Offices Pace / BWE

In which our Hero is asked to do some supporting research so that possibly someone can consider making him an offer that he can’t refuse unless it’s not especially credible, or if he’s just not interested, or maybe they’ll decide that they don’t need to make the offer.

So. Perhaps, Gentle Reader, you recall that before I worked my current job, as a contractor to my current client, I previously worked as an employee for someone else for the same client. I spent just over ten years working for MorlockCo and for the most part I very much enjoyed working for them, but then they broke their word. After bullying me into signing a new employement agreement, they decided to do some cost control by paying part of my salary in stock. Material Breach of Contract, unarguably, but employment lawyers are expensive and annoying, and ignoring the stock portion, it’s still good money, so foolish to quit in anger. But that was the point where my loyalty to MorlockCo ended.

A year or two closer to the end, I requested to be moved out of this client I was working for. No specific issue, just that I’ve been doing things for this client for a while, and it wasn’t scary anymore, and I wasn’t learning anymore and I’d stayed put a few years past that to learn to not learn but now I was ready to move on, new challenges, new people, new clients. I was professionally done.

But since the client was still willing to pay for me to be there and it would be effort to get someone else in my place, my employer declined to reassign me. And now I was professionally done, and unhappy. And, as I said, feeling that I’d completed any obligations to my employer.

And then the client that I was tired of made me an offer to contract for them. So I left the employer who refused to remove me from the client I was tired of to work more directly for the client I was tired of, as a chance to learn how to run a business with the benefit of training wheels and my current gig was born.

So it goes.

Last week, there was a sudden booking on my work schedule. An imminent 15 minute update from the master contractor. Which seemed odd to me because it would take longer than that if we were being let go, and it doesn’t take that long to say “No raises,” so… I had no idea what was coming. (Good thing there was a meeting to tell me!)

At the meeting, we discovered that the new country CEO, the new country CFO, and the VP who owns our department were apparently on a cost-cutting tear and had noticed that we have a lot of contractors in the department since there’s been a hiring freeze a decade ago and it finally occured to someone that maybe this was an expensive way of doing long term business. But the solution to this is “Convert the contractors to employees. Or hire people to replace them.”

The master contractor made the point that the client sees things in simple roles and would be looking to replace the role with a cheaper role. Whereas the group in the room are all multtirole veterans and bring a lot more value than just our role.

So right now we’re justifying our existance, by writing up an employment blurb to describe who we are and what we do (and therefore why they should continue to pay so much for us) and later, very possibly, we will be faced with the conversation where they say, “We’d like you to become an employee.”

It remains to be seen if the management will feel that we’re worth our pay. Maybe they will and the conversation ends. Maybe they won’t and then they can make us an offer. And it’ll remain to be seen if they say “Convert or your fired.”

The fact is that they probably just can’t afford me. Nothing I’ve ever seen officially or unofficially gives me any reason to suggest that they can afford to hire me as an employee. And honestly, part of what has comforted me through my boredom and frustration is that I am not one of them. There’s a pride element.

Even Hollywood sees it, though to him it’s more of a positive than to me. He makes comments about how much easier it is here. And he’s been here most of his consulting career so maybe he’s used to this. But for me, my frustration has been mounting.

So while it makes sense for me to accept a job that’s 10 minutes from my house and pays well, and I know the gig and have a good reputation and a history of results and a benefits package and reasonable work that won’t tax me in my old age at a place that’s not really good at getting rid of people…. while it makes sense…. it feels like a slow death.

If it’s a choice between employed or not, then I guess I let them convert me. But a seperate part of me says that if I really am the high-performance resource that I claim to be, then the answer isn’t to submit, the answer is to walk away. The right answer is to say that I will entertain an offer but to refuse to then give them a price. If they want me, make an offer. The right answer is to smile and raise my rates at the end of this contract.

And if I lose the gig, I lose the gig. Better on my terms than not, right?

(No no no says my conservative self) (A soul-sucking job *will* suck your soul, my experienced self replies) (My ego says something entirely unprintable for public consumption)

“I don’t trust their word,” I say to Hollywood.

“When did they break their word?” he asks.

“They brought us over offering a 40 hour week, but capped it a few months later at 35,” I say. “And before that, remember they forced [formermentor] to basically refund a month of project that was signed and contracted specifically?”

“Yeah, but that was just business!”

“Yes. It was just business. It’s all just business. But that’s how they do their business.”

“Yeah, but it can happen anywhere,” Hollywood argues, “It’s all the same.”

“Yeah, and maybe some girls cheat, but that doesn’t mean I marry the girl who I know is sleeping around.”

On the flip side, my former mentor has left my former employer and moved to a new job. And he says there’s lots of opportunities and they need people. Which, from him, is something of a hint.

In a way, it’s wealth. My current client wants to give me less money for more security. My old boss wants to give me an unknown job for an unknown amount of money (but then he knows how much I made and has to have an idea of what he’d offer)

But it’s very stressful because the timing is very inconvenient. Oh well. Right now the ideal case is steady-as-she-goes.