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Boorish requests for Freebies

 
 
jespah
 
Reply Sat 17 Apr, 2004 04:56 pm
Recently, an acquaintance of mine presented some information to me and asked if there was a viable case. Now, I haven't practiced law in nearly 14 years and I'm not licensed here in Mass., so anything I undertook would require research on my part. And this person obviously expected me to do this for free!

Oh yeah, I've got the time to donate you a few hundred dollars of free work so that you can give the case to someone else and not even give me a referral fee. Sure. Yeah. And pigs are taking to the air.

Plus, not to put too fine a point on it, I could be hit for malpractice liability if I said there was no case and there was one. All this for free! For free!

So, have you experienced this sort of thing in your line of work? Are you a nurse who everyone asks, hey, I've got a pain here, can you tell me what it is? Are you a hairdresser from whom everyone asks for a free cut - just this once? Are you a tech worker who your acquaintances ask for free help setting up some sort of complicated system - on your day off?

Let it out, people, I feel your pain.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 2,191 • Replies: 7
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Noddy24
 
  1  
Reply Sat 17 Apr, 2004 05:14 pm
Back nearly 30 years ago when I was Single Again and job hunting in the middle of a recession (overeducated and underqualified) I found it very difficult to explain to people that I was not staying home for their convenience.

Since you'll be home....wait for my plumber... wait for my UPS delivery; let my kids check in with you after school...pick up a few things at the grocery store...

What I resented was the assumption that their time was much more important than my time.
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Wilso
 
  1  
Reply Sat 17 Apr, 2004 05:43 pm
Constantly. I'm a licenced electrician, and people think installing a new outlet is only a five minute job (not replacing, but running the cable in for the new outlet). WRONG. I do occasionally do "love jobs", but only for very good friends.
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Acquiunk
 
  1  
Reply Sat 17 Apr, 2004 06:58 pm
This is the bane of my existence. I am an archaeologist and am constantly being solicited to provide free advice to individuals or even agencies under legal obligations to preserve cultural resources, or even on occasions to conduct free excavations. All on the assumption that I enjoy doing this so much that the payment of money would sully the experience. In fact I do make myself available to local historical societies, avocational groups, and schools for free lectures or evenings of conversation/identification (lets see what you have in your shoe box) because it has a long term pay back in terms of public good will and information. But I am not a free service provider. What really irritates my (and local historical societies are particularly prone to do this), is to be asked my opinion of a particular site and then find that a major restoration was being proposed which would require archaeological mitigation andthat my ideas were fashioned into a grant application or scope of services proposal with some other archaeologist as the principle investigator.
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jespah
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Apr, 2004 04:28 am
Gawd, this boorishness is everywhere, eh?

I don't mind doing things for close family members, of course. If my brother needed a house closing in NY, I'd come out of retirement and do it myself, and do all of the research but just charge him something really nominal (e. g. dinner) etc.

When I was first admitted, I was dating a man who did not eventually become my husband. The guy's friend's father wanted me to do a house closing (which I have never done) for $100. I looked into the matter and learned that no one on LI did them for under $500. So, I told the man it would be $1,000. I wasn't bothered by that guy again.
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sozobe
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Apr, 2004 08:18 am
Hey Jes, can ya do my house closing? :-D

When I had just moved here from L.A., and was still thinking like a high-roller, a friend asked me if I would come speak to an arts group he deals with about Deaf issues in conjunction with a Deaf play. I said sure, I'd be happy to, I usually charge $50/ hr for these kinds of things but I'd be willing to reduce my fee. He was horrified. Fee? Fee?

Ah well.
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Noddy24
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Apr, 2004 10:28 am
I've been thinking about the mental set of a person who assumes that his/her friends and acquaintances exist to provide his/her world with freebee comforts.

Somehow the freeloader assumes that by knowing a person with specialized, hard-won information that he/she has a right to that information--without cash.

Some of my long ago neighbors were meticulous about returning favors in cash or in kind. Only one couple seemed oblivious to the idea that watching their daughter on a Snow Day might be an imposition.

People!
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jespah
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Apr, 2004 07:42 pm
Oh yeah, soz, I'll be happy to .... Laughing

People are amazing, eh? They won't let you borrow a shovel but they're more than willing to impose on you.

The freebies thing is actually covered in Law School, in the Professional Responsibility class. Basically, we're told we're being fools to do work for free, unless it's under an authorized pro bono-type program.
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