Here’s a horror story for freelancers out there. Names have been changed to protect the guilty.

I was at a media professionals mixer the other day, chatting with a number of TV journalists and writers. Then I saw a woman making her way through the crowd, staring at nametags. She grabbed this guy behind me whose tag read “Freelance” and pushed him into some sort of conversation. A minute later, though, she was on the prowl again—and she latched on to me.

Our conversation went a bit like this:
“Are you looking for more writing work? I sometimes use freelancers to write press releases.”
I consider telling her flat-out that I don’t “do” PR, but think about it for a minute. If her clients were people I would never write about from a journalistic perspective—and if it was made clear that I would never write about anyone I wrote a press release for, plus a few other rules, it’s POSSIBLE I could have done this while still preserving my integrity.
Her: And what do you write about?
I tell her I’ve been focused on careers, especially those in the media industry. I tell her I’ve written for the Post and for Express.
She tells me about her client. Then she says: “I’ll forward you more information about my client. Maybe you’ll want to write about her for one of the publications you write for, and who knows what that could lead to, if you know what I mean? I can tell you’re a serious writer.”

Wait, is she actually offering to give me work as a freelance flack in exchange for good coverage? She is.

She leaves me shocked and speechless.

The next day I get a phone call from her. I tell her that I’m not comfortable with the way she approached me and thus am going to have to decline her pitch.

“What do you mean? Apparently I said something you don’t like.”

We beat around the bush for a while until it’s clear she’s going to continue to play dumb. “Ellen*, you were pretty obviously offering me work in exchange for favorable coverage.”

She huffs. “I’m not offering you a JOB. It would only be a little work writing press releases here and there. And I’m sorry that you thought that was implied.”

Notice she didn’t actually correct me. Or really apologize in any sort of sincere manner.

The really sad part? I probably would have written about her client. She had a pitch that was totally targeted toward what I’ve been working on lately. And if she had just approached me like a normal human being she would have gotten a lot farther.

*Not her real name, duh.