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Deborah 
Deborah - 18 months
Group: Members
Posts: 15746
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 02 2012, 11:55 am |
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Last night was the monthly meeting of a small weaving group that I attend.
The group is all female, though we would certainly welcome any men who wanted to join our study group. It's just that very few men weave.
Most of us are 50+ years old. Several are retired. One recently retired from a city job. She "grew up" in that job, 35+ years experience and learned the software from the moment it was first installed 25+ years ago and has worked on every version of it since. She is an expert on that application for the city. Since she retired she has been "helping her friend" at work 20 or more hours a month for FREE!
I was appalled! She is a sweetheart, but needs to be standing up for her rights. Given the complexity of the software, and her level of expertise with it, she should be getting at least $50 an hour for consulting.
I don't want to get into identifying the software, but it's complex enough that one can earn a four year degree in the use of it. She does not have that degree because she has been in the trenches solving real life problems with it. So, I am sure she knows it better than anyone just out of school.
We had a big GO M____ session and told her that we want to see the check she gets next month.
Value your knowledge and working skills! It might make her feel good to help her friend, but that will not build up her retirement fund or allow her to take some of those vacations that she longs to take.
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“What we need is production by the masses, not mass-production” Gandhi
“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” David Russell
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VAN
Group: Members
Posts: 3181
Joined: Nov. 2006
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Posted on: Feb. 02 2012, 6:25 pm |
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I agree! My husband provides a similar level of expertise for our chapter of the Navy League. He runs their website and consults on technology matters. He wanted to do it all pro-bono, but I convinced him to ask for a fee. So he made a proposal, wrote a contract, and submitted it. He gets $80 a month, so it is nothing crazy, but at least he has paid experience for his resume and he is making great connections for a future long term job. He went ahead and did the work for the annual 5k (the website build and fundraising) as pro-bono though... which I think was a fair compromise.
This woman has skills  She needs to set up a contract with fees associated, give a proposal, and get paid for her input.
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"Long you live and high you fly. And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry. And all you touch and all you see, is all your life will ever be." -Pink Floyd
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ponderosa
Group: Members
Posts: 4025
Joined: Jul. 2003
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Posted on: Feb. 03 2012, 2:29 pm |
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I hope you were able to convince her. Even though I had fewer years of service than many of my co-workers, I was soon the "resident expert" on nearly everything in the social work/case management dept at the hospital where I worked. In my last few months there, I spent considerable time creating shared files with loads of information. I wrote a very complete manual for the person taking my job, and spent weeks giving trainings to other people in the dept on numerous topics (these were all things that everyone should have known anyway, but evidently just found it easier to float along). The first few weeks after I quit (home with a new baby, recovering from a c-section, exhausted), I was getting about a dozen phone calls and/or emails a day. I helped for a while because some of these people were my friends, and I thought they just needed a bit of help to get on their feet. It soon became clear that the old pattern of low initiative, "we'll just ask sarah how to handle this" that I had put up with as an employee was not going to stop. I called my old boss to ask who in human resources I should speak with about working from home as a consultant. Magically, the calls and emails ceased.
Your friend's company can either pay her fair consultation fees, or pay to send her replacement to training. She owes them nothing at this point for free.
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The harder the toil, the sweeter the rest.
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SCKuhn
Group: Members
Posts: 55
Joined: Jan. 2012
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Posted on: Feb. 03 2012, 3:36 pm |
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I think there is actually more to this legally as well..... As I understand it companies that hire an employee to do a job can not have 'volunteers' doing the same job.
My wording is a bit off, but the point is, if the State Dept of Jobs & Family Service, Bureau of Workers Comp, or other government 'employment' agency knew this was going on I think the company would be in for some serious explaining. The Fair Labor Standards Act should cover her.
Snoop around the US Dept of Labor website a bit..... they probably owe her back pay!!!
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| Post Number: 6
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Survival Skills 101 • Eat Better
