You're Fired! Now Come Back
The pros and cons of freelancing for the employer who laid you off.
March 19, 2009 — -- When Jeof Oyster was laid off from his job as interactive director of a public relations firm in October, he decided to step up his long-range plan to start his own Internet consulting business.
Little did he know his first client would be the employer who'd just given him the boot.
"Two days after they off'd me, I got a call from the person who let me go asking if I'd be willing to do a little freelance work for them," said Oyster, who now runs Mighty Ants Internet Studio from his New York City apartment.
But in the decision to downsize, the company Oyster had been with for the better part of a year overlooked one important factor: their clients.
"Turns out their rush to get our team out the door royally pissed off a major client of our group -- and their attempts to assuage him fell on deaf ears," Oyster said. "The choice was get the team back or lose the client."
As a result, Oyster was able to negotiate a three-month freelance arrangement at twice the hourly rate he was making as a salaried employee, enough to pay his rent while he got his own business up and running.
"I said, 'Look, if you need me back, this is my rate,'" Oyster explained. "The ball was totally in my court."
But the payoff wasn't just financial.
"I admit I felt rather vindicated in the end," Oyster said.
With so many employers looking to cut costs and clean house, stories like Oyster's are increasingly common.
No one can fault you for rushing back into the arms of an ex-employer to temp or freelance for them, not when good full-time jobs are so hard to come by these days. But when a company that jilted you extends an olive branch -- and then an offer to rekindle your working relationship, no matter how fleeting -- what are you really signing up for?
