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Mentor
Hi Fishes,
Looking for freelancing jobs
What does this even mean?!
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What agency is doing the new Twizzler ads?
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Chief
With some unusual exceptions, it is assumed that you are going to be paid for the amount of time they book you. If they are booking me for 40hrs/week, that’s the time I’m expected to be available and that’s what I’m charging. You may want to check your contract or have a quick talk about what happens if you go over. That’s what they may care about more than anything. If they’re working you 60 hours/week when they only budgeted 40 and you’re logging all 60 hours in your timesheets, that could be a problem because you’ll go over their allowed budget or they’ll have to cut you loose before the project is done. Back a few years ago when the market wasn’t so bad, any time I worked over 40, hours, I would be paid at time and a half or double rate (depending) for overtime.
Nowadays, most agencies will tell you to let them know in advance if you anticipate working many more hours than what your contract says. Keep in mind that before an agency hires a freelancer, they have to get a budget approval. The thing that they care about the most is, is to not go over that budget. But the budget is already set and allocated to pay you.
Now if I’m waiting for feedback and I have a couple days where I’m not doing shit, of course I bill for those. I bill for my time, per hour not per words written or pixels pushed or ideas generated. What they have me do during that time, is up to them, but I’m still getting paid.
Some exceptions to that could be for example something that happened to me recently. A long delay in the kick off date, after the time the contract had supposedly started. I could have told the agency that I wanted to get paid for an entire month of delay, but obviously I did not, because in this market they would’ve told me to get lost, and I would’ve ruined my relationship with them. Not worth it. In my case, the kick off was extremely delayed, but we talked about it and I had the freedom to pursue other stuff while I waited. After a while the project took off without a hitch and they’ve been a great client.
You’ll get paid but your timesheet may be flagged by your supervisor. Assuming the first week has non billable time for training / onboarding. But once that’s over, you should be 100% billable
You should be paid for all the time they’ve booked you, but I’ve heard of agencies that try to be dodgy about this. If it’s a bigger or holding company agency just make sure they’ve given you a non billable job number vs. a non working job number (this is the kind where you don’t get paid, it’s meant for things like holidays and personal time)
My agency would not understand why any freelance time is unreliable n