Calculation

On Saturday afternoon I received this text message:

"We need you to dub one sentence. How much?"

I could immediately foresee that this was not a negotiation I was readily going to be able to conduct by means of SMS. I could also foresee that it was not really a negotiation there was any point in getting involved in at all.

Oh, I might have said: "Well, how long is the sentence? Does it have any difficult words in it? Is it a tongue-twister?"

Or: "Do I have to do this in character? Do I have to try to match this to someone else's voice? Do I have to try and sync it with a film? Do I have to try and sync it with an actor in a film?"

Or: "Which studio are you going to use? Are you going to pay my taxi fares?"

Or, more pointedly: "How soon is your deadline? How wealthy is your client?"

But I really didn't see any point in asking any of that. This was almost certainly going to be a straightforward voice-only gig, and if these guys had any sense at all, they would have contacted one of the regular studios to ask when I could fit it in alongside other work, and then I probably would have done it for FREE. But when they start trying to phone people over the weekend, and asking them to quote a fee..... well, it's obvious that these people are complete idiots; the sort of people who won't be prepared to offer any kind of reasonable price; and probably couldn't be relied upon even to pay what they'd promised (if it was a film job, I wouldn't have touched it with a bargepole anyway; the Chinese film industry has an appalling reputation on payment for peripheral services).

I could have tried saying all that; but I couldn't see the point. I simply replied: 500 RMB. That's pretty much a rock-bottom rate for an hour of solo work; and it's really "not worth getting out of bed" for anything less than an hour's worth.

They never got back to me. Quelle surprise!

Now, given my current financial distress, it could be argued that I was somewhat rash not to offer them a more enticing bid. I like to think - I try to persuade myself - that I can always obtain at least 500 RMB per hour for just about any work that I do, but in practice, alas, it just isn't so. I may occasionally be lucky enough to make 1,000 RMB per hour, or better; but most of the time I'm forced to accept only 300-400.

Fixing that figure of 500 RMB per hour in my head, though, does make it easier for me to turn down work - especially work like this, that I don't really like the sound of anyway. My justification for such choosiness would ostensibly be the opportunity cost of other jobs missed; why should I accept an hour's graft at less than 500 per hour when I have so many chances to earn 500 or more per hour, and might have to pass up one of those. But, as I said, particularly just at the moment, those well-paid jobs are very few and far between.

It would be truer to say that this is the minimum value I set on myself, this is what I feel my time is worth to me. I'd rather do nothing than work for less than 500 RMB per hour. I'd rather endure poverty than sacrifice my leisure for such paltry sums.

So, there you have it. Any offers of work above the 500 RMB per hour threshold will be most gratefully considered.