RE: Working for a subcontractor

["Jane Carnall" <jane -dot- carnall -at- digitalbridges -dot- com>]

John Posada wrote:
>(The rest of the message I snipped because the tone of it came off to
>me that YOU don't have the respect for contract writers that you want
>the employer to have and if you don't show respect, you get none...
>that's what you are experiencing.)

>Sorry I didn't mean this...but it also seemed you couldn't have respect for
>my opinions. Everyone is entitled to have their own opinions and I don't
see
>why people should get offended by them. I accept the fact that some people
>like subcontracting; and I specifically wanted to hear what other people
>think. Also, our countries have different kinds of working cultures etc.
>which affects this discussion.

Yes, it does. In the UK, normally, contract employees don't use their own
tools: but particularly in the IT industry, whether you have the technology
at home or not, UK IT companies want you to use *their* tools and *their*
hardware - everyone has to use the same version of the same software, and
they don't want proprietory information saved on someone else's hard disk.
There isn't much of a working-from-home culture, it's very much
presenteeism, or as one contractor I know said "Bums on seats". <g>

But in most companies where I've worked, contractors share in the meetings
and in as many of the non-work social occasions as they want to. The main
difference I've noticed is that contractors don't go through the annual or
biannual "appraisal": a contractor's appraisal is weekly and is based on how
much money they're willing to pay, rather than on check boxes on forms.
Getting to avoid being appraised by check-box is one reason why I would
prefer contract to permanent work.

The extra money, control over my own hours and my own holidays (but more so
in the US than in the UK - US paid holidays are even worse that UK paid
holidays, and UK paid holidays are justabout the worst in Europe), and the
ability to move on, choose and decide is great: the downside is the extra
expenses, paperwork, taxes, etc etc etc and still more etc. Also IME a
departed contractor tends to get blamed for *everything*, whether they could
possibly have been at fault or not!

Jane Carnall
Technical Writer, Digital Bridges, Scotland
Unless stated otherwise, these opinions are mine, and mine alone.


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