How to handle murky contracting situation
April 2, 2015 6:54 AM   Subscribe

How much more unpaid labor do I give in an unfair contracting situation? If the answer is "now," how do I leave professionally?

I'm licensed in a healthcare related field. Earlier in my career I worked as a subcontractor doing a specialized type of testing for a medical practice. I worked there once a week for about a year but left when the cases they were assigning to me started to dry up and the fee structure meant it was no longer worth the time commitment. Recently, the director contacted me to start working there again as a contractor. I was promised about 8-12 hours of highly paid work a month and as part of the deal I wpuld do one hour of unpaid non-testing services there per week as well. Well, it's been five weeks, and there have been zero paid cases assigned to me while I continue to put in the unpaid one hour per week. I feel like I'm getting the run-around from the office manager when I ask about the situation and it has eroded my trust in the center as a whole. I also have some ethical concerns about their processes and a part of me even worries that they've brought me on just to try to shift liability onto me.

I don't have faith that the situation will quickly change, and I've been left with a serious case of the icks about the whole operation now. Should I hang in there or quit now? I mentioned to the office manager this week (after getting basically a shrug in response to my questions) that I thought I could give it two more weeks without paid cases. Now, I just feel like I want out of the situation asap. Should I go in to talk to the (intimidating and aloof) director to quit in person? Can I do it by email, or by phone call (to the office manager or director?). Should I hang in there in the hope that the paid work magically and consistently appears?
posted by Yellow Silver Maple to Work & Money (13 answers total)
 
Quit, and in the letter/email refer to it as volunteer service since they never used you for paid work.
posted by saucysault at 7:01 AM on April 2, 2015 [4 favorites]


Um, well at this point you're pretty much just volunteering. Do you have any of these specifics in a written contract with them? I would for sure get out, as they're obviously using you. Keep in cordial if you want a reference of your skills. If you really want or need the work later then I'd say "I can come in for paid days, but I will be unable to do unpaid work hours." They can take it or leave it. Personally, I would stay away from any position that wants you to do any unpaid labor unless it specifically is volunteer work.
posted by Crystalinne at 7:03 AM on April 2, 2015 [4 favorites]


It's hard to know what the structure of the office is, but it seems like the director would know more about the possibility of paid work materializing than the office manager would. At any rate, they're already not living up to their end of the bargain ("I was promised about 8-12 hours of highly paid work a month"), regardless of what the future is said to hold. I'd be reluctant to believe any further promises at this point.
posted by sleevener at 7:06 AM on April 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


Best answer: You need to email the director who offered this, umm, incentive program and say:

Hi John,

I just wanted to let you know that as no contract hours have emerged for the XYZ role, I will no longer be able to volunteer the testing time I've put in over the last five weeks.

Please do let me know if you need me for XYZ contracting hours in future.

All the best,
Yellow Stripe Maple

posted by DarlingBri at 7:34 AM on April 2, 2015 [23 favorites]


The department of labor might be interested in a for-profit business that is not paying its workers.

Not only would I quit, but I would seriously consider reporting them. And also notify your licensing board, so that if they try to put liability on you, they'll know in advance about these shenanigans.
posted by decathecting at 7:54 AM on April 2, 2015 [15 favorites]


Best answer: Yellow Silver Maple: "Should I hang in there in the hope that the paid work magically and consistently appears?"

When you use the word "magically" in this context, you have answered your own question.
posted by adamrice at 7:58 AM on April 2, 2015 [11 favorites]


If they DO give you the 8-12 hours of highly paid work, you don't volunteer your hour a week again until you've received 10 hours of actual paying work -- you've put in volunteer time for one month's worth of actual pay already.

(You might not want to take it if they offer it, and I don't think they will, but on the off chance.)
posted by jeather at 9:03 AM on April 2, 2015


I would email the director as soon as possible to let them know you won't be able to volonteer your time until a substantial amount of paid cases have been assigned to you. DarlingBri's email script above sounds great. Handling this via email also creates a paper trail that clarfies what this arrangement turned out to be ( volonteer hours from your end) should they ever try to shift blame to you for some reason for something in the future regarding this whole set up.
posted by Rapunzel1111 at 9:13 AM on April 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


What are they setting you up for? Or do they just want to be able to say their office offers XYZ service??

This has my spidey senses tingling and you should never ever accept work from people you do not trust for exactly this reason: They've used you for free, but there are liability with medical procedures and you could be on the hook here and not know it, by their design and for their benefit.

Sever your relationship with these people in writing and never ever go back.
posted by jbenben at 9:15 AM on April 2, 2015 [3 favorites]


Or, renegotiate for an hourly pay rate, work or no work, to cover the hours you're on call for them to perform for the XYZ service when needed.

This should have been the deal from the beginning.

And bill them for the 5 hours you've put in already.
posted by JimN2TAW at 9:58 AM on April 2, 2015


Speaking from experience, although in the medical field, this type of thing never works out. It's the same when you're grossly underpaid.

Even though replacing you would cost them way more, they just get too used to the idea that they can get X amount of work out of you for free/too little money and recalibrating expectations becomes hard. Because even low pay is a huge jump up from no pay. They will avoid you and/or kvetch and moan.

Converting a supposedly partially paid/partially unpaid or unpaid gig in to a paid gig, even when it was promised at the start, is generally surprisingly hard. It's usually a better deal to just leave and find something somewhere else that starts paying right at the beginning like you know, a real job will.
posted by emptythought at 2:24 PM on April 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


If you do decide to stay, you need to renegotiate the contract. Either they pay you a set fee that includes your 8-10 paid hours plus one hour unpaid, or you are only committed to work the unpaid hour AFTER you have received 8 hours of paid work.
posted by CathyG at 2:28 PM on April 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


I was promised about 8-12 hours of highly paid work a month and as part of the deal I wpuld do one hour of unpaid non-testing services there per week as well.

Bill him for 8 hours of "highly paid work" and see how he reacts to that. It's not your fault they didn't get the benefit they thought they were going to get because they couldn't supply you the work to do.

This whole thing is weird. One hour of work? What can you even usefully do in one hour? Is this some kind of legal definition trick thing like selling a house for one dollar?

In any case, get the agreement spelled out. What if there's no paying work available in a week? Do I still do the volunteer hour? How many weeks like that before I get a minimum payment? Only after you've got all the possibilities of what could happen identified and how they will be handled can you even know if it's something you can agree to. So far you've only agreed to volunteer one hour a week and "maybe but not promising" anything in return? You're essentially paying for the privilege to be on the list of people they might hire someday. YMMV, but that would have to be some really highly-paying 8-12 hours for me to keep doing that.
posted by ctmf at 4:39 PM on April 4, 2015


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