$50-75 and hour? Holy shit.

I've been stuck at $21 for well, about 10 years.

I think he meant business prepress charges to customers. We only charge customers $45.00 per hour but our company isn't paying anyone here that much.

Quote from: motormount on January 03, 2018, 01:44:12 AMThanks for your replies!

I was looking for a full time job elsewhere the whole last year, only found less paid ones - the couple of times i had the chance for an interview...

Things are weird in the trade, even more here in Greece, in one interview the owner asked me if i could bring some of my current company's clientele to him...( he was not joking )

The bill collecting factor is another joke on it's own.
It was hard getting paid even though i was there, and all the time i had to tell to providers who were calling to get paid that the management was out of the office, imagine now :-P

The only think i'm lacking is packaging experience, i do all ''mainstream'' prepress chores, plus event/studio photography and a little graphic design - check my site here, everything you see is shot/designed by me  https://www.lightinblack.com/

How's that hard to get a job?

That is some nice stuff on your website. Have you looked for graphic designer jobs instead of prepress? I've heard on the news about how tough it is in Greece these days. You'll have to do what you have to do. Good luck to you.

Sounds like your boss is trying to cut expenses. Ideally, he'd love to pay you the same amount he did before but without any benefits. That's not how it works.

I'm sure a lot of bosses think just the lure of working from home will convince people to jump at an opportunity like this.

Quote from: Possum on January 03, 2018, 08:16:48 AMSounds like your boss is trying to cut expenses. Ideally, he'd love to pay you the same amount he did before but without any benefits. That's not how it works.

In addition to only paying him when he has work for him to do... (i.e. if its a slow week for the sales crew - and there's only a handful of jobs - he only pays a few hours of prepress time)

That's also not how it works.

I had a similar offer a few years ago.  My reply - 'Sack Me'.  At least that way I got some state benefits while I found another job.  Not sure how that would work out for you in Greece right now.  It's a shitty situation to be in.  I tried freelance after that and did some jobs for my former employer until they went under a few months later.  I can confirm what others have said - freelance is a mug's game.  No guarantee of work, no guaranteed income, no employment rights, no paid holidays, and getting paid for what work you get takes up way too much time.  I made a go of it for a couple years but now I'm in a part time job on a really low rate (just above minimum wage) and its a lot better than freelance.

Quote from: Joe on January 03, 2018, 08:09:42 AMI think he meant business prepress charges to customers. We only charge customers $45.00 per hour but our company isn't paying anyone here that much.

That might be part of the reason we're so dead. Iirc we charge $175/hr for prepress. He's still thinking it's the 80's

Oooooooohhhhh...I remember at the prepress house I used to work at we had the almighty Linotype-Hell Chromacom system and we were charging customers $275 an hour. This was in 1990. Our customers today would drop over dead if we told them prepress would cost them $275 an hour. Which come to think of it...gives me an idea. <evil laugh>

Quote from: Farabomb on January 03, 2018, 07:13:29 AM$50-75 and hour? Holy shit.

I've been stuck at $21 for well, about 10 years.

Yeah - outside vendors get that... and we charge between $80-120/hr for prepress work depending on the complexity.... but I only see a small portion of that myself. Basically, I make about the same yearly for the past 17-18 years. But I also take a lot of unpaid time off.

We are -were- large enough not to bother our clients with lame issues like charging for fixing their files as long as they kept bringing their files to print them!
- and then wait for 3 months at least to get paid even though we had bought the paper and inks in cash beforehand  ;- )

That is some nice stuff on your website. Have you looked for graphic designer jobs instead of prepress? I've heard on the news about how tough it is in Greece these days. You'll have to do what you have to do. Good luck to you.

Joe, graphic designers always got paid less here - apart from some people way up in the chain with more management obligations than creative/production ones.

I'll do whatever i'll find, but doing what i know best me thinks will get me more bucks, and that's why we go to work, right?

Wait, you're not charging for fixing files?

Methinks I figured out why the shop is going under. You can't give things away and expect to stay open.

Run man, run far away from your boss and his delusions.

Quote from: Farabomb on January 03, 2018, 11:30:37 AMWait, you're not charging for fixing files?

Methinks I figured out why the shop is going under. You can't give things away and expect to stay open.

Run man, run far away from your boss and his delusions.

Me thinks he was being sarcastic.

I just assume graphic designers make more than prepress people here because they take like 26 weeks of vacation a year it seems. Gotta have money to visit exotic locations around the world that often. Or maybe they were just born into a wealthy family and graphic design makes it look like they have a real job but mainly it is just a hobby.

Instead of calling yourself a prepress freelancer call yourself a prepress consultant. They make way more money than freelancers.

Quote from: Joe on January 03, 2018, 11:32:48 AMcall yourself a prepress consultant. They make way more money than freelancers.

  That's what's on my resume on LinkedIn. I swear!