Money: not for nothing

While I was job hunting this spring I was surprised by the number of employers who responded by offering a temp position. At first I ignored them, because I was looking for a full-time, reasonably long-term job. Then one of the offers sounded too good to pass up, and when I asked about the duration of the work I discovered this job category called "temp to perm."

Basically what it is happening is a company wants a full-time employee, but they don't want the expense of benefits (401k, sick days, personal days, health insurance, etc). So they call it a temp position, but you work full-time hours and it lasts basically as long as a regular job would. This is my current situation. I'm working for a very large corporation, and I know they have a ton of policies about 'social media' and what you can and can't say about them online, so I'm going to keep the company name to myself.

I get paid a very good hourly rate, I submit an invoice once a week, and I like what I do. While I don't have the traditional benefits (and I have to do my own taxes at the end of the year!), I do have one huge benefit, which is flexible hours. Every day this week I've worked from 10am to 5pm, taking a full hour off for lunch, so I'm billing six hours per day. It's fantastic. I don't have to stress if the subway is stalled or if I need to leave early for a softball game or whatever--I come and go pretty much as I please!

There is a big difference, however, between getting paid a regular salary and billing for your time. I wish it weren't true, but the fact is I still find it a bit uncomfortable to tell someone how much money they owe me. I'm worth every penny I'm getting there (and probably more) and I'm doing a good job, so why do I find myself mentally justifying how much I'm getting paid every time I write up my weekly invoice? This has got to stop.

Which brings me to a related issue: I'm no longer writing for the neighborhood newspaper I was associated with for a few months. It was a good experience, but I knew I wouldn't have time once I started a new job. Also, the publisher is cheap and has terrible communication skills. My last assignment was an article about a furniture design expo in the city. Based on what she e-mailed me, I wrote a piece that I felt met the specifications. After I sent it in, I heard nothing for weeks. Then the issue came out, and I was puzzled why my article wasn't printed. I sent her an e-mail, waited another week, and finally she replied and told me that what I wrote wasn't what she'd had in mind, so she decided not to run it. We agreed on a kill fee of 25% of the original payment, which I have yet to see several weeks later.

It's not a huge amount of money, but I've been avoiding following up. Partly because I don't like to be reminded of a 'failure,' but also because a part of me felt like I didn't deserve it. I disappointed her. I failed to meet expectations. Never mind that I spent valuable time scheduling and conducting interviews with multiple people, collecting digital pictures to accompany the article, and writing about furniture (yawn).

But asking for what I'm owed on a weekly basis at my current job has been really good for me: iit feels better each week! I'm getting used to declaring what my time is worth. Now I'm ready to follow up with my former publisher until a check is in my hand, and I can't believe I ever hesitated to remind her that she still owes me the kill fee.

In my last post I was sort of complaining about feeling more grown up--but feeling more confident about money and self-worth is a grown-up quality I have no problem with! Next goal: developing my negotiation skills. I've always read in women's magazines that statistically women have a harder time negotiating a starting salary, asking for a raise, and reminding debtors to pony up. I believe it's vital to change how women feel about themselves and money, so I've decided to push through any discomfort in this area and "be the change I want to see in the world."

If you've ever negotiated a higher salary or stood up for yourself in a "pay me what I'm owed" situation, I'd love to hear about it! How did you prepare? How did it go? Got any tips? ;) And it's Friday: if you're getting paid today, take a moment and make sure you feel awesome about it!