Should I make two hundred bucks in 5 minutes?

[El Diablo]

ilya,

You are in the US of A now, baby! TAKE THE MONEY!

Seriously, other dude ain't getting the money, so you might as well and shouldn't feel bad about it.

[Coffee]

It seems to me that either you take the money, or the company gets a free translation. If your conscience bothers you that much, give the 200 bucks to the original guy.

That said, I would not agree to work for this company if my payment could be arbitrarily withheld. Do not work for them again if there is no objective measure for garnishment of the wages.

[Hellrazor]

Take the money, but then again all I can say in Russian is what my ex taught me to say. Ya chort.

[Alobar]

Id prolly take the money. You are being offered a job, I dont see why its your fault the job they are offering you is one someone else [censored] up.

that said tho, this company sounds REALLY unprofessional and id be wary of working with them in the future.

edit to add: I forgot to mention, Follow your own moral compass tho, if you truly have a problem taking the job, then dont take it, regardless of what anyone else says

[Toro]

Is the correction work worth $200.00? If it is, I would do the work and accept the fair recompense. Otherwise, I would tell them that they are overpaying and charge them what is fair.

What happens to the original contractor is not your concern.

[JaBlue]

Just do what you think is right, even if its stupid.

For reasons others pointed out it makes the most sense to just take the job and keep all of the money, but it sounds like you may prefer taking the job and giving the other guy (assuming you can get in touch with him) the share that you feel he's owed if they stiff him. So say you feel he did 95% of the work, maybe you should consider giving him $190.

I'd just do the job and take all the moneys.

[arsoisaen]

do the job. let the other guy worry about being paid or not, im sure he can argue his way into something

[Hey_Porter]

Are you SURE that they aren't paying the other guy anything (it's kind of ambiguous in your post, despite your wording)? If they truly aren't paying him anything, that's weird, but I also don't see how it's immoral for you to do the work and get paid for it. As it's been mentioned, it's not like YOU are choosing whether to pay the guy or not; he's not getting paid.

[mosdef]

Hi Ilya,

You should do the requested task for the $200 for sure. But I would be worried about their practice of with-holding fees for service if they arbitrarily decide that the service wasn't up to snuff. Aren't you scared that they're going to shaft you next?

[pseudoego]

LOL, you are certainly not going to find a lot of people qualified to give Ann Landers/Dear Abby advice in a Poker Forum. This must be a Psych 101 experiment meant to show how amoral and superficial the average poker player is.

Most of them clearly have no difficulty deciding which option appears best for your individual interests, just as most of them probably have no difficulty figuring out how strong their own hand is in a game.

However, your question goes beyond mere personal interests, and asks whether you can influence the world you live in by your actions....in other words, you are asking a question about what other people may be holding in their hands, not just what you have got. So, I think you are likely a superior poker player.

You are right to weigh the costs of just taking the money, and collaborating with someone who appears to lack a sense of business ethics (of course, we know that there is no such thing, according to many people).

Could you benefit your peer group, and the industry as a whole, by taking a stand, and helping this employer realize that there is a reason not to give people the shaft like this? Like perhaps *other* people whom they need may refuse to work for them any more?

I am guessing you do not really need the money; you have got yourself a nice niche. If these people cannot really destroy your business, then teach them an object lesson: not everybody can be pushed around by the lure of a few easy bucks. Teach them that they have to treat professionals professionally, not just as whores whom they can refuse to pay whenever they feel like they did not get the most bang for their money.

You are obviously an intelligent person, I am confident you will find a graceful way to do it. "I really do not think you should have to pay for the same work twice. However,I cannot accept your offer in the present form. The group of translators is a small one. Unless your contract with the previous person specified that they would not receive any pay if there were any revisions, I could not ethically accept money that is due to somebody else for the work they performed.

Your business will be harming itself if it gets a reputation for treating professionals in this manner, in that you will have a smaller pool of qualified people willing to work with you.

If you wish, I will happily review the other guy's work once you have given him the opportunity to make the revisions. Then, by all means, deduct my modest fee from the amount you are paying him. You will get a great finished product, I will get a reasonable fee for my services, and the other guy will not have an excuse for trashing your company's reputation and mine."

Вы буде&# 1090;е хоро&# 1096;им чело&# 1074;еком.