Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.
By Alyssa Royse
Imagine, if you will, a room filled with beer and great talent that will work for your startup for Free. It’s like Christmas, without the ugly sweaters, fruit cake and relatives that you don’t remember.
But, there’s a catch. While logic eventually kills the myth of Santa Claus, it’s the Department of Labor and Industry that is killing the promised land of free labor that is JobNob, a networking event that’s been popular in the Bay Area and is debuting in Seattle on Wednesday night.
Turns out, unless you are a non-profit, you can’t have volunteers. It’s flat-out illegal to pay people less than minimum wage.
According to Jennifer Keys, who’s been working in HR longer than most of us have been entrepreneurs, “ it is illegal to accept volunteers for for-profit entities. Only non-profit and government agencies can accept volunteer labor. Basically it falls under the Fair Labor Standards Act – you have to pay minimum wage to anyone that is performing work for you unless you are an exempt organization… I can promise you that the Department of Labor and Industry considers this illegal and they will go after businesses if they get a complaint.”
Hmmm. Scrooges.
Obviously, these laws were developed to prevent companies from flat-out taking advantage of the labor of well-intentioned workers, making a fortune and shutting out the workers. I totally get that – as we all do. And someone does have to complain before it’s a problem, but it’s still something that can go wrong very quickly.
Say you find someone at the JobNob event who is an out of work engineer and killing time with you while he looks for work. He ends up writing an algorithm that runs the search engine you’re building that winds up beating Google at its own game. You make a kwajillion dollars. He makes squat. You’re getting sued. Or if they bring in a lucrative partnership. Or they….
You can see how this gets messy. Ironically, this is still true in the case of internships, but that may, in fact help provide a reasonable framework when looking at how we can, in fact, help each other out without running afoul of the law so much that people sue us.
I mean, the truth is, we help each other out all the time, and I for one do not want to live in a world where it’s illegal to do so.
1. If you find someone at JobNob – or get favors from a friend in any way – make sure they’re getting something out of it. Traffic to their blog, experience, class credit, PR, connections etc…. Define what it is that they want to get just as clearly as what you want to get. And put it in writing, even if it’s just an email chain.
2. Clearly define what it is that you want them to do, and make sure that it is not proprietary to your core business, likely to be the next big algorithm etc… Stick with more “tasky” sort of work – which can still be fun. Design, copy writing, production etc…. Not designing new business strategies and that sort of thing.
3. Don’t be an asshole. If they are really good and you get funded and there’s a job for them, give it to them, or at least pay them. If they do write defensible or patentable IP, give them credit for it and let them have their fair share of the profit.
4. Play it safe on the side of karma. If someone asks you for help, give it to them. Karma’s a bitch.
None of this will actually protect you legally speaking, but it will help lessen the odds that someone is disgruntled.
I actually like what the folks at JobNob are trying to do. It makes sense to me on every level and I totally applaud and support them. That said, it only works if everybody is respectful, rational and fair, and I think I’m just a little too cynical at this point. I’ve had too many friends sued by people who did early work / favors for a company that later became successful. And just as many screwed by doing early work / favors for a company that later became successful.
I think the best bet is that we continue to get to know each other in the “real world” and help each other out. People you know, friends and friends of friends, who are tied together in a community are far less likely to screw you over and turn you into the Department of Labor and Industry. Especially if you’re helping them out too.
Alyssa Royse is the founder of JUST CAUSE Magazine and JustCauseIt.com. She desperately needs some drupal help, some copy writing help, design production help, sales help, help building web community and a massage. She’ll happily offer you any help that she can, because she believes in community, and if there’s a way you can work together, let her know. She also thinks that assholes suck, and will go to great lengths to avoid them.
