AIBU to think this is too much to ask?

[Nubnut]

My former employer (I resigned in 2021 due to moving far away, on good terms) contacted me in October to ask for an up to date CV. They were negotiating some deal and they wanted to include the CVs of the team who had been involved in building the product. I thought it was a bit weird but I needed to update it anyway so I used it as a push to get it done, and I sent it.

I was pregnant and already on maternity leave during this exchange, and told them
do.

Now they've contacted me again saying hello, hope you and the baby are well, and to ask if I'd be happy to do a phone call with some new members of staff to share my insights about the product. They're trying to do a new deal similar to one I pulled off when working there.

I feel it's a bit too much to ask?

The woman asking isn't junior but she's in her twenties and doesn't have kids, and I feel like saying, "when you're looking after a baby, I find that there is one slot in your day, maximum, where you can find time to do a task, like call your bank, do an exercise video or something. That's a very precious chunk of time I have per day, and if feels too much to use that to give professional advice for free."

I bet they're asking partly because they think I'm on maternity leave so I must have loads of time

I'm due to move back to this town soon and I will need these contacts to find a new job, so I don't want to burn bridges. It's also a quite informal company (start up, 10 employees) so it wouldn't be appropriate to send something really huffy.

What would you do?

Thanks

They’re pretending or have pretended that you’re still working for them on the team to win a bid. It’s the client that wants the certificates. Really dodgy.
If you do want to give them a few hours of your time on a paid basis think carefully about how long it would actually take to impart your knowledge, eg four 2 or 3 hour sessions over a couple of weeks, and come up with a reasonable fee - don’t undersell yourself. You would need to cover childcare costs etc (even if you use family). Alternatively offer to provide a regular consultancy arrangement, as pp suggested, which would actually enable them to let the client know that you are on the team. Don’t let this derail your mat leave though. I’d only bother with this if you really want the money or felt it would be useful contact in the future.

They're either pretending you still work for them or they are applying for some sort of accreditation or funding and need your info. Whatever it is they're not being honest with you and, worse case scenario, they're potentially doing something fraudulent with your name all over it.

That’s seriously odd! What did you reply?

Sorry I forgot to update!
So I rang her, and the whole organisation is in crisis. Everyone has now quit, apart from her and the boss (who is... well, not great to work for).
She was really surprised at my tone (didn't say, I could just tell) and was really breezy about it: apparently it's a funding grant for relaunching the product we built when I was there, and they ask for the CVs and qualifications of the research and development team behind the product. I guess it's a quick way of checking eligibility for their grant.
Anyway, I gave her a 10 minute run down of the history of the product (I couldn't believe how little knowledge had been retained after the wave of departures ... she knew almost nothing) and sent the stuff, more out of pity than anything else.

So I guess the fact that she didn't explain properly in the first email was the real mistake, and that's just because she is young and inexperienced (and maybe a bit lazy? Is the impression I got on the phone)

I'm a contractor and everything you've been asked for is what I get asked for by companies or agencies when they're responding to bids/tender.

I think that's what they are doing and they are pretending you still work there

I just saw your update sorry. Yeah, grants, tenders, similar process