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My previous employer wants me to fix a bug in the code I wrote while I was working for them.

Background:
Last summer I worked as an intern for a large manufacturing company. The duration of my contract was fixed to 3 months. I was paid an hourly rate for my work. My job responsibilities entailed IT support and software development. The software project that I worked on was a fairly simple server application. I worked on the project exclusively. Initially the project seemed to be a success, the software was working as intended. Before my contract concluded and I left the company, I made sure to leave extensive documentation on how to use the program and how to edit the source code should they need to.

I did not sign a contract specifically pertaining to this software project and any post deployment assistance it may require.

Since then I have started working for a different company as a full-time software developer in a different country.

Problem:
I have recently been contacted by my previous employer (this is over a year after my contract ended with them), saying that there is a small bug with the software that I previously wrote, and that they need my help to fix said problem. As previously mentioned I now work full-time in a different country. This means that going back there in person is out of the question. Though I do believe it will be possible to fix the bug remotely. If I were to help fix this bug it would require me to devote my free time (evenings/weekends) to assist them.

It is in my best interest to fix this bug so that I can still use the previous employer as a reference for future employment. I do not want them to be on bad terms with me.

Question:
Should I negotiate a new contract with my previous employer and charge them money for this additional assistance that I would be providing them in my spare time? Or should I provide the assistance for free since it is my morale responsibility, even though I am not contractually obligated to?

Fixing the bug is not your responsibility.

Basically, the company that is not your employer is asking you to do unpaid work.

It is not your moral or legal responsibility to provide free help. You are not their employee anymore.

I made sure to leave extensive documentation on how to use the program and how to edit the source code should they need to.

Good! You've already done what you need to do to help out. They are aware of the bug and have the resources to fix it themselves. They are expected to fix it, not you.

There are also several strong reasons why you should not do the work for free:

• The company is trying to exploit you for free work. This doesn't benefit you.


• You are currently employed by a new company. Performing after-hours work for your old company may be considered a conflict of interest or breach of contract.


• It's been at least a year since you left the old company, and their systems may have changed. You have no idea how long this fix will take to complete.

How should you respond to their request?

Politely refuse. Instead, direct them to the documentation that you left behind.

Should I negotiate a new contract with my previous employer and charge them money for this additional assistance that I would be providing them in my spare time?

Yes if you feel deeply with it. You are writing code so they can make a profit. As an aside, it's entirely possible your current company will not allow you to work. Check with your manager if you are allowed to do this before asking about the contract. Most companies I've seen have clauses/rules regarding working for a similar company while employed there.

Or should I provide the assistance for free since it is my morale responsibility, even though I am not contractually obligated to?

No, I don't think you have a moral responsibility for fixing your error. If you wrote a software that solved world hunger, then yes, maybe in such a case. However, given that you were making money, and they were making money off you, then there is no moral obligation or what not.

Should I negotiate a new contract with my previous employer and charge
them money for this additional assistance that I would be providing
them in my spare time? Or should I provide the assistance for free
since it is my morale responsibility, even though I am not
contractually obligated to?

That depends on how you view your moral responsibility, how much you value your relationship with them, how long you think the bug fix will take, and how much you value this time.

You could just indicate you are too busy and thereby refuse to help fix the bug.

You could offer to take a quick look at the issue, then give them an estimate of how much time and at what rate it would take to fix the problem.

Or you could just agree to jump in and help fix it.

If it were me, and I didn't think it would take up too much of my spare time, I'd just do the latter.

In fact I have helped out previous employers. Many times.

I once left a Systems Administrator position. My replacement ended up deleting critical system files on a main drive and inadvertently deleting their only backup in the process. Although I had nothing to do with the cause, I worked with my replacement overnight all night long to rebuilt the operating system drive and create a viable backup, then went in to my regular work in the morning. I got a nice "Thank you" letter in return. To me, it was just the right thing to do.

IANAL.

Assuming that helping the previous company does not constitute a breach of contract or conflict of interest under your current contract (check this first!):

1) You should not do the work for free. Presumably this company still creates software. Presumably they have developers on staff. Presumably those developers are more experienced than some bottom-tier intern who worked there for 3 months (not to say you are bottom-tier now, but yourself at that time was probably less experienced than their full-time staff today). They can pay their employees to do it, or you can do it for them. What they're hoping to do is for you to do the work for less than they would have to pay their employees to do it. What this means presumably is:

Firstly, their people have not maintained your code in a year. They haven't read your documentation, made updates, adjustments, etc. That's their problem, not yours. "Your" code is actually "their" code, and they don't know their own code base, so the cost of them having to learn their own codebase is factored into their calculation.

Secondly and conversely, you know the code. Therefore, you should be able to take less time to fix the bug (or so they believe). Therefore, they can pay you less to fix it (because time = money and less time = less money, or so they believe), or nothing at all if they appeal to your sense of responsibility.

So, the thing you should do is to quote them an exorbitant fee to fix the code. The calculation you should go by is, if you expect it will take you X hours to fix it and you estimate it will take them Y hours to learn it, and they pay $Z/hr to their employees (you should have a rough idea of Z if you worked there as an intern, or at least if you know the market in the area), you should ask for (X + Y) * Z to fix the bug (or ((X + Y) * Z) / X hourly). That is the cost that you estimate they will pay their own employees to fix the bug, and you shouldn't short-change yourself.

2) You should make it clear to them that this work will be done on your schedule, not on theirs, because you have a full-time job elsewhere and you will be doing this work for them after-hours. This is to set expectations. They should understand that after a full day of working 9-5, you are not interested in working a 5-1 job, and that you will only be working on it for a couple hours per day. They need to understand this, because otherwise it will be trouble for you.

3) You should make it clear to them that this is a one-time-deal only, and after this is done, they shouldn't count on you to maintain this code for them forever. You provided documentation (good job!) on the code you wrote, and that's really where your responsibility should end, but you are providing this service out of the goodness of your heart, and they shouldn't push their luck. Once again, setting expectations.

4) And this is the most important part so it's in bold: Get this in writing. Draw up and sign a contract. Don't just make it willy nilly he-said-she-said, because that's how you get screwed out of your work. You probably (IANAL) shouldn't need a lawyer to do this for you; a simple statement of the above terms (and whatever other terms you want) in an email, with an "acknowledged" or "confirmed" response from them should be good enough (IANAL).