![]() At Scribe it took a while to suss out that they were more interested in getting the books out the door. One publisher I work for expects you to edit to make the book as good as it can be. Scribe also has multiple levels of editors and it took many many back and forths with manager types to suss out which work the copy editor at Scribe would do and what other positions would do.Īlso, different publishers have different expectations for editing. "Copy editing" as a term is mushy a copy editor in one place could be a proofreader and at another could be doing substantive editing. At the time I worked at Scribe, those sorts of documents/expectations were missing. I work as a content consultant for many startups and small companies and the #1 thing many of them are missing are standards and process documents to let employees know 1) what the processes are 2) what the standards and expectations are and 3) how one process relates to another (especially important in content). They did seem like a company that wanted to improve. My review is for that time period (several years ago) so hopefully things have improved. I was working with Scribe when it was new and growing. The issue has been raised and ignored until now). Ideally, we should work together seamlessly to produce effective results, but many freelancers report being treated as less than or generally disrespected by "tribe" members (I know, I know, the use of "tribe" is distasteful. This can create a stark schism between us. Freelancers do not in any way benefit from the company culture or any of the perks that are extended to full-time employees. ![]() Luckily, I reach my work and financial goals more months than I don't.Īnyone considering work here should understand clearly that freelancers and employees are two discrete groups. There is a general agreement among freelancers that there are too many of us, so we sometimes scramble to get assignments. There are occasionally times when there is simply no work to be had. That being said, no workplace is perfect. I always endeavor to work efficiently, so I end up making more in the new system than I would have hourly. The company recently shifted from an hourly pay scale to a flat rate system, which understandably upset many workers. There have been a few stressful feedback sessions, but luckily I've been able to learn, grow, or generally pull myself through. I feel like my time is respected, and I have a lot of flexibility when it comes to establishing my work schedule.Įveryone I've communicated with has been nice and helpful. I personally have had a very positive experience working at Scribe. There are always pros and cons to freelance work. I assure you, going around the people within your company who hired an independent contractor is absolutely not part of the Project - more. Scribe began to institute some changes, like having random "project managers" the freelancers have never interacted with reach out beyond the internal stakeholders at Scribe Media (the people who had hired me) about internal deadlines I had never agreed to. They may have missed their internal deadline, but that had nothing to do with me or the deadline I had negotiated. (Remember, when you're hiring a freelancer to do X and you need the work in a week, but they aren't available to do it in that timeframe, as an internal stakeholder you can try to find another freelancer who can meet your internal deadline.) So it was fine. Each time, the manager accepted this deadline. Each time, I'd let the manager know I wouldn't be able to meet X deadline, but could meet Y deadline. Throughout my time freelancing for Scribe, someone would occasionally ask me to take on an assignment with a due date of only one week away that was just well beyond what I could accomplish in the availability I gave them each week. As a freelancer, I have other clients and since the particular work is amongst my least favorite type of marketing work, I would only commit to at best 15-20 hours a week. Scribe instituted a system of checking in with its freelancers each week to check on their availability for this particular work. I had been freelancing for Scribe for several years, doing work that is not my favorite work, but part of the process and fine to do part-time.
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