What you agree to when you take a session.

Your rate depends on two things: your seniority, and your band.

Seniority is your job — Senior Manager, Head of Department, Director, or VP and above. You tell us what you are and give us your LinkedIn. We confirm it before your rate goes live. We do that because the rate follows the person, and it has to mean the same thing for everyone.

Band is Pearl, Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum. You start at Pearl when your profile is complete, and you move up by taking part. A higher band pays a higher rate.

You'll always see your own rate before you sign up for anything.

You choose one of two:

• A gift card of your choice
• A donation to charity in your name

Orbyt credit — worth more than the cash value, spent on Orbyt dinners and events — is coming once there is enough on the calendar to spend it on. We will not offer it until then.

We don't pay cash or make bank transfers. That keeps things simple for you: no invoice to raise, no company details to give us, and it sits comfortably inside most employers' policies on gifts.

You're paid after the session, not for booking it. Your Pion333rs account lead handles the payment for you — they arrange the gift card or the donation directly once the session is marked complete, and it reaches you within 30 days. There is nothing for you to claim or chase.

Group sessions pay 1.5× the one-to-one rate, because they ask more of your time.

For a one-to-one you offer three times that suit you, and we fix one of them with the client — or agree another with you. For a group session you apply and we choose the room, because what the client is paying for is the mix of people in it. Either way your place is not confirmed until we say so, and nothing counts against you if we don't pick you.

Some sessions are open to everyone who qualifies. Others are group sessions where we select the room — if you apply and aren't picked, you go on the waitlist and we'll come back to you.

Your rate is locked in when your place is confirmed. If your band changes afterwards, the session still pays what you were shown.

Within 24 hours of your place being confirmed, you can drop out, no questions asked.

After that, you're committed. We've told the client you're coming, and for group sessions we've built the room around who's in it.

If something genuinely gets in the way — illness, a family emergency, travel falling apart, losing your job — tell us and we'll set the drop aside so it costs you nothing. We can't move a booked session to another time; if you have to drop out of a one-to-one, come back to the next one that suits you. A group session has only one sitting, so your place goes to the waitlist.

We'll ask you for a reason when you drop out, and we decide from it whether the drop is excused. An excused drop costs you nothing. An unexcused one is a strike. We won't argue with you about it either way — the exception is something we grant, not something you have to win.

What we're trying to avoid is a session losing people because something more interesting came up. A meeting or a deadline isn't a reason to drop out of a session you've committed to.

You pick up a strike two ways: you don't turn up and don't tell us, or you drop out of a session you'd committed to and the drop isn't excused.

Three strikes and we stop offering you sessions — all formats, not just the one you missed.

A strike stops counting twelve months after you picked it up. So the block lifts by itself as your earliest strike expires, and you don't have to ask us to lift it.

Telling us you can't make it, for a reason we excuse, is never a strike.

Sometimes a client pulls a session late. If that happens after you'd confirmed, you'll receive 25% of what you would have earned, in whatever form you'd chosen.

It doesn't count against you, and you don't lose the points.

You earn points by taking part: 10 for a group session, 15 for a one-to-one, 20 for referring someone who joins.

Points move you up bands — Pearl at 30, Bronze at 50, Silver at 70, Gold at 80, Platinum at 100.

If you're inactive for 12 months, points earned from sessions expire and your band drops accordingly. You'll always keep Pearl, and nothing expires while you keep taking sessions. Anything you've already booked pays the rate you were shown.

We never give the client your email address. Calendar invitations come from us, with your address hidden. If a client contacts you directly outside a session, tell us — it breaks their agreement with us and we'll act on it.

The one exception is an introduction you ask for. After each session we ask whether you'd like us to introduce you to the client. If you say yes, we make the introduction and they may contact you from then on. If you say nothing, that is a no — and the rule above stands exactly as written.

Clients aren't allowed to offer you anything: no payment, no discounts, no equity. If someone does, tell us.

Turn up, be honest, and say what you actually think. You're there because your view is worth paying for. Nobody is selling to you, and you're not expected to be positive.

Your rewards are a thank-you for taking part in research, not employment income. How you treat them is between you and your own circumstances — if you're unsure, check with your employer or an accountant. Some employers have rules about accepting gifts; the charity option exists partly for that.