F*ck You, Pay Me
What’s the best way to get paid as a freelancer? How do you assess the viability of a new member of your workshop team? In this …
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April 17, 2025
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"Harmony in Every Heartbeat
What’s the best way to get paid as a freelancer? How do you assess the viability of a new member of your workshop team? In this …
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Mike Monteiro: F*ck You, Pay Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVkLVRt6c1U
I'm not judging the example supervisor on their action, since maybe they already did this, but I would first see if the new hire knows that the job is like that. Sometimes, people new to an industry and work itself, don't realize what the job entails, because it's not like they tell you that stuff in school. It's the reason, we end up picking the wrong major.
AVP 👽
I prefer cash / but I take checks to /me too /carbon fiber" in space suits /
you explained things perfectly Adam Savage. I have had my fair share of jobs where management neglected ppe. The current management at my current job are the rare kind who do their jobs right, they are very serious about ppe and very serious about organization and efficiency. I work at a precious metal refinery we get a lot of garbage material too to refine. Things that contain cadmium zinc and other toxic or explosive material I got burned from an item containing zinc they immediately sent me to urgent care it was a 2nd degree burn. Right now they are working on other things to keep the air and work place safe and efficient.
I wouldn't build it without being paid first. Escrow or up front.
Perfect shirt to be wearing for this discussion. lol
I tell creative types, go to a community college and get some business classes: accounting, contracts, negotiating techniques, bookkeeping, taxes, market evaluation, time evaluation, PNL, plus how to keep expenses low, and how to include the costs of the expenses into the final price. Having a lawyer is a valuable tool, but when you are starting out, you may need to rely on basic contract templates, until your business is making a profit.
As a self employed creative type, you will spend 90% of your time doing the Business chores, instead of the creative processes to keep your costs low, so what you do sell, will cover your bills.
Oh, and learn your market. Your personal value of your work is pointless, if you are out pricing the market. Some one else can do the work you do, and do it cheaper; they will get the work you want or make the sales you need.
In the end, you are 'selling' your skills, not your time. Trying to include your time/per hour into a finished piece won't sell, if the piece is over priced for your market. Again, to clarify: this is for Creative Types; where their 'art' is the product and there is no intrinsic value, but assigned value.
An employee without proper PSE isn't just a danger to himself, he's a liability to the workplace.
around high school i got my friend a job working for my dad doing construction labor. within the first few days, he tweaked his shoulder putting up siding and said he thought he should get it looked at. i told him my dad said to take all the time he needs 😭
Very informative video.looking forward to meeting you this Month in the Chicago FanExpo 🤙
Did anyone else worry about their hearing going out when he covered his mic?
Thank you, Adam
I think its an interesting point that in the first part of the video you talk about having a lawyer to manage expectations, and then the next part you talk about hiring someone green and not managing that person's expectations on the job.
But to be clear I would have sold my parents to Thai slave market to spray paint parts at ILM.
I watch that one pretty frequently too.
Add tiny number and names to that tabletop and you have a map!
Adam, I’m curious about your past and what allowed you to flourish. You’ve spoken about the tedium of model making. Yet I cannot imagine you doing something boring for 90 percent of your adult life, decade after decade- you’re too inquisitive for that. Some folk are. So how have you gleamed all this knowledge; have you hopped around careers through curiosity & seeking new experiences?
Regarding the ILM story:
I'm employed part-time in a gaming store, and part of the business is selling products for collectible card games (such as Pokémon, Yugioh, and Magic: the Gathering, among others). We had hired on a person a few years ago because he had a specialization in YGO (Yugioh trading card game) and we had asked him to take a particular box of YGO cards and sort them. When he started the task his reaction was "I love sorting YGO cards!" Within a month (because this is a task that needs to be done regularly, with new product that had come in – either new product or product that had been traded into the store), he was saying "I hate sorting YGO cards!" On the other hand, I don't play the game at all (my specialties are Magic and D&D), and if it's a thing that needs to be done, I don't mind doing it. We jokingly call it Yugitory, because it feels like spending purgatory sorting them – sometimes it's left alone for a few months and then there's multiple people spending full weeks doing nothing but sorting!
As a freelance photographer I have learned the hard way about not having a contract in my early days. One client wanted to sue me for using some event photos I shot for them in my portfolio. People are willing to screw you over for the small things.
If I could have my life over again….id do everything in my life to point toward being a model maker. I found out very late in life that it was something I loved. I’m not great at it, but I have 0 experience. I love making mechs/robots from styrene sheets….its a wonderful thing to do,…and I’m very sad I found out so late.
One trick to deal with the tedium is to break it up. If you have multiple tedious tasks, you can do one until you run out of steam, take a break, then do the other one until you run out of steam, then take a break and go back to the first one. The switch can help temporarily reduce some of the tedium as a self brain hack. If you only have the one task, then take short breaks a bit more often just to reset your brain.
Wow!!!!! This pushed SO MANY BUTTONS!!!! Employers wanting you to sign illegal contracts, contacts that the employer said they’d fixed, but just reworded the bad part.. I would still have been losing my copyright….newbies who balk at direction, safety equipment denied by my employer!!! My head is spinning!
I taught Electronic & Electrical Technicians for years and when they were graduating and writing resumes and looking for work one of the things we tried to stress to the graduates was: "Your Attitude, your biggest asset or your worst liability, it's your choice"
Try working in the service industry in a restaurant as a chef, talk about repetitive, the fun is there but the mondaine is 80% of the job. Every job is like that though. If you don't love what you're doing do something else.
One of my favorite movie lines is from Bill and Ted. "Be excellent to each other." No matter how bad things get, strive to be excellent in both action and behavior. If you find that you have reached a point where you cannot do this, then it's time to move on.
PPE – I learned this from one of Adam's videos a while back, where he said something along the lines of 'If ppl aren't properly attired / hair tied back around the lathe, they're gone.' (I'm paraphrasing)
In my little home shop, EVERY power tool has the needed PPE – ear, eye, and mask protection, and a hairtie – all attached to it in such a way that the tool CANNOT be operated without removing the PPE. This overcomes my 'out of sight, out of mind' problem, and also overcomes the mentality of 'oh, it's just a quick 2 minute job, no worries'… nope. Pick it all up and put it on.
Any visitors or guests in the workshop are either wearing PPE too, or NOTHING gets switched on. I don't wanna drive someone to hospital.
"You're going to have fun, at the end of all the tedium." OMGS THIIIIS!!!!!
I just finished a project that took YEARS. SO much tedium. But pushing through meant getting to the fun parts!
How is it extreme to expect someone to do the job they're paid to do, and fire them if they don't? Employment 101 people
mfers dont cry
I hate the term "paying your dues", as it's used to excuse forcing people into taking low paying jobs in their career. I would explain the spray painting task as an integral part of the process. It needs to get done for the project, and someone has to do it.
Awesome topic and answers!
Tip: if you can't afford a lawyer, that doesn't mean you can't type up a contract yourself. It may be messy, incomplete, but it will be better than nothing. Just write out each party's expectations and obligations and get everyone to sign and date the document.
If the other party has a contract, read it and ask questions. Get clarifications put in writing and don't be afraid to negotiate terms. You can always cross or add to the contract with a set of initials accompanying the change.
Adam said a bad word! I'm reporting this video immediately!! 😂
The richer the custom the more likely you'll be screwed.
With my printing, screen printing, and sign company, I required a 60% deposit… PERIOD. And no work began without a signed contract and proof of artwork. It took me about 10 months in business to realize everyone you encounter is potentially a liar and a thief.
I was sued by a school for not delivering band shirts… the dumbass was stupid enough to pull one of my shirts with my custom labels printed in it and said they had to have someone else print them… "Your honor, take a look at the label of her shirt, now compare it to the label of the sample shirt I had her approve. Now how did someone else get my private labeled shirts and print them?"
Yeah, schools and churches are the worst.
👍
I went to welding school because I hated painting houses and barely learned to arc weld and then I got a job in a fabrication shop and they paired me with a pipefitter who knew less about pipefitting than I knew about welding and we screwed stuff up so that nothing fit when it went out to the offshore drilling rig. They fired the pipefitter and told me I could be laid off or go work out on the offshore rig. The next day I was painting houses again but I didn't hate it anymore.
OSHA does not help the worker do not believe in Adam's advice. From personal experience OSHA will send a monkey that doesn't want to be there and they will get sweet talked and bribed by the business owner. A guy showed up to test air quality a in plasma cutting area but instead of testing he set up the reader and then went to eat with the factory owner. The manager comes and moves the reader to get good reading. After lunch the OSHA monkey leaves. Never trust them.
2:56
Too many job seekers forget this.
I can teach you industry knowledge, skills, tricks of the trade that will allow you to excel at work. I can't teach a good attitude or how to be a decent human.
So thats are always going to be the differentiator when I'm deciding who to hire. If you can demonstrate a great attitude, I don't care if your missing a few hard skills or short of a few years of experience.