RE: Freelance ethical dilemma

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Emily Cotlier reports: <<I do freelance tech writing/marketing writing for a
small software company, and I've been working with them for about a year...
they decided to hire someone to work on their marketing communications
full-time. They hired the right person... She's my new contact there and my
tech writing work will be filtered through her, which is working very well.
However, I've been getting calls from my previous contact there, asking me
to work on projects which are firmly in their marketing writer's territory
and capabilities. I know that he's asking me because I'm well acquainted
with their software, and because we work well together - but I think he
ought to be working with the in-house marketing writer on these pieces.>>

>From a practical standpoint, it sounds like your former contact isn't
comfortable with the new marketeer, and is trying to avoid dealing with her.
You're not doing anyone a favor by encouraging this behavior, and you might
end up alienating both your contacts if you let them use you as a pawn in
whatever head games or politics are going on within the company. From an
ethical standpoint, you owe it to the marketeer to give her a chance to
solidify her new position at the company, and encouraging someone to work
around her will actually undermine her chance to fit in and establish
authority. Moreover, you owe it to the company to not let them use you to
promote activities that will undermine the company's functioning, which is
what turf wars inevitably do. Since you've still got a good relationship
with the former contact, you need to explain this situation to him very
clearly and politely and ask whether there's a good reason (something you
aren't aware of) why he might need to work around the marketeer. If he has a
good reason, then perhaps you can find a way to bring this to the
marketeer's attention and give her a chance to fix the situation before it
becomes really serious--but let me emphasize that you're not being paid as a
staff psychologist, and shouldn't let yourself get drawn too deeply into the
situation. If your former contact can't provide an objectively good reason,
then you need to point out that it's not fair for him to drag you into a
situation that in the end comes down to nothing more than interpersonal
incompatibility. Be firm but polite, and be prepared to have to repeat your
message a few times until he gets the point.

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
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