I’m on my soap box this week and I apologize. Last week was a weird week and I’m upset by some of the stories that I was told. Feel free to tell me how wrong I am with your comments. I’m ready for it. 
As a follow-up to my post yesterday about websites being held hostage, I wanted to talk a little bit about developers that learn on the client’s dime.This came up in separate conversations with two new clients. And in both situations the client knew that the developer was learning at their expense even though it wasn’t disclosed to them upfront.
I see this happen all too often. And I don’t think that its acceptable (or particularly ethical). I understand that learning and professional development is critical to growing as an individual and a company. And that you will never expand your knowledge if you aren’t challenged. I totally agree. But I am challenged on a daily basis and I’ve never charged my unknowing clients for my learning curve.
I try to be upfront as possible if I know that I’m in over my head. I let the client decide whether they want to pay for me to learn on their project. I’ve had situations where the client didn’t mind and a few times I’ve referred the project to colleagues that were better suited to do the work. But, in many cases, developers take the job knowing that they have no idea what they are doing and charge the client accordingly. And I think its sad. It gives a terrible name to programmers and designers and leaves a bad taste for the client. And more likely than not, the client knows its happening. Maybe they are too nice to say anything or are just desperate to have someone do the work. But, at the end of the day, its just bad business.
So, please, be up front with your clients. If you need to learn something new – take a class or create an internal training project. But charging your client so you can learn a new skill is just not kosher.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Beth – I’ve learned on the job before but haven’t taken the job just to learn the skill. I make sure it’s something I’m capable of learning/doing and I don’t charge the client an hourly rate. If I am going to be learning while working, I often give the client a deal.
That’s a great way to handle it, Kim. I think that as long as the client isn’t paying out the nose for us to learn, it’s all good. But, for example, I just worked on a client site that was not only held hostage by the old programmer, but the code was really bad AND the developer had built a CMS from scratch that didn’t work properly. It was painfully obvious that this guy had NO idea what he was doing. Of, course he requested for payment up front and then never delivered. That’s ridiculous.
My last client wanted a bunch of Flash on her site, but I don’t have Flash experience. Since I’ve been interested in learning Flash, I told her that I wouldn’t charge her for the hours that I was working on the Flash portion.
I never charge my clients for learning curve time. Usually I’m the one that suggests a solution I don’t exsctly know how to do, so I figure it out on my own time. In one case though, I made an exception. A corporate client wanted me to create a complex Applescript. I don’t know Applescript, but they were confident I’d figure it out. I had to buy software and references. I billed them for the equivalent cost in hours for the stuff I had to buy, but not for the hours I spent exploring it as a solution for their requirement. When I realized I could write a script in Word’s VBA that would work better for them in re-purposing their documents, we switched gears and it ended well. I never did learn Applescript. I really need to raise my rates.