go on!

So I decided, against my better judgment, to work for the same Boss at Sundance again this year. She's crazy and kind of awful and disrespects other peoples' time and takes full advantage of people who have a hard time saying no (like myself).

(Doing the job = press badge = other perks, which is why I did it but that's irrelevant to this bit)

The show is 5 days long, which means dedicating roughly 6 days to do the work. I told her this year I needed to be paid and she said I could be paid OR have housing, because she couldn't afford both. Reasonable. I opted for housing after talking to my friend who I work with doing it.

Fast forward to day 4 or something. I find out that Boss isn't paying for housing at all, she just asked a friend to let us stay there. So.. she could have technically afforded to pay me, but decided not to. Shitty, but acceptable.

By day 5 (yesterday), I'm so ridiculously over it I can't even. Today I finished up the docs I was supposed to do and sent them in.

SO.

She emails me back asking me to do a bunch of other things. I tell her that I'm not able to do the other things because I can only dedicate so much time to unpaid work (which I'm v proud of myself for, btw, because I hate not doing my best job possible).

Then she emails me to offer to pay me for the additional work.

This is where the advice is needed. On the one hand, I'm over her and don't want to deal with it. On the other hand, I could really use the money. But either way, I'm frustrated because she said she couldn't afford to pay me for the show but is now offering to pay me for other work???

Mmm, is the money going to be enough that it would feel worth it?

(Also sort of relevant is that I had to turn down $1200 in paid work for this unpaid gig because I honor my commitments)

Oh also relevant is that last year she agreed to pay me for 2 days after I twisted her arm, but I didn't receive the money until July.

failaga: I think if I could get her to agree to pay for the show AND the additional days, it would be worth it. But I don't know if that's even worth asking or if I should just cut my losses.

You could insist on being paid up front, if there's a concern about the pay coming through.

^^^^

(I won't be doing this again next year, so I'm not TOO concerned about looking bad, though I hate burnging bridges as a general rule)

cash up front, otherwise fuck 'er

It doesn't sound like it's worth it, tbh. I'd just wrap up the time you said you'd give and leave it at that.
^ Unless she'll pay you up front

ALSO if you do cash up front, make her list the exact deliverables in writing

so she can't whine about how you didn't do the thing

Hm. Well. If it boiled down to not having any other work and needing the money, I'd probably do it. If it's taking commitments from something else is far too much work for what she's offering etc. I'd say thanks for the offer but no.

also, the fact that you are so over dis bitch will help you set a boundary

which will be good practice for setting boundaries in the future

(in communicating about the possibility of doing this work she's asking for)

haha you would think but we had a similar argument last year.

I'd obv ask for the money up front. But do I do it at all, knowing it'll be super stressful? Can I be like "wtf I thought you couldn't afford to pay me, so pay me for the show AND additional days before I do it" or just the additional days?

oh hey yeah definitely be like "oh now you have the money?"

want me to do it for you?

give me her phone number

HEY I HEAR YOU'RE A LABOR-STEALING FUCKFACE

rofl

but for real she's awful. like one time she asked me to copy/paste something from an email and text it to her.. rather than her opening her email..

(when I was in the middle of working on something else)

anyway. thanks chums.

(and I welcome further input if new peeps pop in)

why not tell her that you are hesitant to agree because you were not compensated before

and see what she says

update for those curious: I told my boss that I was confused about how she couldn't afford to pay me before but could now. no reply since, in spite of other emails and texts, hahaha

DECISION MADE FOR ME

called her bluff

well done on you!

<3

ugh she did reply today finally explaining that I chose not to get paid and said for the third time I shouldn't do it if I don't want to (which I've already replied to twice)

So I finally just said "okay, thanks" and that was it. sick of her shit

Me too and I don't even know her. :/