 Tl;Dr Long story short, I'm in the tech field and one of my friends asked for my technical help on a project. I asked is it for you personally, students at our school or the department. Had it been the first two I would have helped no problem but if I'm helping a not open source/personal project ...aka if my work is benefiting an organization, uh pay me. He is over worked and underqualified and needs my help since he gets no support from our school (the employer).  


One of my close friends got a job at our University building systems for our department to facilitate learning/classes. He has been working on one project for a year now and has been struggling, mainly due to the department changing the goal, his underqualification for the massive task, lack of support, and being overworked.  


The other day I was talking with him and he brought up something he wanted try to get the project done. I talked with him for a little bit (30 mins) about what he was trying to do and if it would work.  


He asked if I could help him implement the solution to the problem, and/or talk with me further.  


I asked is this for the department, or was this a personal project? He knows I don't like our department and said "uh it's mostly a personal project". I'm not super dumb, this was for the department and I said, "I'll help guide you in the right direction but if this is benefiting someone else, pay me, not to be mean but my time is worth something." This was to a friend. One that is struggling.  


Part of this is that he thinks I'm only asking to be paid because I don't like the head of the department (which guilty as charged). Am I right in asking to be paid if this project will help the school? He said that this project will provide a platform for learning to all the students, which he is right about, the results of the project would help a lot of students, so I am unsure if I'm being selfish.  


And as soon as I dropped the bomb of "pay me for this" he said "if you ever needed help at your job I'd help you." Which, yeah, that's true. I did say if I asked you for help I'd pay you in some way.  


There was someone else in the room and they said "just pay for lunch" which I said "sure!"   


Am I an ass?  


In the end I said that I would help guide him in the right direction, and that I was was tired and a bit grumpy. But never said that I would fully "hands on keyboard" help him. 