RE: Cutting a contract short

Subject: RE: Cutting a contract short
From: "Jones, Donna" <DJones -at- zebra -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 09:58:41 -0500

Beth Agnew wrote:
> Whatever happened to integrity and commitment in business? File this
> under Ethics in Technical Communication.


Back in the early 90s, a contract that I was on was cut short. The
Friday before Thanksgiving, the manager told me and another contractor
that we could work the short week the following week, but then our
services would no longer be needed. She followed that with, "You should
be grateful. Because you're only contractors, I didn't even have to give
you this much notice." I don't think she had planned to give us any
notice at all, but I had inadvertently spoiled her plan by asking if I
could take off the day before Thanksgiving. Needless to say, this
experience changed my feelings of loyalty regarding contract positions.

I don't think that working as a contractor is the same as indentured
servitude, although some places treat you as if it was. If an employer
can cut short a six-month contract with little or no notice, why can't a
contractor cut that same contract short with a standard two-week notice?
The manager at the company or the contract company itself could be just
as angered by the poster turning down a contract extension as they might
be by the poster leaving before the original six months is up.


I think the anonymous poster should let his (or her) contract company
know that he's not being used as a technical writer as he had been led
to believe that he would and that he doesn't like the work that he's
being asked to do instead. He could also take it up with the manager at
the company that he's working for. If they're both aware of his
discontentment, maybe one of them can do something about it. After that,
if nothing happens, if the poster finds a different position and moves
on a bit early, I wouldn't consider that "burning a bridge."

But then again, I'm not a hiring manager, so it doesn't matter one whit
what I think. :-/

Donna

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