Unpaid Work Dilemmas

My friend, Emily from home is currently doing an internship at Ordnance Survey (the people who make maps) writing articles to promote the great outdoors. I jokingly said to her, 'Hit me up if you need any editorials', and thought nothing of it.

The other day she messaged me saying that she had spoken to her manager, and was keen to ask me to produce some artwork for the articles Emily would be writing...BUT it would be unpaid, "but great for your CV", that old chestnut.

At first I thought, WOW! Ordnance Survey! Think about how many people could see my work?! After deliberating somewhat, I just had Lou Bones' speech on my conscience saying DO NOT EVER WORK FOR FREE, which was totally the right decision. Imagine if OS wanted me to work for them again and I would ask to be paid (as it is my job?) and they would be like "PFFT! well you did it for free last time". Also, with word of mouth, I would absolutely not want to get a reputation as working for free. No way. 

I was kind of worried about telling Emily I didn't want to work for free, as she had made the effort to enquire on my behalf, and she is my friend, but luckily she was totally understanding. She said to me "if the boot was on the other foot and I was asked to write the article for free, it wouldn't be fair". 

So this was my first proper experience of potentially undermining both myself and the industry, and although I could have potentially had some great exposure, it wouldn't have been worth it. I'm glad I took a step in the right direction of up keeping respect towards creative practitioners!