Ick, I'm afraid I have to wait for someone with more experience with this request. It would make me bristle too.
I'm going to see to Wesley, see if he's still whimpering.
Giles ,'Chosen'
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Laura - Jun 13, 2014 9:32:28 am PDT #1153 of 1416
Our wings are not tired.
megan walker - Jun 13, 2014 9:34:46 am PDT #1154 of 1416
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
Basically, I'd like to tell my PM that I understand why he asked for this, but I think it is rather unusual (unfair?) to ask for this information on a fixed-bid project and we might get more useful information if we instead asked about tightening up turnaround times or stacking assignments.
I should note that he is under the gun re the schedule, not me. My job as lead editor is not on the spreadsheet, and, while, I suppose he expects me to fill out the part for my DE tasks I'm not really concerned about that for myself.
megan walker - Jun 13, 2014 9:36:37 am PDT #1155 of 1416
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
Mostly, my gut instinct is: You want my hours? Then pay me hourly. Except not really because hourly pay in publishing sucks.
Pix - Jun 13, 2014 9:54:10 am PDT #1156 of 1416
We're all getting played with, babe. -Weird Barbie
I say go with your gut on this one; it's not an hourly project.
Dana - Jun 13, 2014 9:54:30 am PDT #1157 of 1416
"I'm useless alone." // "We're all useless alone. It's a good thing you're not alone."
Can you give a range?
meara - Jun 13, 2014 9:54:56 am PDT #1158 of 1416
How specific is the answer? I mean, do you have to put numbers in a spreadsheet and send it back, right now, or can you reply with things like "Generally a book takes me between 30 and 120 hours, spread over two weeks" or something?
NoiseDesign - Jun 13, 2014 10:08:41 am PDT #1159 of 1416
Our wings are not tired
I assume you are getting paid on a 1099 on these projects. If that is the case then the person contracting you can be dancing in some difficult waters regarding keeping you as in IC as opposed to an employee. Basically if you are an IC then the person hiring you is restricted in defining your work hours, providing equipment, things like that otherwise they risk having you reclassified as an employee.
megan walker - Jun 13, 2014 10:17:28 am PDT #1160 of 1416
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
Can you give a range?
Nope. It lists out tasks and asks for hours.
So, for the writers, it's 1) how many hours does it take to write the first draft of a chapter and 2) how many hours to revise? Which is really total bullshit because they are already on a 12-day turnover schedule, which is crazy short for a textbook chapter.
For the development editors, he wants hours for each DE pass (there are three, one big one, and then two smaller ones after review/revision rounds).
"Generally a book takes me between 30 and 120 hours, spread over two weeks" or something?
Essentially that is what we are asking because we have set scheduling times for tasks, which, except for editors, were wildly underestimated at the beginning of this project (I was not lead editor at the time). I think this may be the problem he's getting at since more than one content leads hasn't been able to meet their schedule at all.
megan walker - Jun 13, 2014 10:20:14 am PDT #1161 of 1416
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
ND, do you mean that in the sense I should bring it up? Because I don't think that is a real concern on either side here.
megan walker - Jun 13, 2014 7:00:04 pm PDT #1162 of 1416
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
OK, since I know my PM is new at this, I've basically decided to go with something to the effect of "I wish you had asked me about this before you sent it to the team... I think it's disingenuous to ask this of fixed-bid hires... " and telling him that I'm simply providing estimates for my stuff based on my hourly base because I don't track this (which is true).
I know he's under the gun and is just trying to put together a plan for a Monday meeting where he will be raked over the coals, but I will be very annoyed if he has pissed off my editors.