind of write them off as a bit of a dick. Imagine my excitement when I had found a 3-month internship who were only supposed to pay my travel expenses but instead, they insisted on actually paying me for my work! Bear in mind this was my first experience in my field so I must admit I had a bit of a rosy glasses situation going on, I was oblivious to other problems certain people seemed to be having with the company so when I kept hearing so much praise and constructive feedback regarding my work, I couldn’t believe my luck and payment seemed to slip to the back of my mind.
The problems came more than halfway through the internship when I asked about when I would be paid. I had missed other red flags but finally caught on when I kept hearing wishy washy answers from the manager. The worst thing about the situation wasn’t even not getting paid, the worst thing was not being respected enough to be told or to even try to figure out a plan of how this would be resolved. I had spent my time and my money travelling to a place owned by a person who even to this day doesn’t seem to value my time or my skills. We’re about 7 months now from when I had to experience that mess and it still isn’t resolved.
When something like this happen, there are so many steps you can take to make sure something like this doesn’t happen to you like keeping a record of your work, keeping track of invoices, making clients pay deposits or up front and keeping your name in their inbox*! In 2018, we are no longer going to be debt collectors or online bailiffs, let’s work with companies who know they should be compensating for any kind of work and appreciate all the time and effort this can take!
Now I’m not saying that all companies who offer you exposure are trying to scam or undermine you. Working in any creative industry is hard, you have to put in way more hours especially if you’re not doing your dream job as your main work and in most instances, you won’t make money straight away. It makes it all the more difficult when you actually do start making money and someone tries to get in the way of this. When someone takes advantage of you, it’s not something you forget in a hurry. It can make you feel like an idiot, you may even start blaming yourself. One thing we can all afford to remember is that whenever anyone, whether it be a family member, a friend, or a company, tries to downplay your talent in order to profit from it themselves, it’s a reflection on them and not on you or your talent. We are leaving all doubts about out work back in 2017 and we are getting the recognition and coins that we deserve!
*If all else fails, you can get in contact with Citizens Advice Bureau or the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas), they will speak with you and the client and help to bring a resolution.