Re: Contracting on the side...ethical?

Subject: Re: Contracting on the side...ethical?
From: technical_writer -at- rte -dot- com
To: techwr-l
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 6:11:22

I, too, made this part of my contract when I moved from freelancer to
corporate captive last April. My current employer agreed, as long as:
o I fulfill my responsibilities to them, including OT when needed
o I don't work for a direct competitor.
o I don't pitch their current clients.
o I don't undercut their proposals to prospective clients.

So far, there have only been two conflicts.

In the first case, a firm was referred to me by one of my former clients
for some marketing-oriented web editing. This firm also was a potential
client of RTE's for some process-control software. RTE wasn't interested
in the web stuff, since there wasn't any software involved, so they didn't
object to my doing it on a freelance basis. Unfortunately, the firm
wouldn't pay more than minimum wage for the web editing, so I referred them
to a college class that needed some real-life projects.

The second conflict involved one of my long-term freelance techwriting
clients, primarily for user documentation and customer education materials.
They are also a long-term client of RTE's for embedded software
development (no user docs required). We have discussed rolling my
techwriting services into their RTE account. There hasn't been a specific
project to test this on yet, so I don't know how it will work. I suspect
the client will have a terminal attack of sticker shock when they see the
charge-out rate. Ah, well...

Kat Nagel Kat_Nagel -at- rte -dot- com

Geoff Hart wrote:
> When I joined my current employer, I made it clear to both my bosses that I was
> doing occasional freelance editing, and that I retained the right to continue
> doing so provided that (i) it didn't interfere with my day job and (ii) that if
> there was the least suggestion of conflict of interest, I'd get their
> permission before proceeding. It's worked well for me thus far.




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