Work for Never

Have you ever worked for free? I don’t mean one of those “work trials” that I’ve previously ranted about. I mean have you ever offered your services for free to something you thought was fun? A volunteer, essentially.

I have been writing for free for three separate online music publications for the last few months.

One, who I will name, is All About the Rock. This rant is not about them and I just wanted to point that out in case any of them are reading. They’ve always been a decent bunch of people to work with and I’ve never had any reason to complain about the way I’ve been treated by them. Plus, I was introduced to them by the singer of a band I’ve been a fan of for years and it’s probably the only thing I’ve ever done that 16-year-old me wouldn’t roll his eyes at.

The other two sites, which I’m not going to name, are run by people who are technically known in the industry as “fuck nuggets”.

One of them, which is a site I’ve visited regularly for years and was very excited when I was given the opportunity to contribute to, decided to more or less blatantly ignore everything I sent them and not communicate with me after welcoming me aboard. It seems by the infrequency with which they post articles now that they actually have nobody writing for them anymore.

The other is seemingly being run by two guys who have a good cop/bad cop routine going quite well.

One is full of “hey guys, this is awesome” and “wow, we’re so grateful for all your effort”. He sounds like the kind of person who would buy you a pint, but at the same time piss you off by dropping phrases like “blue sky thinking” into conversation.

The other would probably describe himself as “no nonsense” and doesn’t believe in encouragement or politeness. You would never go to the pub with him.

Yesterday he posted the following to the private Facebook writers’ group:

“Due to underwhelming interest, it looks like the Local Heroes post isn’t going to happen this week. I’d like to thank you all for your levels of apathy and self-interest.”

There are over 300 people who write reviews, news articles and features without any reward other than seeing what they’ve written appear with their name on the website and potentially be read by thousands of people. Most of them will have seen this before it was removed a few hours later.

Is that any way to talk to people who are volunteering their time?

Of course it’s not.

I replied:

“I don’t think sarcastic posts like this, directed at people who are contributing FOR FREE, will really help matters.”

Not to brag, but it got over 50 likes.

He responded by claiming it was meant as a post to “get people to up their game”. What he didn’t do, which he really should, was apologise.

As a result, I think it’s only fair that they go and fuck themselves and that their website burns to the ground.