Comments on: What Constitutes Conflict of Interest?

By: Lori

Lori — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:51:00 +0000

I don’t blame you at all. And I’m surprised no one’s questioned how they can treat you like an employee (dictating who you cannot work for while working for them) and not paying you benefits.

By: Katharine Swan

Katharine Swan — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:25:00 +0000

Exactly — before they paid me. The topics weren’t anything I wrote on for current clients, but it still angered me. So even after renegotiating the contract, I still never wrote for them again. The whole thing made me too mad.

By: Lori

Lori — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:07:00 +0000

Katharine, that's absurd! So they basically wanted to force changes to your agreement on you AFTER the fact (and probably before they paid you) in order to hold you captive in a job that shouldn't be exclusive in the first place?

What putzes!

By: Katharine Swan

Katharine Swan — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:13:00 +0000

In general, I feel that freelance is freelance, and that excuses most of what would otherwise be seen as a conflict of interest.

I once had a client spring a non-compete on me after I'd already completed the first assignment. They wanted to make it retroactive, and it said that I couldn't write for someone else on the same topics for a year or something like that. Plus, it was a badly worded clause, and could have been interpreted to mean much longer, as I remember. I made them change it, signed it, and then never wrote for them again!