creative underclass

posts about #creativeunderclass more →
Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
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TheSometimesWhy
12/04/09

In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
What's amazing to me is how so many comments here tout the same old line about this practice being the "industry standard" as justifying it as an ethical policy. This kind of behavior is antithetical to the very phrase "industry standard" because the phrase implies that there is one. (Standard, that is.) When pinching freelance employees to get a business enterprise to honor their legally binding debts becomes the standard, it's time to find a new phrase that captures the odious conduct. Maybe from now on when businesses employ this technique, we can say they have met the black-hole model of business ethics and standards which is so strong that not only can light not escape its influence, neither can money.
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rmric0.wedding.photographer.and.manny
12/03/09

In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
It's still better than "within five days of publication" like my last would-be boss tried to sneak past me.
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D2theMatthews
12/03/09

In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
Where's your Freelancer's Union now?
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Swifter
12/03/09

In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
This is a standard business practice.
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tongue-tied
12/03/09

@Swifter: Where?
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Swifter
12/03/09

@tongue-tied: Uh...everywhere. Most large corporations offer 10 day payment for a 2% discount, otherwise Net 30- 60 days to vendors and contractors.
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stevehowe435
12/03/09

@Swifter: Yes, but is this 25 days 0.5% on top of the random four months or so they're usually late with a 'payable upon receipt' 30-day net invoice? And does 'paid' mean when they print the check? Or when they postmark it three weeks later? Or when they walk it from the postage meter to the 'mail out' pile three weeks after that?

The terms, as printed, aren't so bad. But I've been freelancing 20 years, and.....
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Swifter
12/03/09

@stevehowe435: Your only real options are to withhold future services or sue if you're not on the actual payroll. Small businesses have been dealing with this since forever.
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Mediahohoho
12/03/09

@Swifter: Not in publishing, it's not.
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Swifter
12/03/09

@Mediahohoho: Ok, then don't write, and don't get paid. No big deal to me, and I suspect it's no big deal to Time either.
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Edited by Swifter at 12/03/09 11:47 PM Swifter was starred Swifter was unstarred

The Count of Monte Fisto
12/03/09

@Swifter: First they came for the writers, and I said nothing ...
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Mediahohoho
12/04/09

@Swifter: Prick.
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Motoko Kusanagi
12/04/09

@Swifter: Most large corporations also take up to five months to pay anyone, even their largest suppliers.

Also, you left out that anyone with any leverage gets 1-2% interest on late payments, which is the cost of holding back money.
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tongue-tied
12/04/09

@Swifter: I bill "Net 30" but no one has ever offered to pay faster if I offer a discount. However, more and more companies simply ignore my terms.
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tongue-tied
12/04/09

@Motoko Kusanagi: How do you collect though? Anyone can charge interest for late payment, but you can't do much if they ignore it and simply pay the original sum. Unless it's a very very large bill (in which case, you'd get at least a down payment), that 1% isn't going to amount to much.
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Swifter
12/04/09

@Mediahohoho: You betcha! Next to "Fire at will", "Fix Bayonets" is my favorite command.
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Edited by Swifter at 12/04/09 12:04 PM Swifter was starred Swifter was unstarred

Motoko Kusanagi
12/04/09

@tongue-tied: You don't unless you are "anyone with any leverage". Also that's 1-2% monthly, not annually. The bottom line is that from the moment you finish the work, they are essentially borrowing the money they owe you. You are entitled to to interest, so you should ask for a reasonable "cost of money" interest rate in your contract. If you don't have the leverage to get the contract term, or enforce it, c'est la vie. That's why they're big and you're not. As Bill Gates said on the Simpsons: "I didn't get to be a billionaire writing checks."
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daveyjonesisdead
12/03/09

In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
Early payment discounts are pretty common, but usually are involved when the purchaser is paying a lot of money. This sort of flips it on it's head and takes advantage of already taken-advantage-of workers. I swear, it's time to organize, you NYers! Then hire me as your lawyer. Please?
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daveyjonesisdead
12/03/09

@daveyjonesisdead: and those are pretty high percentages, to my mind, and it's unusual for them to be so graduated. Usually its just something like, 2% if you pay within 20 days, instead of 30 or 45 or even 60, which is not uncommon. Again, it's just taking advantage of the desperate.
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BxgrlJeri
12/03/09

In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
I will gladly pay you on Tuesday for a hamburger today.
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NerD: Blattella
12/03/09

@BxgrlJeri: I say this in all honestly: That will never get old.
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AzureTexan
12/03/09

In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
OK, fine, but if they're still late on a payment, do we get to go break the thumbs of Jeffrey L. Bewkes?
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iplaudius
12/03/09

In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
So are they admitting that they do not pay people according to the terms of their contracts?
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Tiger Lourdes: Zombie Hunter
12/03/09

@iplaudius: Freelancer contracts are almost always Net 30 to Net 90 so it's still within the contract. Tons of vendors will offer this to get invoices paid quicker, pretty common.
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RandomLunatic
12/03/09

In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
God, I'm so embarrassed to say this, but there have been times when if I'd been presented such an option, I would have taken it in a heartbeat.
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miss_msry
12/03/09

In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
I've been needing a Time, Inc. t-shirt. Give me a call, I still shoot film.
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TheSometimesWhy
12/03/09

In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
History proves that few people have ever gone broke loan-sharking.

Welcome to the tank, Time, Inc.
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Hiroine Protagonist
11/12/09

In reply to Team Jon Stewart Wins Again
What a lame attempt to generate controversy. #seanhannity
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LoveHandles
11/12/09

@Hiroine Protagonist: I think you missed the humor of this post? #seanhannity
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BaldwinPeriphetes
11/12/09

@LoveHandles: I think the writer missed the humor of this post.
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gawkimo
11/12/09

In reply to Team Jon Stewart Wins Again
The only solution to Mr. Chen's dilemma where Stewart and Hannity are equal parts of a big, evil corporate pie is to drop out altogether and not consume any media of any form remotely linked to big, evil corporations.

To do that I'd have to be a smug-crunchie living on an organic farm in Vermont bragging about how I don't watch TV and get all my "indie" news from rinky dink anti-neoliberal websites run by Zapatista sympathizers at California liberal arts colleges.

And I really don't want to be that person. #seanhannity
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TheSometimesWhy
11/12/09

In reply to Team Jon Stewart Wins Again
What's sad to me is that things have decayed to such an extent that the thought that somebody (especially when that somebody is in the media) might actually be doing something right, might actually be speaking truth to power because they believe it to be a right thing, that they are really nothing more than half of some serio-comic conspiracy to make us believe it is so.

Call me naive but I do believe Stewart is the real deal. Unequivocally so. I think on some level he is still incredulous over the tantric mindfuck that his show has filled the void that the "legitimate media" use to hold. What started out as a comedy show has become something else due to factors no one could have foreseen. It's like going to a Halloween party dressed as a cop and when an emergency arises being pressed into duty because the powers that be have failed to show up.

As for Hannity, the dickless wonder did what all of these fatuous shitheels do: when he is exposed as the rank hack that he is he just gives that smug shrug of his shoulders and says "Hey, what's the big deal?" Then in a brazen attempt to embarrass the people that have exposed him, he thanks them for watching, as if that was the plan all along.

In antiquity he would have been left on the side of a mountain and we would have rained stones own on his sorry ass.

Here's to the good old days. #seanhannity
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Hiroine Protagonist
11/12/09

@TheSometimesWhy: Beauty. #seanhannity
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Cunning_Linguist
11/12/09

@TheSometimesWhy: It's like you read my mind and make the things inside better and prettier. #seanhannity
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TheSometimesWhy
11/12/09

@Cunning_Linguist: Dear Cunning, (words I never thought I would type into a computer that was traceable) Thanks for your kind (if not cunning) words. Given your moniker, I am honored... #seanhannity
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BoKnowsMagic
11/12/09

In reply to Team Jon Stewart Wins Again
"He was also sending a winking, smartass shout-out to everyone who tuned in tonight solely for the satisfaction of seeing him eat crow."

Because the crow-eating was announced beforehand? or because Daily Show fans were watching, prepared to watch maybe for evenings on end, in the vain hope of a crow-eating?

The Daily Show sifts shows like Hannity's for gotcha and comedy nuggets so we don't have to. Life is short. I'd watch that shit if it were my job--gladly, in fact (the Daily Show can pm me with an offer)--but it's not. I'm fine with the highlights, as, I suspect, are most of the people indicted here for some weird complicity in that Hannity smugness that at least I woudn't have seen if you hadn't posted it.

Thanks, Gawker readers, for tuning in. #seanhannity
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