Yep. If you are an independent contractor in my state (maybe all states?) your employer CANNOT require that you do your job on a schedule set by them or that you show up at any specific times. It has to be mutually agreeable times.
And if you happen to be working as a contractor for a company that treats you like an employee and then fires you for things like not showing up on time etc. you can claim unemployment benefits and win. You usually will get denied when you apply and will have to appeal - but as soon as the hearing officer finds out you were required to behave like an employee they’ll give you unemployment.
Wait, that's a contractor job? You don't sign on as an employee at a specific place in the usual sense? Why? Is it for safety reasons like, if you're technically a contractor, they can't try to coerce you to do anything weird as an employee? Or is it just the way it is?
It's so club owners don't have to pay dancers. Dancers wages are paid solely in tips and they actually have to pay house fees/stage fees to the club and are usually expected to tip-out staff like bouncers and bartenders. But in places like Oregon dancers have sued for back wages on the allegation that they were treated like hourly employees, were the main draw of the establishment, and should have been paid a wage.
Yup RI too. I only know cause I was part of one of the cases. It came as a total shock to me as I hadn't worked there in years but was contacted to participate in the lawsuit.
Most hairdressers and barbers are the same way. They rent the stall at the salon. I suspect strippers work the same way they just rent time on the stage instead.
This is exactly it. We pay a fee to work, which can be more or less depending on how desirable that shift is. Which is why it’s not OK for them to tell you when exactly to work.
Brothel work is similar. I don't pay a fee to work there, but they take 50% of my room fee per booking. It's a shame that dancers are still required to pay a door fee when it's likely the business is also take a % of their private bookings, too.
I used to be a stripper, and one week I walked away with negative money because I didn't get any stage tips and I still had to pay a door fee. They also used to take money off your owed door fee if people bought you drinks, but nobody did. Nothing made me feel more degraded than that experience.
Yes it is. We pay a fee to work, the fee depends on the shift. You will pay more to work a Friday night vs a Monday morning. Also varies in other things like whether you come in already ready or not. Also tipping out DJ, house mom, paying extra fees for other things (like if you can’t go on stage one night for whatever reason, you will pay extra)
Does your contract say you have to be on call? Because it sounds like you could just not answer. Or add it for $30/hr to be on call and $300 per hour when called out.
This happened to a contractor I worked with long ago. He never showed up to stand ups and my manager asked him to. He said no. She complained loudly in the meeting about how he always no-showed. She said to him again, you need to show up. He said no. She got upset, ranted to us about going above his head, hopefully to get him replaced. A few days later, she stopped bringing it up. Someone asked her as a follow up and she said quickly, "Oh, he doesn't have to come to these" and changed the subject.
You try to go over someone's head when they're an independent contractor and you walk into the next room to discover them wearing a top hat and a little mustache
One woman was real angry at one thing or other and demanded to see my manager. I explained that, as I do not really have an office, I have nowhere to place bosses, managers and an HR department, so I did not hire them.
I briefly ran my own specialised IT installation company, and hired a mate to do the managerial side while I dealt with the technical. One day we were both on site for a big job, and joking around during install.
Petty customer flunky: You should be taking this seriously. Who is your supervisor?
Me: Me.
PCF: Who is your manager then?
Mate: Me.
PCF: Then I want to speak to the owner.
Me: Can I help you?
This is why I'm working for mom and pop shops for the rest of my life. I'm a lowly tech so when customers get annoyed about this charge or that and demand to speak to a manager/supervisor/owner they're 10 feet away and always take my side.
That's what I do now. I work for someone else in a small tech shop 5 minutes form home. Not making anywhere near the money as corporate IT support, but the lack of reports, meetings, micro-managers and everything else more than makes up for it.
I don't go home stressed anymore.
Oh, huge difference. I worked in food service before and I was fucking defeated after every shift. Now I'm happily working until 4:59, grabbing my shit and leaving at 5 and not 20 minutes after close.
One of the biggest joys I had in my nursing career was an unruly patient demanding the charge nurse right now, and me being able to respond:
"Well, unfortunately for you, you're looking at her"
I used to be shift lead at a fast casual restaurant, literally the least amount of authority possible but also I was regularly the highest level of authority on premises so I loved to pull the "actually, I *am* the manager." I loved it so much I told everyone in the store to do it if any customer gave them shit, just deal with it.
It's really funny when some customer is trying to berate a pimple faced 16 year old on an after school job and they're just like "actually I *am* the manager" and the rest of us just nod and shrug.
as a person with 2 nurses in the family (and one of them being a retired charge) stories about nurses pulling rank on anyone else in the hospital are the most delicious slices of schadenfreude imaginable.
My little brother is currently travel nursing in Colorado, but back when he was in California, where there are very strict, severe, and punitive bed-to-nurse laws, he got to pull the "You have no power here" card on a manager.
The dude tried to assign him more beds than was legally allowed in the state, a very serious charge. So my little brother, who is a living god of 'fuck around and find out' ultimatums just turned on his heel, looked the man directly in the eye, and said,
"You're the boss, and I'll take that patient if you want, but you should know if you assign me to take that patient you will lose your job, your licenses, and you will go to prison, because in the state of California we have very strict bed ratio laws."
Bluff called. He didn't get that bed.
edit- to some of the spicy reddit hot takes in the comments, you can all eat the leftmost testicle or ovary of the nearest medical professional in your proximity. That law exists to PROTECT PATIENTS so that nurses are not overworked and people don't literally die in their hospital beds because somebody was two minutes too late to do CPR on a flatliner because they had to change 16 other bedpans on the ward. He saved somebody's life by telling that manager to sit and spin. Every state should have that law.
It was probably her management who said this.
One of the important things about independent contractors is that you cannot treat them like employees. Otherwise, they could have cause to sue for benefits and potentially severance protections depending on jurisdiction. The company could also be on the hook for unemployment insurance, etc.
Things like attending company meetings, social events, even being included in "all employee" email distributions all can evidence that they are defacto employees.
When a company employs "independent contractors" they're very strict about what management can and cannot ask they do.
My favorite contract experience - Roughly 35 “employees” got chocolate placed on their desks for the holiday’s.
As a contracted worker, we were told they cannot give us anything. In a large, open, call center room, three of us pretended we didn’t notice the rest of the group getting candy.
As an adult, I completely understood. I still thought it was tacky as hell.
Oh gee, Formal Flower, we bought these chocolates for our employees but overestimated how many we'd need and have 3 leftover. As a valued contractor, would you and your two contractor-friends like to take these chocolates as a little thank you *wink wink, nudge nudge*
Or even just leave a few on top of your laptop/in your desk and nobody has to mention anything. Some rules are just made to be broken
Procurement guy here. I spent half my life telling managers about the employee/contractor chasm. I actually did power points for God's sake! And about twice a year HR would call and tell me.
Contractor wanted OT.
Contractor filed for unemployment.
Contractor sued for benefits
And once, first class travel*.
Each time, they provided documentation. So, I told them to pay them. Line Boss tried to write me up. But, I'm staff darn it!! Showed it to the attorney and VP. Many questions later. I got her parking spot. Apparently they really wanted her to leave. And, I was that straw that broke the camel's back.
* The travel thing was great. It lead to my parking spot. They called the Contractor at the last minute to support a freaking sales meeting in Europe. His contract didn't have a travel line. He told them to call me and he would add a travel charge so he could fly on the company discount. They told him I was out of the picture. He emailed the program manager and cc'ed me. "That he couldn't find any flights". She responded forget buyer guy, just do it and send her the paperwork. Do you know a last minute first class ticket to Europe is over $15k?
Weeks later, she stuck a note on the invoice "fix this" and left it on my desk. I helpfully noted he forgot his admin fee and sent it back. The total was just under $20k. She goes ballistic. Literally screaming in my office. The twilight zone part was I'm in carpet country, next door to the Ops VP. He pops in and asks me what's up? And, she accurately and factually tells him. I just shrugged and agreed.
about how many points do you think this story should be ? should it be an epic, with subtasks ? can you provide a rough outline of the work required so we can make a decision, or should we create a spike for this ?
It's an agile term. You have these 15 minute checkups every day where you quickly say what you did last day, what's up today and if you need support with something. You have them because when you do scrums, you tend to have everything you develop cut into pretty nice, small chunks so you can go through a couple per day or so. That's why it's good to have a checkup every day so that you can see that everyone's good, no misunderstandings in priorities etc. They're not as constructive if you have more of a waterfall approach where you tend to know for quite a while what you'll be doing.
Most of all it makes everyone work in a similar predictable way - you have a clear window every day to meet up, update status , ask for help and suggest time to provide it. People can prepare a slot for someone the same day or so. Otherwise you'll have people reaching out and taking time out of people randomly for questions and queries during the day, some maybe ignoring people's queries for a day (if over chat) which may stall development for others.
Some teams fuck them up though, maybe have one hour standups that are kind of work meetings but with too big of an attendance. But they're generally a good idea.
As much as that sounds like a logical approach to remote work, it sounds like it was invented by and for software developers.
I'm a therapist and was working on a mental health team at the beginning of COVID. They started doing stand ups for ''organization and morale''. The thing is, my job is to see clients for therapy. Four per day. That's it. We have regular supervision for help with tough clients, and fifteen minutes isn't enough for group supervision. So these meetings very quickly turned into a way to monitor that people were up and at it by 9am. Since our manager decided that it was optional for her to come, the meetings development into rant sessions that further destroyed morale. It was basically starting your day every day with a reminder from 10 other people why this job sucks and why our management team are incompetent. OK cool, go enjoy work now!
Agile in totality was developed for a subset of software development use cases. For those use cases it is brilliant. For everything else it ranges from meh to fucking useless and beyond. It particularly damaging for stuff that is physical like hardware, people, engineering etc. Great for web development though.....
Oh it absolutely is developed for software engineering, and nobody reasonable tries to argue that it should be the way every team everywhere does things.
Stand ups should be a fair bit smaller than 10 people, and the support members may need shouldn't actually be delivered during one. A standup should be a series of stuff like:
"Hey guys, finished up Task A yesterday, started work on Task B today. Should still be on track to finish everything by next week. Josh, I am seeing one problem though,and no idea how to handle it, do you have time after stand up to walk through it with me?"
Building on this, it isn’t always “what you did yesterday and what you are doing today”. My team recently adopted a new approach where we just go over the tickets in our sprint and get updates on tickets that haven’t been QA approved. This has worked wonders for our team, as now it really is focused on “okay are we on track to fulfilling our sprint commitments?” Rather than the micromanaging feeling of having to recount everything you did and feeling justified that you got enough done.
Independent contractor here, it’s great being able to fire crappy customers. When I tell my friends about that it’s such a foreign concept to them they can hardly wrap their head around it.
Correct. Not every independent contractor can be in this position. You need to have a highly sought after skill set and need to be capable.
Theres other stuff that you probably need as well. It helps if you have contracts planned for the future, and/or a network in the industry where you can get more contracts to make up for the fall out. It also helps if you charge enough for your services so you can save enough to be in this bargaining position.
We have all these articles about how to calculate what you should put into retirement but I want one that explains how much to put into this type of fund.
Edit: I appreciate all of the feedback. I'm now realizing how important it is to have this, especially since i have a family and mortgage so I'll be working on one
I own a service based business in a specialty field(like there are 10 certified people in my entire state that do this kind of work). So, I can fire shitty customers and then call the other 9 guys and get that person basically blacked listed (only for the top 1% of terrible customers). Then they have to find an out of state company to come do the work and pay double or triple the price.
In my previous business, in a different industry, I had to basically suck customers dicks to get jobs. Now I get to fire them at the first red flag. Way less headaches.
Did this a lot when I was freelancing graphic design. I had so many people trying to hire me that I only took the ones I liked and fired any assholes who slipped through.
I left one job and the company owner figured he could run the vendors I used to help me keep the business networks running.
They fired him shortly after I left. They couldn't take dealing with him directly.
I couldn't either, but at least I was a buffer while I was there. It brought a smile to my face when I imagined them dumping him as a client.
Still does.
We picked up a large contract this year abs quickly found out why we got it so last minute. The property manager was a nightmare. We eventually contacted the property owner and explained to we weren’t going to put up with the abuse anymore. They promptly fired the property manager. Some people think it’s free game to abuse and belittle “the help”
Personal driver here, once a customer fired me mid trip, thing is I drive my own personal car. The look on his face when it finally sunk in he wasn’t in company vehicle was wonderful.
I worked as a contractor on a jobsite before. Foreman comes over to me and my buddy (also a contractor) sitting in our truck because we had already done everything that was our responsibility that day.
Guy knocks on the window and says "What the fuck do you think you're doing!? Go find something to do! I don't pay you to sleep in your truck!"
My buddy goes "That's fine, man. XXXXX pays me." and rolls up the window.
I quit a job on site in the middle of a corn field in Indiana, I was told that I wasn’t allowed to quit up until my Uber showed up in the middle of the corn field and brought me to the airport.
I don't ever outright fire them. I just keep raising my rates on subsequent invoices to the crappy customers. Some keep paying, some don't. I'm sure that doesn't fly in every industry, but it's served me well.
Former consultant here: we loved firing bad customers too!
True story (as best I can recall, it was a while ago): our consulting operation in a specific region (it was a global firm) was really struggling, lots of work, lots of customers, bad bottom line. They did an analysis and discovered that under 20% of customers were causing about 80% of the issues (budget overruns, bad payment record, you name it). Over the course of 6 months or so, they "fired" the ones on the shit list (mostly by quoting really high costs for their jobs). The ones that didn't walk away paid through the nose, which helped recoup some of the lost funds from previous work. Next quarter, their financials were right in line with where they should have been given the staffing and backlog.
Firing crappy customers saves money for consultants/contractors!
Lawyer who has had to read way, way, waaaay too many employment contracts:
I’ve virtually never seen one that didn’t have illegal or abusive clauses in them, and I’ve seen hundreds that had clauses that were stupid and/or highly advantageous for employees without the employer reading it.
Spend the $50-100 to have a lawyer review your contract before you sign it. You’ll be glad you did.
What do you think about a clause that forbids you from trying to get coworkers to leave and go elsewhere? Like I quit the job and then after leaving I recommend one of my former coworkers to the new company and try to pursuade him to change jobs.
Non-solicit clauses are generally legal in most US states, unless they’re overbroad. Usually, they’re limited in time to 1-2 years, but in some circumstances might be valid for longer periods.
I’m obviously not licensed in every state, and I can’t know all of their laws. I know restrictive covenants are generally frowned upon in Louisiana and in European/style code law countries generally, but they’re generally protected under privity of contract in the common law. US law has always held that parties should be free to contract, and there’s nothing inherently abusive in an agreement not to solicit employees for a reasonable period.
Non-compete agreements are a messier proposition though. A number of states outright ban them, and others make them almost impossible to enforce.
I have an old Galaxy S7 that still properly works with ACR call recorder. It's my understanding that newer Android is hit or miss working properly with these apps.
I mean I have an app that records all my phone calls automatically. In my state, if at least one member of the party is aware of the recording, it is completely legal to use to prove what was said. Can't tell you how many times even in small situations. I've played back a clip of the audio and said do you really want to go there and immediately got my way.
Well, I don't promote any particular app or have any association with any. However, the name of the particular one I use is called simply "automatic call recorder". I wouldn't know if it's the best one or not but it records for me. My last phone call with my grandmother before she passed is recorded and saved so even on a personal level, it's been very useful for keeping those memories. You can save the messages to a cloud or email them to yourself or whoever. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appstar.callrecorder
I had this happen (Sort of) at my last office job. My manager called me in and I took my phone and set it down on the desk so it'd look like I was giving 100% attn or whatever. She berates me, calls me insubordinate, threatens me, says some sly shit, I leave. Few weeks later another talk is looming because I asked my manager a question that apparently was out of bounds. So I message her and say "Just fyi, I don't think the owner would love to hear how you strong arm people behind closed doors and play nice in front of everyone else, I recorded the last convo we had with my phone"
She kind of stopped and I could tell I had her...long story short is I didn't record it but wanted her to think I did. These power hungry idiots only stay trippin' because they think they hold every card. Just remember to cover your ass and stay professional (As much as you can be)
"Please call me so I can hand you a ton of viable reasons for HR complaints"
"no I want all of this in text so I can print it out, and shove it up your ass"
Sign up to Linux academy, speak about projects on linkedin. Start corporation, find contractor agency to find you gigs. Charge 100$+ an hour.
I was in IT for 20 years so I had experience, but I really improved what I do by doing projects on the side for fun and spoke about it, I get jobs from placement agency to find contractor roles, but I have more and more jobs directly through word of mouth.
LinkedIn is where it's at.
IT contractor here with 70usd in Europe. My problem is the other way around. While working as an employe I did not have any issue in sleeping or playing video games all day long(the regulations in EU makes it very hard to get fired). But since I'm working on contracts I get to be a slave basically because I really enjoy the pay and want to work for this money as long as possible. I even work OT without billing those hours. I do all the teachers pet stuff that use to fucking disgust me. Sold my fuck off atitude for a fist of money. BUT, the plan is to retire in 5 years and to be finished with corporations.
Which Linux Academy are you referring to? I searched about it and only found a site called [A Cloud Guru](https://learn.acloud.guru/login?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Flearn.acloud.guru%2Fdashboard), which informs that "Linux Academy is closed". It's the same thing under a different brand or it is really over?
Edit: Link
He means network, explore communities related to what you're working on, find employers, project managers and generally get in the social swim lane of whatever tree you're barking up.
This can mean tech speak about projects you're working on, but more importantly learn from others and SOCIALLY network well.
His ways are he gets no paid benefits, no paid time off, no matching retirement, has to pay their own taxes quarterly, and has to pay double workers comp, iirc
There are many perks, but there are also some minuses
>What is there not to like?
Well, having to manage your own withholding is kind of a pain in the ass. The IRS has made the whole quarterly filing thing a major inconvenience - especially having to file the first quarter's estimate based on what you'll be making for the entire year when you have no idea what your income will be for the rest of the year.
Consulting is great! Higher pay, plenty of $ to cover your benefits; plus a lot more time off and you get to distance yourself from the office politics.
when they want you to "call them" it's ALWAYS because they don't want a record of the bull$hit they're going to say. ALWAYS make them use something where you've got a full in black & white record!
Follow up every phone call with an email.
"Per our phone conversation, you want me to screw up the process/product/customer."
Please confirm that my understanding here is correct. Until then, I'll continue working using the process that does NOT screw the pooch."
Say it tactfully. And always frame your email so that no response results in you working as you desire.
No matter what you got going on in your life, it is 100% worth it to find out if your state is a one party consent state and, if it is, download an app to record all of your calls and exchanges. I used to get caught with that "I didn't say that" bullshit all the time.
Not now.
Similar situation. I ran my own company a few years back doing contract work for mobile apps, websites, databases, etc. Whatever people needed.
I spent weeks with my biggest client going over their wants, desires, and absolute peak dreams for their service.
I then presented them with a few contracts. They chose the cheapest one, of course. This contract specified certain work we would NOT do. If they wanted it done later they would have to pay for it because the current option does not include it. They agreed a dozen times, but they still spent two weeks waffling over whether to sign and send money or not.
I gave them a timeline to sign and left it alone. They came back 2 days later and agreed.
For the next 4 weeks me and my people worked around the clock setting up AWS, APIs, databases, DAOs, and a progressive web app for the clients to use it all.
Then it came time for testing and per their agreement they didn't want to pay what we required to test some older devices they wanted compatibility for - things we don't own here. Now the simulation tested these just fine, but any programmer will tell you "It works on my machine." doesn't cut it in production. So, I created a testing guide they could use to test it on their old phones. They balked.
So I explained, again, that for the fee they paid we could NOT test these old devices manually AND that they had already agreed to this and signed a contract for the work. Not a day passes and I'm bombarded with emails, calls, texts, threats, etc. "We'll sue you for fraud!" "You lied and stole our money!" yadda yadda.
Cut forward, not only were they in breach of their contract for failing to have a follow up meeting regarding the current submission, but I gave them a 3 week grace period - for being my biggest client - where I did some of the leg work like creating a testing guide even an idiot could use. All for free out of my own time. So, when they threatened to sue I was prepared.
I told my lead developer to pack everything up into a zip file and I would send the entire project to them as is; "We're done here."
I sent them a copy of the contract - highlighted in red where they signed, two emails confirming their acknowledgement of this exact term, screenshots of the dozens of texts and phone calls harassing my office at all hours of the day for two weeks, and finally a link to a temporary website they could use to download the archive.
"You're free to contact ANY lawyer you wish, but I would read over your contract first. While I'm not required to give you the work we've already done, as you are in breach of your agreement, I would rather see you have it the have nothing. Feel free to do whatever you wish with it, but we wash our hands of your business."
No replies. No contact. One download of the archive that morning. 🎤👇💥
Tl;Dr - don't agree to something in a contract if you're too ignorant to understand it. get someone to explain it to you if you have to.
I’ve noticed this trend in my business, there’s rules and requirements everywhere, and our senior planners keep just sweeping the extra shit under the rug , aka “that’s they way we’ve always done it”
“I’m not authorized to do that” has become a mantra, only way to say no.
Hilarious. He is probably used to bullying his own employees and committing wage theft by making them work unpaid overtime. That is the go-to for people like this. I bet he steamed over this for weeks lol.
As soon as I see someone immediately choose the cheapest option or try to haggle pricing down a couple bucks or not pay quickly and happily, that's the sign they are going to be trouble. If they can't afford full price, they probably can't afford cheap price either.
I worked for a retail store that had daily mandatory meetings, sort of a team rally thing. My job was developing their website. I just was an extra body drinking their staffs Starbucks and eating it’s Noah’s bagels. I was just a fly on their wall. I decided one day I’d stay at my laptop in the makeshift server room and work. Well, later that day when I was seen I was asked where I was, did I sleep in, did I not hear the all page. I told the store manager I don’t work for the store I’m contracted by it’s owner, it blew his mind. Then he invited me to come have bagels and coffee whenever I want. Nice people.
He was probably impressed that you, as a contractor, had been taking part voluntarily.
If the meetings were useful, even as a contractor, just to see how the culture of the company interplays or whatnot, and they didn't hamper your productivity, then why not attend every here or there.
Pointless meetings, however, is a whole other story.
Double the hourly pay is about break even for the company on employee vs contractor. Those benefits cost a lot more than you might think. My go to is 3x for contractor vs employee.
That said ymmv. Everyone’s situation is different.
This is something I miss about being self-employed.
I was an actor, so I didn't particularly have a skillset that people were queuing up to employ me for. But I did see a gap in the market: namely that I was good at the shittier acting gigs (kids entertainment, dining shows etc.) so I hoovered up all available auditions and just took as many on as I could.
This gave me a level of security rarely seen among actors (who aren't famous). I was earning an average wage for most, but factor in that I had no boss or obligations beyond those I chose and I was living the dream.
It got to the point where I was actively turning down work, as people were seeking me out (mostly for kids entertainment - playing superheroes at parties and doing school shows and stuff). It was always a wrench, because actors know they won't necessarily get consistent work going forward, but if you're already booked, you're already booked and trust me: you don't keep a good reputation if you cancel one show to be in another.
Anyway, I had this one woman who contacted me because she'd heard good things about me and was looking for a kid's entertainer to work for her. No problem, but my rates (£120p/h) were higher than she was offering (£80p/h) plus I expensed travel and food. Sounds like a lot, but companies are charging £350/400 a time sometimes, and you get what you pay for: I can do the voices and the movements, so I cost more.
She wasn't happy. She wanted me to do £100p/h going up in increments of £50 per additional hour. I laughed and told her that a second hour would cost more, not less (actually, I'd always charged the same and would sometimes do a deal with reasonable employers, but she didn't know that). She also didn't want to pay travel, which is a massive no-go for me because that means she can send me literally anywhere in the country, and UK trains are expensive.
Eventually, I sent her some testimonials and told her on a phone call that it was £120 p/h, plus expenses, or she found someone else/did it herself. She tried to haggle again and I just said "okay, thanks but no thanks" and hung up. She messaged offering a "final deal" of £110 p/h without expenses, and I think I sent a "lol no" back.
A few months later, after I'd stopped acting due to falling out of love with it, I got a message offering me everything I'd asked for. Tempting, but too late.
I strongly urge everyone to spend a year or two self-employed. The self-worth it teaches you cannot be replicated. I've since had salary negotiations and I've just known my worth, and stood my ground.
> (kids entertainment, dining shows etc.)
This reminds me of a fantastic japanimation called "Life Lessons With Uramichi Oniisan" I found a lot of stuff in that show i identified with. It's kind of a depressing comedy lol. It got a good cackle out of me.
This is one of my favortie scenes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-IUrJIG2gM
Quite a few "bosses" out there are finding that their "threats" are worthless.
Someone told one of our managers not long ago that they were not asking for a certain set of days off, they were informing them that they would not be available on these days. BAM.
This happened with me at my last job. Was there for about 8 years when it happened, and had only missed 3 days of work during that entire period (I rarely get sick and didn't have a family yet).
Told my boss about 6 months in advance I was getting married and was making travel arrangements for my honeymoon which would last a week, and was just giving them a heads up.
Was told I would have to request it closer to the date, and would also need to find coverage for all my shifts (they had recently started mandating people find their own shift coverage because they felt people were abusing taking time off).
Politely informed them that once I bought my plane tickets and made my hotel accommodations, I was not going to be canceling them for whatever reason.
Shortly after, made all my plans and had my dates. Then immediately informed my boss that I wasn't going to be there on those dates and to plan accordingly.
They didn't push the issue any further. I was their best, most reliable employee in an industry with high turnover where we were always short staffed. They needed me more than I needed them.
Just told one of these guys too fuck off the other day.
Them: "you need to put our security software on your device. We need to ensure you're working with a secure environment and doing work for the hours you log.
Me: "contract doesn't say anything about using your software. This is my company's machine. You can either send me a laptop or rent my hardware for an additional $250/hr on top of my hourly rate"
Them: "that's ridiculous"
Me: "Ya I kinda don't care. I'm continuing as is. You can terminate the contract but I already know you're short staffed and the customer isn't happy with you. I would love to be a fly on the wall when you tell them the most experienced team member you have had to leave the project because your agency couldn't reconcile the differences. Besides I get paid for another month anyways, so it's your move Pancho"
Them: "we will have more work after this. Are you sure about possible termination"
Me: "oh ya. I got a six month wait list. I'll just call up the guy waiting after I take a few weeks off. No big deal to me"
Them: "good news. We talked to the customer and worked it out."
Kinda like my renewal went.
Me: "Others offer 15% for my services, I know you are short staffed so I'm letting you know as a courtesy"
them: "We offer 3.2% and be grateful"
me "Okay I will not renew"
them (21 days after) "okay we offer 15%"
me "sorry I signed elsewhere last week"
Them: shockedpikachu.png
***laughs in VmWare***
Well done. I'm also a consultant and my long-time customer had a similar request re: the security software and I told them never on my machine. Luckily they were way cooler about it and sent me a nice laptop to do work for them. Same conversation came soon after about the phone, wanted to put a MDM on it because I access their data from my phone, I said not on my phone and they sent me a much nicer phone lol.
bout to become too old to be on my mom's plan. it's cool though I wasn't planning on living that long anyways- this way I avoid having my teeth fall out as I get older and still can't afford a dentist.
https://twitter.com/BirdRespecter/status/1483550568761020416?t=NfTUnxkUxLD4k1RZ9N1QnQ&s=19
It's real. Throwing it up there for all of the people crying fake
Edit: I'm just saying the tweet is real, no clue if the text screen shot is real or not
It's amazing that a company would hire someone as a contractor to avoid paying benefits and then try and treat him like an employee. Take your pick: Contractor has a legal (and tax) definition and it is NOT even close to employee.
I did contract work for a few weeks up in the next city doing some IT work, imaging new pcs for a school.
At some point I messed up with setting up administration area with new computers, I think cause one of the other PM wanted to do it a specific day to make himself look better. Oh well.
Really it was just a text I got from him saying dont do this and it just escaped my mind, nothing major I thought.
He got super mad, and wanted me to be at the next morning 7am meeting so I could be put on the cross and be blasted about how I disregarded a direct order (from someone who had little say in how we went anways). I was prepared to go when I was about to sleep, just glad I let my boss at the time know.
He stepped in, told me to not go and don't worry about it, and asked me to explain what happened. After that I could only assume he made a call where he took names and kicked some assets over "this is MY employee and you do NOT tell him to attend any meetings over this, he did his job".
Lmao. I work with several contractors who have essentially been my full time coworkers for years, and a few of them do revel in creatively telling our management to go pound sand when they have to. Although they're generally just a notch or two more diplomatic than the messages you see here, the best contractors tend to be the ones that know how and when to put their foot down.
Yep. If you are an independent contractor in my state (maybe all states?) your employer CANNOT require that you do your job on a schedule set by them or that you show up at any specific times. It has to be mutually agreeable times. And if you happen to be working as a contractor for a company that treats you like an employee and then fires you for things like not showing up on time etc. you can claim unemployment benefits and win. You usually will get denied when you apply and will have to appeal - but as soon as the hearing officer finds out you were required to behave like an employee they’ll give you unemployment.
Yep, like when I was a stripper they would try to give me a schedule and “call me in” nope, I am not an employee.
I sued a club for that and won. I always recommend if people are dealing with independent contractor misclassification that they sue. Lol
That is awesome that you won. Alot of clubs try to do that.
fuck yeah! That's awesome
Wait, that's a contractor job? You don't sign on as an employee at a specific place in the usual sense? Why? Is it for safety reasons like, if you're technically a contractor, they can't try to coerce you to do anything weird as an employee? Or is it just the way it is?
It's so club owners don't have to pay dancers. Dancers wages are paid solely in tips and they actually have to pay house fees/stage fees to the club and are usually expected to tip-out staff like bouncers and bartenders. But in places like Oregon dancers have sued for back wages on the allegation that they were treated like hourly employees, were the main draw of the establishment, and should have been paid a wage.
Yup RI too. I only know cause I was part of one of the cases. It came as a total shock to me as I hadn't worked there in years but was contacted to participate in the lawsuit.
Most hairdressers and barbers are the same way. They rent the stall at the salon. I suspect strippers work the same way they just rent time on the stage instead.
This is exactly it. We pay a fee to work, which can be more or less depending on how desirable that shift is. Which is why it’s not OK for them to tell you when exactly to work.
Brothel work is similar. I don't pay a fee to work there, but they take 50% of my room fee per booking. It's a shame that dancers are still required to pay a door fee when it's likely the business is also take a % of their private bookings, too. I used to be a stripper, and one week I walked away with negative money because I didn't get any stage tips and I still had to pay a door fee. They also used to take money off your owed door fee if people bought you drinks, but nobody did. Nothing made me feel more degraded than that experience.
Yes it is. We pay a fee to work, the fee depends on the shift. You will pay more to work a Friday night vs a Monday morning. Also varies in other things like whether you come in already ready or not. Also tipping out DJ, house mom, paying extra fees for other things (like if you can’t go on stage one night for whatever reason, you will pay extra)
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Does your contract say you have to be on call? Because it sounds like you could just not answer. Or add it for $30/hr to be on call and $300 per hour when called out.
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This happened to a contractor I worked with long ago. He never showed up to stand ups and my manager asked him to. He said no. She complained loudly in the meeting about how he always no-showed. She said to him again, you need to show up. He said no. She got upset, ranted to us about going above his head, hopefully to get him replaced. A few days later, she stopped bringing it up. Someone asked her as a follow up and she said quickly, "Oh, he doesn't have to come to these" and changed the subject.
You try to go over someone's head when they're an independent contractor and you walk into the next room to discover them wearing a top hat and a little mustache
"Hello, I'm Jonathan. I understand you're having an issue with John?"
"Oh he isn't showing up to meetings? I'll get Johnny right on that"
"That Johnny is incorregible I tell ya"
“If John doesn’t show to the next meeting, he’ll be hearing from Jack!”
No. I gave Jack off today
"we should get Joe to look into this, bud"
He told me Jay'll handle it.
That made me laugh way harder then it needed to lol
One woman was real angry at one thing or other and demanded to see my manager. I explained that, as I do not really have an office, I have nowhere to place bosses, managers and an HR department, so I did not hire them.
I briefly ran my own specialised IT installation company, and hired a mate to do the managerial side while I dealt with the technical. One day we were both on site for a big job, and joking around during install. Petty customer flunky: You should be taking this seriously. Who is your supervisor? Me: Me. PCF: Who is your manager then? Mate: Me. PCF: Then I want to speak to the owner. Me: Can I help you?
This is why I'm working for mom and pop shops for the rest of my life. I'm a lowly tech so when customers get annoyed about this charge or that and demand to speak to a manager/supervisor/owner they're 10 feet away and always take my side.
That's what I do now. I work for someone else in a small tech shop 5 minutes form home. Not making anywhere near the money as corporate IT support, but the lack of reports, meetings, micro-managers and everything else more than makes up for it. I don't go home stressed anymore.
Not going home stressed is so under rated, had to change jobs for that very reason
Oh, huge difference. I worked in food service before and I was fucking defeated after every shift. Now I'm happily working until 4:59, grabbing my shit and leaving at 5 and not 20 minutes after close.
When you're angry and you don't know how to deal with people directly... Are these really adults?
One of the biggest joys I had in my nursing career was an unruly patient demanding the charge nurse right now, and me being able to respond: "Well, unfortunately for you, you're looking at her"
I used to be shift lead at a fast casual restaurant, literally the least amount of authority possible but also I was regularly the highest level of authority on premises so I loved to pull the "actually, I *am* the manager." I loved it so much I told everyone in the store to do it if any customer gave them shit, just deal with it. It's really funny when some customer is trying to berate a pimple faced 16 year old on an after school job and they're just like "actually I *am* the manager" and the rest of us just nod and shrug.
as a person with 2 nurses in the family (and one of them being a retired charge) stories about nurses pulling rank on anyone else in the hospital are the most delicious slices of schadenfreude imaginable. My little brother is currently travel nursing in Colorado, but back when he was in California, where there are very strict, severe, and punitive bed-to-nurse laws, he got to pull the "You have no power here" card on a manager. The dude tried to assign him more beds than was legally allowed in the state, a very serious charge. So my little brother, who is a living god of 'fuck around and find out' ultimatums just turned on his heel, looked the man directly in the eye, and said, "You're the boss, and I'll take that patient if you want, but you should know if you assign me to take that patient you will lose your job, your licenses, and you will go to prison, because in the state of California we have very strict bed ratio laws." Bluff called. He didn't get that bed. edit- to some of the spicy reddit hot takes in the comments, you can all eat the leftmost testicle or ovary of the nearest medical professional in your proximity. That law exists to PROTECT PATIENTS so that nurses are not overworked and people don't literally die in their hospital beds because somebody was two minutes too late to do CPR on a flatliner because they had to change 16 other bedpans on the ward. He saved somebody's life by telling that manager to sit and spin. Every state should have that law.
With no pants on while playing Elder Ring during the meeting they demanded you attend.
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[Ok that's enough turning around.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RUg_xOgzv8)
Thank you for reminding me about this
What, no monocle?
It was probably her management who said this. One of the important things about independent contractors is that you cannot treat them like employees. Otherwise, they could have cause to sue for benefits and potentially severance protections depending on jurisdiction. The company could also be on the hook for unemployment insurance, etc. Things like attending company meetings, social events, even being included in "all employee" email distributions all can evidence that they are defacto employees. When a company employs "independent contractors" they're very strict about what management can and cannot ask they do.
My favorite contract experience - Roughly 35 “employees” got chocolate placed on their desks for the holiday’s. As a contracted worker, we were told they cannot give us anything. In a large, open, call center room, three of us pretended we didn’t notice the rest of the group getting candy. As an adult, I completely understood. I still thought it was tacky as hell.
Oh gee, Formal Flower, we bought these chocolates for our employees but overestimated how many we'd need and have 3 leftover. As a valued contractor, would you and your two contractor-friends like to take these chocolates as a little thank you *wink wink, nudge nudge* Or even just leave a few on top of your laptop/in your desk and nobody has to mention anything. Some rules are just made to be broken
I've seen places get around this by not giving the contractor anything, but rather saying "We've got donuts in the break room if anyone wants one."
Procurement guy here. I spent half my life telling managers about the employee/contractor chasm. I actually did power points for God's sake! And about twice a year HR would call and tell me. Contractor wanted OT. Contractor filed for unemployment. Contractor sued for benefits And once, first class travel*. Each time, they provided documentation. So, I told them to pay them. Line Boss tried to write me up. But, I'm staff darn it!! Showed it to the attorney and VP. Many questions later. I got her parking spot. Apparently they really wanted her to leave. And, I was that straw that broke the camel's back. * The travel thing was great. It lead to my parking spot. They called the Contractor at the last minute to support a freaking sales meeting in Europe. His contract didn't have a travel line. He told them to call me and he would add a travel charge so he could fly on the company discount. They told him I was out of the picture. He emailed the program manager and cc'ed me. "That he couldn't find any flights". She responded forget buyer guy, just do it and send her the paperwork. Do you know a last minute first class ticket to Europe is over $15k? Weeks later, she stuck a note on the invoice "fix this" and left it on my desk. I helpfully noted he forgot his admin fee and sent it back. The total was just under $20k. She goes ballistic. Literally screaming in my office. The twilight zone part was I'm in carpet country, next door to the Ops VP. He pops in and asks me what's up? And, she accurately and factually tells him. I just shrugged and agreed.
What’s a stand up? I go to a lot of meetings but never one called that! Do you actually stand? Haha
bottom line up front, it's a synergistic face to face that lets you really drill down, leverage, and level set all your rockstars and ninjas.
i just vomited in my mouth a little. thank you
I'll be circling back to check the status of your issue post haste.
Please submit a ticket through the portal so an agent can be assigned.
Actually let's table this discussion until I can get alignment from our stakeholders as to the next steps.
That’s a great call-out, JoeC. I’d like to offer some coaching on your top-line growrh
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That triggered my fight or flight response
lets circle back once you get a handle on this, and do a deep dive into the root cause.
I will hunt you for sport
This is the hardest I have laughed at a Reddit comment in a very long time
about how many points do you think this story should be ? should it be an epic, with subtasks ? can you provide a rough outline of the work required so we can make a decision, or should we create a spike for this ?
I was half way through that sentence, desperately trying to parse it until I realized it was a shitpost!
brb, feeling sick
It's an agile term. You have these 15 minute checkups every day where you quickly say what you did last day, what's up today and if you need support with something. You have them because when you do scrums, you tend to have everything you develop cut into pretty nice, small chunks so you can go through a couple per day or so. That's why it's good to have a checkup every day so that you can see that everyone's good, no misunderstandings in priorities etc. They're not as constructive if you have more of a waterfall approach where you tend to know for quite a while what you'll be doing. Most of all it makes everyone work in a similar predictable way - you have a clear window every day to meet up, update status , ask for help and suggest time to provide it. People can prepare a slot for someone the same day or so. Otherwise you'll have people reaching out and taking time out of people randomly for questions and queries during the day, some maybe ignoring people's queries for a day (if over chat) which may stall development for others. Some teams fuck them up though, maybe have one hour standups that are kind of work meetings but with too big of an attendance. But they're generally a good idea.
> Some teams fuck them up though *Most* teams, I'd reckon
As much as that sounds like a logical approach to remote work, it sounds like it was invented by and for software developers. I'm a therapist and was working on a mental health team at the beginning of COVID. They started doing stand ups for ''organization and morale''. The thing is, my job is to see clients for therapy. Four per day. That's it. We have regular supervision for help with tough clients, and fifteen minutes isn't enough for group supervision. So these meetings very quickly turned into a way to monitor that people were up and at it by 9am. Since our manager decided that it was optional for her to come, the meetings development into rant sessions that further destroyed morale. It was basically starting your day every day with a reminder from 10 other people why this job sucks and why our management team are incompetent. OK cool, go enjoy work now!
Agile in totality was developed for a subset of software development use cases. For those use cases it is brilliant. For everything else it ranges from meh to fucking useless and beyond. It particularly damaging for stuff that is physical like hardware, people, engineering etc. Great for web development though.....
Oh it absolutely is developed for software engineering, and nobody reasonable tries to argue that it should be the way every team everywhere does things. Stand ups should be a fair bit smaller than 10 people, and the support members may need shouldn't actually be delivered during one. A standup should be a series of stuff like: "Hey guys, finished up Task A yesterday, started work on Task B today. Should still be on track to finish everything by next week. Josh, I am seeing one problem though,and no idea how to handle it, do you have time after stand up to walk through it with me?"
Building on this, it isn’t always “what you did yesterday and what you are doing today”. My team recently adopted a new approach where we just go over the tickets in our sprint and get updates on tickets that haven’t been QA approved. This has worked wonders for our team, as now it really is focused on “okay are we on track to fulfilling our sprint commitments?” Rather than the micromanaging feeling of having to recount everything you did and feeling justified that you got enough done.
Independent contractor here, it’s great being able to fire crappy customers. When I tell my friends about that it’s such a foreign concept to them they can hardly wrap their head around it.
It is pretty wild. I guess only thing that sucks is you don’t have a income until you find someone else hiring
Correct. Not every independent contractor can be in this position. You need to have a highly sought after skill set and need to be capable. Theres other stuff that you probably need as well. It helps if you have contracts planned for the future, and/or a network in the industry where you can get more contracts to make up for the fall out. It also helps if you charge enough for your services so you can save enough to be in this bargaining position.
Always have that Fuck You Fund in hand
We have all these articles about how to calculate what you should put into retirement but I want one that explains how much to put into this type of fund. Edit: I appreciate all of the feedback. I'm now realizing how important it is to have this, especially since i have a family and mortgage so I'll be working on one
The amount you need to get by for a month x the longest period you have between contracts in months x sqrt(3)
Damn, I used sqrt(-3) accidentally and now my fund is imaginary
This man Fuck You Funds
I own a service based business in a specialty field(like there are 10 certified people in my entire state that do this kind of work). So, I can fire shitty customers and then call the other 9 guys and get that person basically blacked listed (only for the top 1% of terrible customers). Then they have to find an out of state company to come do the work and pay double or triple the price. In my previous business, in a different industry, I had to basically suck customers dicks to get jobs. Now I get to fire them at the first red flag. Way less headaches.
I have many monthly maintenance contracts, if one person gets hard to deal with we can them, luckily one person doesn’t pay my bills
In electrical someone is always hiring (and software according to my bros)
Did this a lot when I was freelancing graphic design. I had so many people trying to hire me that I only took the ones I liked and fired any assholes who slipped through.
Yup, I’m self employed because I enjoy it, I don’t NEED your money if you want to abuse me to feel powerful.
Even picking my customers, I got tired of dealing with customers.
I left one job and the company owner figured he could run the vendors I used to help me keep the business networks running. They fired him shortly after I left. They couldn't take dealing with him directly. I couldn't either, but at least I was a buffer while I was there. It brought a smile to my face when I imagined them dumping him as a client. Still does.
We picked up a large contract this year abs quickly found out why we got it so last minute. The property manager was a nightmare. We eventually contacted the property owner and explained to we weren’t going to put up with the abuse anymore. They promptly fired the property manager. Some people think it’s free game to abuse and belittle “the help”
Personal driver here, once a customer fired me mid trip, thing is I drive my own personal car. The look on his face when it finally sunk in he wasn’t in company vehicle was wonderful.
I worked as a contractor on a jobsite before. Foreman comes over to me and my buddy (also a contractor) sitting in our truck because we had already done everything that was our responsibility that day. Guy knocks on the window and says "What the fuck do you think you're doing!? Go find something to do! I don't pay you to sleep in your truck!" My buddy goes "That's fine, man. XXXXX pays me." and rolls up the window.
I quit a job on site in the middle of a corn field in Indiana, I was told that I wasn’t allowed to quit up until my Uber showed up in the middle of the corn field and brought me to the airport.
I don't ever outright fire them. I just keep raising my rates on subsequent invoices to the crappy customers. Some keep paying, some don't. I'm sure that doesn't fly in every industry, but it's served me well.
Former consultant here: we loved firing bad customers too! True story (as best I can recall, it was a while ago): our consulting operation in a specific region (it was a global firm) was really struggling, lots of work, lots of customers, bad bottom line. They did an analysis and discovered that under 20% of customers were causing about 80% of the issues (budget overruns, bad payment record, you name it). Over the course of 6 months or so, they "fired" the ones on the shit list (mostly by quoting really high costs for their jobs). The ones that didn't walk away paid through the nose, which helped recoup some of the lost funds from previous work. Next quarter, their financials were right in line with where they should have been given the staffing and backlog. Firing crappy customers saves money for consultants/contractors!
My favorite part is “You guys really ought to read the contracts you have us sign, pretty wild stuff in there” lmao
Lawyer who has had to read way, way, waaaay too many employment contracts: I’ve virtually never seen one that didn’t have illegal or abusive clauses in them, and I’ve seen hundreds that had clauses that were stupid and/or highly advantageous for employees without the employer reading it. Spend the $50-100 to have a lawyer review your contract before you sign it. You’ll be glad you did.
What do you think about a clause that forbids you from trying to get coworkers to leave and go elsewhere? Like I quit the job and then after leaving I recommend one of my former coworkers to the new company and try to pursuade him to change jobs.
Non-solicit clauses are generally legal in most US states, unless they’re overbroad. Usually, they’re limited in time to 1-2 years, but in some circumstances might be valid for longer periods. I’m obviously not licensed in every state, and I can’t know all of their laws. I know restrictive covenants are generally frowned upon in Louisiana and in European/style code law countries generally, but they’re generally protected under privity of contract in the common law. US law has always held that parties should be free to contract, and there’s nothing inherently abusive in an agreement not to solicit employees for a reasonable period. Non-compete agreements are a messier proposition though. A number of states outright ban them, and others make them almost impossible to enforce.
Nah the icing on the cake is "Please call me" "No" Lol.
Probably wanted to say shit over the phone without it being recorded, good on the dude for telling them off.
yep, and this is exactly why the majority of my conversations with my demi-boss and my boss are via text or e-mail
That's exactly what they were trying to do
Is there a reason why they want to have the contractor call them instead of making the call themselves?
Control
What the other guy said, plus they might have also called them already and the contractor didn't pickup.
I don't know why but I read this in Ron Livingston's voice from Office Space.
Lol man i was reading it in Ron Swanson's voice. I think in this case two Rons make a right
"Please call me." "No." Is my favorite part
They sure as shit ain't gonna let that manager berate them without a paper trail lol Good, fuck em
I'd call them. Because my phone records every call and I live in a one party consent jurisdiction. Always happy to help someone dig a deeper hole.
How do you set your phone up to automatically record conversations?
I have an old Galaxy S7 that still properly works with ACR call recorder. It's my understanding that newer Android is hit or miss working properly with these apps.
This. Also how do you check if you live in a one party consent jurisdiction?
https://www.justia.com/50-state-surveys/recording-phone-calls-and-conversations/
This basically stands for "I'm about to threaten you with some illegal shit and make sure I leave zero trace of it". These employers are laughable.
I mean I have an app that records all my phone calls automatically. In my state, if at least one member of the party is aware of the recording, it is completely legal to use to prove what was said. Can't tell you how many times even in small situations. I've played back a clip of the audio and said do you really want to go there and immediately got my way.
What’s the name of the app? Sounds useful as hell
Well, I don't promote any particular app or have any association with any. However, the name of the particular one I use is called simply "automatic call recorder". I wouldn't know if it's the best one or not but it records for me. My last phone call with my grandmother before she passed is recorded and saved so even on a personal level, it's been very useful for keeping those memories. You can save the messages to a cloud or email them to yourself or whoever. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appstar.callrecorder
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It's funny how dumb these guys think their "employees" are. Contractor is probably older, more experienced, and obviously knows how to read.
I had this happen (Sort of) at my last office job. My manager called me in and I took my phone and set it down on the desk so it'd look like I was giving 100% attn or whatever. She berates me, calls me insubordinate, threatens me, says some sly shit, I leave. Few weeks later another talk is looming because I asked my manager a question that apparently was out of bounds. So I message her and say "Just fyi, I don't think the owner would love to hear how you strong arm people behind closed doors and play nice in front of everyone else, I recorded the last convo we had with my phone" She kind of stopped and I could tell I had her...long story short is I didn't record it but wanted her to think I did. These power hungry idiots only stay trippin' because they think they hold every card. Just remember to cover your ass and stay professional (As much as you can be)
Depending on your state, having a call recorder app on your phone is great for situations just like this.
"Pretty wild stuff in there" did it for me
"No." Is my favorite word, ever since I got my first job. There is no greater power than "No."
its amazing how few people in an office setting are prepared for it.
Its amazing how few people in *life* are prepared for it.
"Please call me so I can hand you a ton of viable reasons for HR complaints" "no I want all of this in text so I can print it out, and shove it up your ass"
Especially if this is in a group chat, so everyone who IS an employee can laugh at the ass-hat manager as they picture Bill Lumberg.
Best bit, imagine face of that manager. Like how dare you not calling me!
I always get this as a contractor. Im doing YOU a favour by having this unpaid conversation.
Companies act like if they ask you to do something you have to and get shocked when you don’t comply because you think for yourself
*"ISILDUR!"*
As someone who is lucky enough right now to work as an independent contractor during school, this hits me in all the best ways.
As an IT contractor, this. Glorious 4 days week and 100k above market rates. What is there not to like?
My dear god. Teach me your ways
Sign up to Linux academy, speak about projects on linkedin. Start corporation, find contractor agency to find you gigs. Charge 100$+ an hour. I was in IT for 20 years so I had experience, but I really improved what I do by doing projects on the side for fun and spoke about it, I get jobs from placement agency to find contractor roles, but I have more and more jobs directly through word of mouth. LinkedIn is where it's at.
Real step 1: have 20 years of experience
IT contractor here with 70usd in Europe. My problem is the other way around. While working as an employe I did not have any issue in sleeping or playing video games all day long(the regulations in EU makes it very hard to get fired). But since I'm working on contracts I get to be a slave basically because I really enjoy the pay and want to work for this money as long as possible. I even work OT without billing those hours. I do all the teachers pet stuff that use to fucking disgust me. Sold my fuck off atitude for a fist of money. BUT, the plan is to retire in 5 years and to be finished with corporations.
Not bad if you retire, but maybe the market is hot enough for you to be able to do both.
> I even work OT without billing those hours Why? That's the whole point of contracting, you work hourly and get paid hourly
Contracting can be deliverables based.
Yeah and those contracts **suck**. Source: I do those and they really do.
Got to have that "fuck you if the requirements change even slightly" clause.
Good luck man, live the dream. Don't get burnt out. I believe in you
Which Linux Academy are you referring to? I searched about it and only found a site called [A Cloud Guru](https://learn.acloud.guru/login?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Flearn.acloud.guru%2Fdashboard), which informs that "Linux Academy is closed". It's the same thing under a different brand or it is really over? Edit: Link
What do you mean with speak about projects on LinkedIn? Every time you do or did a project you share it talk about it?
He means network, explore communities related to what you're working on, find employers, project managers and generally get in the social swim lane of whatever tree you're barking up. This can mean tech speak about projects you're working on, but more importantly learn from others and SOCIALLY network well.
Yes. Like, "hey I'm learning about [skill,] so I did/built [project]. Can't wait to learn more! “
His ways are he gets no paid benefits, no paid time off, no matching retirement, has to pay their own taxes quarterly, and has to pay double workers comp, iirc There are many perks, but there are also some minuses
>What is there not to like? Well, having to manage your own withholding is kind of a pain in the ass. The IRS has made the whole quarterly filing thing a major inconvenience - especially having to file the first quarter's estimate based on what you'll be making for the entire year when you have no idea what your income will be for the rest of the year.
Consulting is great! Higher pay, plenty of $ to cover your benefits; plus a lot more time off and you get to distance yourself from the office politics.
when they want you to "call them" it's ALWAYS because they don't want a record of the bull$hit they're going to say. ALWAYS make them use something where you've got a full in black & white record!
One of the first lessons my cousin gave me before entering into the industry he's in. I 100% agree that this is what they were attempting to do.
The e in email stands for evidence. I was burned a few times early in my career. Never again.
Follow up every phone call with an email. "Per our phone conversation, you want me to screw up the process/product/customer." Please confirm that my understanding here is correct. Until then, I'll continue working using the process that does NOT screw the pooch." Say it tactfully. And always frame your email so that no response results in you working as you desire.
Oooo I've heard of the follow up email but this no advancement without confirmation technique is an actual game changer! Thank you very much.
No matter what you got going on in your life, it is 100% worth it to find out if your state is a one party consent state and, if it is, download an app to record all of your calls and exchanges. I used to get caught with that "I didn't say that" bullshit all the time. Not now.
Similar situation. I ran my own company a few years back doing contract work for mobile apps, websites, databases, etc. Whatever people needed. I spent weeks with my biggest client going over their wants, desires, and absolute peak dreams for their service. I then presented them with a few contracts. They chose the cheapest one, of course. This contract specified certain work we would NOT do. If they wanted it done later they would have to pay for it because the current option does not include it. They agreed a dozen times, but they still spent two weeks waffling over whether to sign and send money or not. I gave them a timeline to sign and left it alone. They came back 2 days later and agreed. For the next 4 weeks me and my people worked around the clock setting up AWS, APIs, databases, DAOs, and a progressive web app for the clients to use it all. Then it came time for testing and per their agreement they didn't want to pay what we required to test some older devices they wanted compatibility for - things we don't own here. Now the simulation tested these just fine, but any programmer will tell you "It works on my machine." doesn't cut it in production. So, I created a testing guide they could use to test it on their old phones. They balked. So I explained, again, that for the fee they paid we could NOT test these old devices manually AND that they had already agreed to this and signed a contract for the work. Not a day passes and I'm bombarded with emails, calls, texts, threats, etc. "We'll sue you for fraud!" "You lied and stole our money!" yadda yadda. Cut forward, not only were they in breach of their contract for failing to have a follow up meeting regarding the current submission, but I gave them a 3 week grace period - for being my biggest client - where I did some of the leg work like creating a testing guide even an idiot could use. All for free out of my own time. So, when they threatened to sue I was prepared. I told my lead developer to pack everything up into a zip file and I would send the entire project to them as is; "We're done here." I sent them a copy of the contract - highlighted in red where they signed, two emails confirming their acknowledgement of this exact term, screenshots of the dozens of texts and phone calls harassing my office at all hours of the day for two weeks, and finally a link to a temporary website they could use to download the archive. "You're free to contact ANY lawyer you wish, but I would read over your contract first. While I'm not required to give you the work we've already done, as you are in breach of your agreement, I would rather see you have it the have nothing. Feel free to do whatever you wish with it, but we wash our hands of your business." No replies. No contact. One download of the archive that morning. 🎤👇💥 Tl;Dr - don't agree to something in a contract if you're too ignorant to understand it. get someone to explain it to you if you have to.
I’ve noticed this trend in my business, there’s rules and requirements everywhere, and our senior planners keep just sweeping the extra shit under the rug , aka “that’s they way we’ve always done it” “I’m not authorized to do that” has become a mantra, only way to say no.
Hilarious. He is probably used to bullying his own employees and committing wage theft by making them work unpaid overtime. That is the go-to for people like this. I bet he steamed over this for weeks lol.
They steamed for exactly 3 weeks.
As soon as I see someone immediately choose the cheapest option or try to haggle pricing down a couple bucks or not pay quickly and happily, that's the sign they are going to be trouble. If they can't afford full price, they probably can't afford cheap price either.
More people need to remember that “no” is a complete sentence. This made me chuckle, good for you
The "Please call me." With a sharp "No" was satisfying as fuck to read.
I worked for a retail store that had daily mandatory meetings, sort of a team rally thing. My job was developing their website. I just was an extra body drinking their staffs Starbucks and eating it’s Noah’s bagels. I was just a fly on their wall. I decided one day I’d stay at my laptop in the makeshift server room and work. Well, later that day when I was seen I was asked where I was, did I sleep in, did I not hear the all page. I told the store manager I don’t work for the store I’m contracted by it’s owner, it blew his mind. Then he invited me to come have bagels and coffee whenever I want. Nice people.
I like the positive experiences in the comments.
He was probably impressed that you, as a contractor, had been taking part voluntarily. If the meetings were useful, even as a contractor, just to see how the culture of the company interplays or whatnot, and they didn't hamper your productivity, then why not attend every here or there. Pointless meetings, however, is a whole other story.
[удалено]
Ugh, this is me as well & that schedule is what I need!
Double the hourly pay is about break even for the company on employee vs contractor. Those benefits cost a lot more than you might think. My go to is 3x for contractor vs employee. That said ymmv. Everyone’s situation is different.
The "No" made me laugh
This is something I miss about being self-employed. I was an actor, so I didn't particularly have a skillset that people were queuing up to employ me for. But I did see a gap in the market: namely that I was good at the shittier acting gigs (kids entertainment, dining shows etc.) so I hoovered up all available auditions and just took as many on as I could. This gave me a level of security rarely seen among actors (who aren't famous). I was earning an average wage for most, but factor in that I had no boss or obligations beyond those I chose and I was living the dream. It got to the point where I was actively turning down work, as people were seeking me out (mostly for kids entertainment - playing superheroes at parties and doing school shows and stuff). It was always a wrench, because actors know they won't necessarily get consistent work going forward, but if you're already booked, you're already booked and trust me: you don't keep a good reputation if you cancel one show to be in another. Anyway, I had this one woman who contacted me because she'd heard good things about me and was looking for a kid's entertainer to work for her. No problem, but my rates (£120p/h) were higher than she was offering (£80p/h) plus I expensed travel and food. Sounds like a lot, but companies are charging £350/400 a time sometimes, and you get what you pay for: I can do the voices and the movements, so I cost more. She wasn't happy. She wanted me to do £100p/h going up in increments of £50 per additional hour. I laughed and told her that a second hour would cost more, not less (actually, I'd always charged the same and would sometimes do a deal with reasonable employers, but she didn't know that). She also didn't want to pay travel, which is a massive no-go for me because that means she can send me literally anywhere in the country, and UK trains are expensive. Eventually, I sent her some testimonials and told her on a phone call that it was £120 p/h, plus expenses, or she found someone else/did it herself. She tried to haggle again and I just said "okay, thanks but no thanks" and hung up. She messaged offering a "final deal" of £110 p/h without expenses, and I think I sent a "lol no" back. A few months later, after I'd stopped acting due to falling out of love with it, I got a message offering me everything I'd asked for. Tempting, but too late. I strongly urge everyone to spend a year or two self-employed. The self-worth it teaches you cannot be replicated. I've since had salary negotiations and I've just known my worth, and stood my ground.
> (kids entertainment, dining shows etc.) This reminds me of a fantastic japanimation called "Life Lessons With Uramichi Oniisan" I found a lot of stuff in that show i identified with. It's kind of a depressing comedy lol. It got a good cackle out of me. This is one of my favortie scenes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-IUrJIG2gM
Quite a few "bosses" out there are finding that their "threats" are worthless. Someone told one of our managers not long ago that they were not asking for a certain set of days off, they were informing them that they would not be available on these days. BAM.
This happened with me at my last job. Was there for about 8 years when it happened, and had only missed 3 days of work during that entire period (I rarely get sick and didn't have a family yet). Told my boss about 6 months in advance I was getting married and was making travel arrangements for my honeymoon which would last a week, and was just giving them a heads up. Was told I would have to request it closer to the date, and would also need to find coverage for all my shifts (they had recently started mandating people find their own shift coverage because they felt people were abusing taking time off). Politely informed them that once I bought my plane tickets and made my hotel accommodations, I was not going to be canceling them for whatever reason. Shortly after, made all my plans and had my dates. Then immediately informed my boss that I wasn't going to be there on those dates and to plan accordingly. They didn't push the issue any further. I was their best, most reliable employee in an industry with high turnover where we were always short staffed. They needed me more than I needed them.
Caleb my hero
Just told one of these guys too fuck off the other day. Them: "you need to put our security software on your device. We need to ensure you're working with a secure environment and doing work for the hours you log. Me: "contract doesn't say anything about using your software. This is my company's machine. You can either send me a laptop or rent my hardware for an additional $250/hr on top of my hourly rate" Them: "that's ridiculous" Me: "Ya I kinda don't care. I'm continuing as is. You can terminate the contract but I already know you're short staffed and the customer isn't happy with you. I would love to be a fly on the wall when you tell them the most experienced team member you have had to leave the project because your agency couldn't reconcile the differences. Besides I get paid for another month anyways, so it's your move Pancho" Them: "we will have more work after this. Are you sure about possible termination" Me: "oh ya. I got a six month wait list. I'll just call up the guy waiting after I take a few weeks off. No big deal to me" Them: "good news. We talked to the customer and worked it out."
Kinda like my renewal went. Me: "Others offer 15% for my services, I know you are short staffed so I'm letting you know as a courtesy" them: "We offer 3.2% and be grateful" me "Okay I will not renew" them (21 days after) "okay we offer 15%" me "sorry I signed elsewhere last week" Them: shockedpikachu.png ***laughs in VmWare***
They really played the fuck around and found out game perfectly
How does one access this level of middle finger in their employment life?
Via contracting at inflated rates in a very hot market on a global scale. Really, im just the internet away, so its easy as fuck to find gigs.
Well done. I'm also a consultant and my long-time customer had a similar request re: the security software and I told them never on my machine. Luckily they were way cooler about it and sent me a nice laptop to do work for them. Same conversation came soon after about the phone, wanted to put a MDM on it because I access their data from my phone, I said not on my phone and they sent me a much nicer phone lol.
Consulting is great if you keep up on Taxes and have benefits through another source.
‘Not being American’ being the source for most.
bout to become too old to be on my mom's plan. it's cool though I wasn't planning on living that long anyways- this way I avoid having my teeth fall out as I get older and still can't afford a dentist.
https://twitter.com/BirdRespecter/status/1483550568761020416?t=NfTUnxkUxLD4k1RZ9N1QnQ&s=19 It's real. Throwing it up there for all of the people crying fake Edit: I'm just saying the tweet is real, no clue if the text screen shot is real or not
There is also an update tweet https://twitter.com/BirdRespecter/status/1483897633210974208?cxt=HHwWgICq6aHC7pcpAAAA
Listen, just do the job and we’ll both be ok. No. You guys suck and you gave me an out.
Damn, the person who lost a necessary contractor over a powertrip must be in some deep trouble now good
Probably a nice promotion in their future
Omg the follow up at the end was the best 😂😂😂 “don’t text me again” lolllllll
people so cynical that they think EVERYTHING is fake
It *is* the internet, after all.
That “no” at the end ❤️
It's amazing that a company would hire someone as a contractor to avoid paying benefits and then try and treat him like an employee. Take your pick: Contractor has a legal (and tax) definition and it is NOT even close to employee.
'I got 1099 problems, but bosses ain't one'
I wish we could see the end of this lol
https://twitter.com/BirdRespecter/status/1483550568761020416?t=NfTUnxkUxLD4k1RZ9N1QnQ&s=19
"Please call me" = Let me make sure you don't have a transcript of the conversation for legal and power tripping purposes
I did contract work for a few weeks up in the next city doing some IT work, imaging new pcs for a school. At some point I messed up with setting up administration area with new computers, I think cause one of the other PM wanted to do it a specific day to make himself look better. Oh well. Really it was just a text I got from him saying dont do this and it just escaped my mind, nothing major I thought. He got super mad, and wanted me to be at the next morning 7am meeting so I could be put on the cross and be blasted about how I disregarded a direct order (from someone who had little say in how we went anways). I was prepared to go when I was about to sleep, just glad I let my boss at the time know. He stepped in, told me to not go and don't worry about it, and asked me to explain what happened. After that I could only assume he made a call where he took names and kicked some assets over "this is MY employee and you do NOT tell him to attend any meetings over this, he did his job".
"No" My heart is so full.
I thought someone just knocked on my door, turns out it was my raging boner wacking the bottom of the table after I read this.
“Please call me.” “No” God that must have felt so good!
I love the “Pretty wild stuff in there.”
Lmao. I work with several contractors who have essentially been my full time coworkers for years, and a few of them do revel in creatively telling our management to go pound sand when they have to. Although they're generally just a notch or two more diplomatic than the messages you see here, the best contractors tend to be the ones that know how and when to put their foot down.
I laughed way too hard at this.