in the world of pro-bono editing

i spent more than a week editing a 34-page text for my father's company. this in effect meant having to rewrite it all as it made little sense. and it being scientific, difficult. and with my current crazy timetable (job hunt, going to workshops, etc.), not technically a priority on my list but important enough for the company that i took time to do it. before going through it a second time, i sent him the revised text and asked him to clarify the points i had made in the comments (about 50!), so that i would know how to handle those issues. so far, so good. 

 

he called me up to explain that the medical terms were probably correct, seen as he'd now gone over them with a colleague. but the way he said it i immediately realised that he'd actually reworked the text with her independently. i'd asked for a couple of clarifications last week, so he knew i was well under way. i was well pissed. how could he, when i'd spent so much time rewriting the damn thing, rework it from the original, uncorrected version? what exactly did that say about the value of my totally unpaid yet extremely valuable contribution? unbelievable! i told him in no uncertain terms that he would have to add the reworks to my document if he wanted me to have another look but there was no way i was going to slave through an entirely reworked document. i am so pissed off.