D
dexteria
Guest
Hi there,
Thanks for your great website; I really enjoy reading.
I have my own question, and I hope you can help.
I've been working for a small startup web design company in
Pennsylvania. The relationship has been steadily souring since their sponsor (a company in Florida which my "employer" co-owns) backed out, they moved out of the office, and I started working from home. They haven't been sending me much work, and the little work they *have* sent
me, they take a long time (weeks, months) to pay me for. I'm currently owed about $550.
While I was working for them, I came to their office and used their equipment, but they didn't take any employment taxes, Medicare payments, etc. out of my paychecks. I had no benefits, either. It was a pretty shady deal, with the parent company in Florida paying me, unwilling to file the paperwork required to take taxes out. Additionally, I never
signed a *single* piece of paper for them: no contract, no
nondisclosure agreement, no non-compete agreement. Because of this, I now consider the arrangement to have been a freelance endeavor.
The websites that I worked on while I worked for them were 99% my own. My "employer" (actually should call him a supervisor) would throw ideas out for designs, but that's all. For example, on one website, he suggested that we use a chalk outline of a guy on gritty wet pavement, and we worked together on taking the photographs. I did all the physical and creative work from there. Of course, he offered feedback and ordered changes, etc.
In my mind, this is no different than it would be with me working for a client. They would provide photography, written copy, maybe some brochures, possibly tell me what they'd want the website to look like.
Once I started working from home, I decided to start my own business and informed them of this.
I had been working on my biz's website (www.charlotteswebworks.com) and my statistics tracker had been informing me that they had been checking on the "coming soon" screen about once a day. I grinned, figuring that
they'd have something to say about my portfolio once I posted it.
So last Thursday I finally launched the thing, complete with the portfolio, which included some work I did for them. But on the sections that included work that I did for them, I had a statement that said that it was done as part of a consulting arrangement with them.
Friday afternoon, my supervisor calls me and asks why I didn't get permission to put the pieces in my portfolio. I tell him that I inserted the statement at the bottom of each piece, noting that it was done as part of a consultation arrangement, and that I never signed any nondisclosure agreements with them. He said that he didn't want to pursue legal action with me, so he wanted to "work with me" on the
wording or something. By this time I was so ticked off that I wasn't listening anymore. To buy some thinking time, I told him that I'd take off the offending pieces.
But now I'm not so sure I want to do that. Some of my best-looking work was done with them.
He later set an ultimatum of Feb. 7th for me to either take the stuff down or change it. So I send him an e-mail asking, just out of curiosity, what kind of changes he wanted. He sends me back a 2-page Word document that essentially orders me to change my portfolio to say that THE COMPANY did all the work, not me. The ironic part of it all is that *I* was the web design team. The only designer.
I've changed my portfolio for the time being. You can view my original portfolio at:
http://www.charlotteswebworks.com/portfolio2
Does this guy have a case? I had thought that if you don't sign any property ownership or nondisclosure agreements or anything, you just stick a statement in there to be nice, and that's that.
Thank you so much for your attention and the great online service you provide. Any suggestions will be helpful.
Thanks for your great website; I really enjoy reading.
I have my own question, and I hope you can help.
I've been working for a small startup web design company in
Pennsylvania. The relationship has been steadily souring since their sponsor (a company in Florida which my "employer" co-owns) backed out, they moved out of the office, and I started working from home. They haven't been sending me much work, and the little work they *have* sent
me, they take a long time (weeks, months) to pay me for. I'm currently owed about $550.
While I was working for them, I came to their office and used their equipment, but they didn't take any employment taxes, Medicare payments, etc. out of my paychecks. I had no benefits, either. It was a pretty shady deal, with the parent company in Florida paying me, unwilling to file the paperwork required to take taxes out. Additionally, I never
signed a *single* piece of paper for them: no contract, no
nondisclosure agreement, no non-compete agreement. Because of this, I now consider the arrangement to have been a freelance endeavor.
The websites that I worked on while I worked for them were 99% my own. My "employer" (actually should call him a supervisor) would throw ideas out for designs, but that's all. For example, on one website, he suggested that we use a chalk outline of a guy on gritty wet pavement, and we worked together on taking the photographs. I did all the physical and creative work from there. Of course, he offered feedback and ordered changes, etc.
In my mind, this is no different than it would be with me working for a client. They would provide photography, written copy, maybe some brochures, possibly tell me what they'd want the website to look like.
Once I started working from home, I decided to start my own business and informed them of this.
I had been working on my biz's website (www.charlotteswebworks.com) and my statistics tracker had been informing me that they had been checking on the "coming soon" screen about once a day. I grinned, figuring that
they'd have something to say about my portfolio once I posted it.
So last Thursday I finally launched the thing, complete with the portfolio, which included some work I did for them. But on the sections that included work that I did for them, I had a statement that said that it was done as part of a consulting arrangement with them.
Friday afternoon, my supervisor calls me and asks why I didn't get permission to put the pieces in my portfolio. I tell him that I inserted the statement at the bottom of each piece, noting that it was done as part of a consultation arrangement, and that I never signed any nondisclosure agreements with them. He said that he didn't want to pursue legal action with me, so he wanted to "work with me" on the
wording or something. By this time I was so ticked off that I wasn't listening anymore. To buy some thinking time, I told him that I'd take off the offending pieces.
But now I'm not so sure I want to do that. Some of my best-looking work was done with them.
He later set an ultimatum of Feb. 7th for me to either take the stuff down or change it. So I send him an e-mail asking, just out of curiosity, what kind of changes he wanted. He sends me back a 2-page Word document that essentially orders me to change my portfolio to say that THE COMPANY did all the work, not me. The ironic part of it all is that *I* was the web design team. The only designer.
I've changed my portfolio for the time being. You can view my original portfolio at:
http://www.charlotteswebworks.com/portfolio2
Does this guy have a case? I had thought that if you don't sign any property ownership or nondisclosure agreements or anything, you just stick a statement in there to be nice, and that's that.
Thank you so much for your attention and the great online service you provide. Any suggestions will be helpful.
