Startup CEO asked me to revise billed hours after manuscript/conference prep — was I wrong to bill it?
I currently work(ed) at a biotech startup where my original contract was for one year to help develop part of their technology platform. After the contract period ended, the CSO suggested that we continue by preparing a manuscript for publication and presenting the research at an academic conference.
The CEO agreed to cover conference-related costs (flight, registration, hotel, etc.), since I’m presenting the work on behalf of the company. Because of that, I assumed the manuscript preparation and presentation development were still considered company work. I spent a significant amount of time preparing the manuscript and slides to a high standard — I’m still early in my career (about one year out from my bachelor’s), so the process took me longer than it likely would for someone more experienced.
For a recent two-week period, I billed around 70 hours total, including time spent helping rearrange the lab as the company was preparing for a possible shutdown/restructuring.
The CEO later reached out and said he had only expected billing for the operational/lab rearrangement work, and asked me to revise the billed hours accordingly. He framed the manuscript/presentation work more as professional development opportunities rather than directly billable company work.
There was never any explicit discussion beforehand about whether publication and conference-preparation work after the contract period would still be billable, so I think this may have been more of a communication mismatch than bad intent on either side.
The situation has also made me more cautious about understanding what should and should not be considered billable work moving forward, especially in startup environments where roles can become loosely defined.
For people who’ve worked in startups or academia/industry crossover environments:
- Would you generally expect manuscript/presentation preparation to be billable in this situation?
- Is this mostly a communication issue?
- How would you handle this professionally moving forward?