Potential client wants me to do secretarial work too!

Community
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just came here today to have a quick vent about this - I think I know what I should / will do … tell him I don’t have the secretarial skills and forget it!

Responded to an ad on the local equivalent of craigslist looking for someone to work on their website(s). One of the ads sounded like they wanted a secretary but it involved making updates to their website so I thought I’d get in touch about that as well as the web dev job they were offering, and say ‘hey, I can do that for you, and / or the development’. Maybe that was silly but I thought it couldn’t hurt to find out how much of the job was web-related.

Well it turns out it’s ALL web-related (updating the website) but the secretary thing is just so that they can keep an eye on whoever they hire. Fair enough, but I have a LOT of experience doing this for an internationally-known company (from home), so I tried to reassure / explain that.

I feel I didn’t make any impression at all, and they are doggedly sticking to their guns assuming that they can hire a capable web design/dev type and then keep them like some sort of office pet to ‘type letters and answer phones’ just so they can look over their shoulder! And being accused of not having “enough experience” to work from home really nettled me!

Now I do feel it’s reasonable that I may need to be onsite for the first day, just to see how they do things and get some pointers (it’s not design from scratch). Perhaps I seem unreasonable - I can’t describe this man’s manner though.

I kind of feel that it’s my own silly fault for responding to something that said ‘secretary’ in it, but I was quite prepared to hear ‘we want a secretary who can do a bit of html’ and to say ‘no thanks, but if you want to outsource the html I can do it’. Only that wasn’t what happened. It is mostly html, and the secretary part is entirely a ruse to keep the employee onsite!

As for persuading him to let me have a go at the dev job - ha! Anyway, I’ve got a big feeling this person would be a nightmare to work with.

I should point out that these positions are ‘part time’ ‘flexible hours’ and pay by the hour, so I thought they could fit in with my other freelance jobs. The dev job says ‘work from home’ too.

Well that’s all I suppose, my own silly fault etc etc, but really I don’t think he will find what he wants (someone who responds thinking it’s a secretary’s job is likely to be a long way behind on the html /css, IMO, and anyone good enough at html/css/etc is not going to want to answer his phone and type his letters as well).

Any comments? Any similar experience? All will appreciated: there is nobody here to talk to - and I will have to be polite about / to this person around here as I live in a tiny rural community … :x

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You have to be polite always, not because you live in a rural community where everybody knows you :lol:

You answered yourself. If you’re desperate for money, then stick to this while you find something better and then ditch him. It is that simply.

Don’t keep on waiting till he gives you a chance because, if he ever does, it will take ages… and a good 80% of the times, they don’t give any opportunities. You’ll be better off trying to find you own.

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But if you do decide to take the job please, please get a full, detailed job description before you start - in writing obviously. These sorts of employers tend to “be creative” when it comes to the sort of work you’ll be doing. It’ll start out as HTML with a bit of secretarial and will end up as being the delivery boy and cleaning the toilets!!

If they won’t give you a written job description as well as a contract of employment (both of which are legal requirements many places) then I really wouldn’t consider it unless you’re desperate.

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yes the written job description / contract had occurred to me - basically we can see this guy finding busywork for me all day being General Dogsbody, and I can’t imagine one website is enough to justify a full-time position.
We have come to this conclusion: I will tell him I will work for less money as long as I can work from home, end of. I’m not that desperate for money yet: I have other clients. One of the issues is someone wanting to monopolise my time simply because they don’t trust me to be able to do my job. It reminds me of something I saw recently on clientsfromhell: “we want to install a webcam in your office so we can see that you are working the hours you bill for”. WTF. The more time goes on the more stereotypes I run into.

We also suspect that the ‘broken’ php app he needs a developer to help with is actually either a) to be reverse-engineered and tinkered with, so he can avoid employing the original developer for a normal fee and/or b) the original developer sabotaged the website when he didn’t get paid. Neither of these would occur to me if I hadn’t already heard so many stories like that so …

:slight_smile:

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So you’d be like a trouble shooter or multi skilled personal assistant. Put a positive spin on it! At least your job won’t be dull and routine, sounds like a lot of variety involved, and it pays, isn’t that the number one priority?

I’ve had jobs like this, I’m not just being facetious, I kinda enjoyed being someone who got stuff sorted even if it was pretty low level.

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well that’s an interesting angle - but it would take too much of a chunk out of my day. I think I’ll have to stick to my guns. Nice idea though!

– nb I have other work

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Could always give you time to expand upon the projects you do. My guess would be they want someone to maintain the website and keep it up-to-date but can’t justify it as a sole position so their using your free time to help out in other areas. Maybe depending on the business you could talk to them about other ways they want to expand their online presence and you could do some other web related stuff. You will be able to expand your portfolio and take the time to perhaps learn a few new skills (if you do it just right). Learning new skills helps you do your job better and the extra time you may have could be useful for that. :slight_smile:

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OK guys, I’m a little bit drunk because I just got another client* and I can’t resist telling you this: I had an interview today and the additional work was pre-viewing porn (!). It probably would have eventually included walking the dog and everything too … and the bed in the office was not encouraging either (I’m female, but possibly a man might have been getting a bit antsy by then too!).

Anyway, I stuck to my boundaries - not too hard when someone says that they expect you to watch porn whenever you are stuck on a tricky bit of code! And guess what - he’s just been in touch asking me to state my terms!!! I’m hired!!!

Hooray for me! GrRRRRL power! ETC!

*that would be “another other” client, so I got two today! go me!

hic

8-P