I shouldn’t be offended...

...but I am. It happens about two or three times a year.

This was in an email this morning:

...This time frame will allow you to {task specifics deleted} in your spare time. Please note we don't have any budget for this effort - I wish we did.

Someone asks me to work for free.

Sorry.

Wait... no I’m not. I don’t work for free, shame on you for asking that of me.

The reason I’m offended by it is because of the only reasons I can think someone would ask me to:

My time isn’t worth what I’m getting paid; so they think I owe them something.

What I do in my time away from work isn’t as important as pleasing them.

I should be trying to impress them.

I owe it to my employer. (Because I have a job?)

Well here’s the scoop from my perspective:

As far as my employer is concerned, I have no ‘spare time’. I have a great ability to do exactly what I want when I’m away from work. Sometimes working more is what I want to do, but only if I’m getting paid for it, or I’m working on a personal project. My work is in high demand, and people gladly pay me a fairly steep price for it. I have a great option of working pretty much as often as I’d like, depending on how much of my time I want to sell. Most often I figure I sell enough of it.

When I was 22 or 23, I would take work home and do extra stuff so I could impress my employer. By doing that, I could negotiate a promotion, or a better raise, or both. It worked. Now, I don’t want a promotion. My job rocks. Standard 5% raises are a fair amount of money, and I still have the ability to negotiate for bigger ones. More importantly, I’m not 22. I’ve been doing this for more than 10 years. I don’t need to *&@%^$% impress you.

I don’t owe my employer anything, just as they don’t owe me anything. We have an acceptable give and take relationship. They take the time I give; I take the money they give me. Trust me, if either party is sufficiently unhappy with the relationship, it will end.

So my response:

As for spare time... I have none, so I'm afraid I'll have to pass on this.

Update on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 by Micah Rousey

The VP of such and such, who sent the email, came up later and said 'I didn't really mean 'Spare Time'.  Of course there is the such and such charge number you can use.

Uh huh.  Really you mean you'll pay for it when you realize I won't do it for free.  Nice try.