"Contract employee"

[hedgehog]

How many people out there are working as contract employees? What it means is

- no paid vacation

- no sick days

- no paid holidays ( a holiday means a short paycheck the next week)

- no security

- no decent feedback (you'll get laid off for no reason with no warning)

- no 401K - pension? what's a pension?

Software workers have been dealing with this a long time. Now, so are a lot of factory workers. Now, this:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/09/27/351993359/more-flights-canceled-in-chicago-suspect-had-been-told-of-hawaii-transfer

[djean111]

1. Yes, had a couple of contract jobs as a QA tester after my job was moved overseas.

At the same company. None of the benefits you listed, plus a one-year contract (and this is standard) only applied to ME. My contract could be cancelled at any time, for any reason. Basically, we all left on Fridays as if we would not be back on Monday, just in case.
I would not have dreamed of doing my bit to support the economy in those days, never knew if I would have a job the next week.

[bluesbassman]

2. Back in the late 70's/early 80's when I first entered the corporate world,

most companies proudly stated that their employees were their "greatest asset". Of course not all companies actually treated their employees as their greatest asset, but back then people were regarded as somewhat important. Then came Ronald Reagan and the "Greed Is Good" doctrine and profit above all else became the standard. Contract employees are just a natural evolution to this phenomenon and frankly I see little hope in it getting better anytime soon without a fundamental shift in how politicians are elected, and laws are inacted and applied in this country.

[RKP5637]

5. Yep, I remember those days quite well. I worked/lived through that change from my early years

of constantly being told we were the company's "greatest asset," and a great emphasis was placed on education, training, benefits, incentives and pay. One felt they were part of the company. CEOs made more, we all expected that and the executive arm of the company was generally comprised of rational and fair people, at least where I worked.

And then in the 80's that changed, to employees are our "greatest liability." And the exodus began of more and more layoffs, outsourcing was the rage, and CEO compensation grew out of sight. Ronald Reagan destroyed the balance in this county of a concept of fairness in the job marketplace. He injected ruthlessness and greed into the equation, tore apart written and unwritten employer/employee relations and directly/indirectly supported greed, ruthlessness and the decline of jobs in the US.

Reagan destroyed this country while fools looked on and cheered his greatness.

[marym625]

8. I was just entering the workforce during the Reagan years

So it's the only thing I know. Employers treating you like you should be grateful for the job and any insistence that humanity be used toward employees was met with the ax.

[RKP5637]

10. Yes, I think that is what many relate to anymore. It's a shame, there were far better days when one

felt part of a company. Today, sadly, I fear our country is the same ... often IMO citizens are treated as disgruntled employees in USA, Inc.

[marym625]

11. USA, Inc. Exactly. Sad. just so sad. eom

[yeoman6987]

16. I kinda like it better that they don't have loyalty

The reason is I think it stopped some from leaving and advancing themselves. Workers stayed at the job longer due to loyalty and guilt rather then advancing themselves. I have left quite a few jobs for better paying without any baggage. Typically you should stay at a job 3 years and then leave. Of course ensure you get the job before you leave. It is easier to get a Job when you are employed as weird as it sounds. It helps with drawdowns too as they typically hit those with mid year numbers. Use 401k and Roth IRAs for retirement. Don't get sucked into the pension thing or you are stuck at a job that you may end up hating. You are in charge of your own life. It is a short life so make the best of it. It is an exciting adventure.

[adirondacker]

3. Present. Add to that no Unemployment benefits since you are "self employed".

We lost a major Federal and state contract a couple of months ago to a riff raff right wing company with little to No experience, that had "connections" and is using his wife to claim a "disadvantaged business" . What a racket.
I haven't seen a paycheck since the beginning of July.

[marym625]

9. I'm sorry. I hope something comes along soon.

[adirondacker]

12. Thanks.

It's not anything that surprised me, but nevertheless is still disconcerting and stressful. As my European colleagues stated, "this country is incestuously corrupt". I can't argue their point.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=367x14929

[marym625]

13. Thanks for the link.

I am self employed as well. I barely make enough to make ends meet. The tax ramifications are frightening.

[sabbat hunter]

19. that would depend

if you are paid on a W-2 basis, where they take out the taxes, etc from your check, then you are eligible for unemployment. But if you get paid on a 1099 basis, where no taxes are taken out, you get a 1099 form at the end of the year and you are responsible for all taxes, then you are not eligible for unemployment benefits

and yes you can be a contract employee and be paid on a W-2 basis. (but do not get sick time, health benefits, etc)

[Ms. Toad]

29. I was about to point out how fuzzy that term was.

I assume the OP meant independent contractor - which is different from a contract employee. I'm currently classified as a contract professional - no job security, but I have lots of benefits. I've been in a similar category with very few benefits. (Health care - yes, but no sick leave, vacation, 401(k), etc., and job security.)

An independent contractor is the only status that uniformily fits the bill described above - and worse, since you also have no withholding and have to pick up the employer's share of social security as well.

[Downwinder]

4. And don't forget to double up on FICA.

[IdaBriggs]

6. I am one.

IT Professional.

[marym625]

7. so much crap goes back to Reagan

One of the most important jobs in our society, one of the most sensitive jobs in our society, one of the most stressful jobs in our society and these people are treated like shit.

If you can transfer someone, they are considered an employee. If they have identification that holds them out to the public as an employee, they are an employee. Problem is that they would have to do something to cause the company to treat them as such. In doing so, they risk being let go for whatever arbitrary reason the employer, in this case the government, should so choose.

I am a contract employee.

Every single day something else happens that shows the contempt our government has for its citizens.

[nightscanner59]

14. Hospital contract worker here

Not long into the Bushie regime, as more big conglomerate healthcare organizations were gobbling up small community hospitals right and left, there's a phenomenon I witnessed: In my ancillary field, it was projected that despite the number of new graduates seeking entry level positions, there would still be demand for at least 20 years.
But there came a wave of corporate culture that began, all that much more greedily treating hospitals like factories: Edicts handed down from the new, wonderful corporate headquarters to do more with less. and less. and less. less staff. less supplies. layoffs. more output. quotas. no overtime. retirement plans cut. benefits cut. finish your work--- even though you can't stay punched in. more layoffs. departments running on half the staff they had 10 years ago, despite having twice the patient flow. Warnings not to even talk about "union" in non-union shop areas or you'll be dismissed.
Then to ice that cake, reading in the hospital newsletter how our wonderful CEO is enjoying his 1.8 million dollar bonus for saving the corporation so much costs!
Yes, I've taken the Devil's bargain: Travel contracts with all the insecurities mentioned above.

[adirondacker]

15. Interesting that this plays out in such a wide occupational scenario.

Last edited Sun Sep 28, 2014, 11:50 AM - Edit history (1)

Healthcare, environment, science, education-there's no escaping it.

[CaptainTruth]

17. I'm now self-employed, doing residential remodeling & home repair.

So yes, all of your conditions apply to me. Plus, I have to run the company ... being a small business owner is certainly not glamorous, but I'm my own boss & I like that a LOT better than working for a corporation.

That was my choice of course & I accept the lack of security & benefits that come with that choice. If I were an employee who wanted security & benefits & I was being forced out of that arrangement by an employer ... that would suck.

[Marrah_G]

18. I do

[Wounded Bear]

20. That would be me...

holding on for a couple of more months until I can take early retirement. Been relegated to temp agency work for several years. I hate it.

[daredtowork]

21. Also, Try Applying for SSI

Because of the lack of consistent medical coverage in the past, you won't have enough medical records and you probably won't have a long term primary care physician to go to bat for you. Instead, when you apply for SSI, you will be given 20 minute evaluations by the State's doctors, who aren't going to test you for complex conditions like genetic disorders and who are paid to keep you OUT of the system! It's the people who worked as temps and contract workers for years that get caught in the SSI "appeals" vortex, that lasts for years on end.

The most disgusting thing about temp work is everyone knows it's there to give large employers a way to avoid direct responsibility for labor law. But the exchange for that was supposed to be to give entry-level and semi-skilled people an express lane into the corporate workforce. Many of those jobs were supposed to turn into full time jobs. The propaganda would say temps could make their value known in "three months", but everyone knew companies would delay their end of the deal, so as a temp you would have to hold out for a year even if you had already proven yourself. And then you would have to go through the company's benefits-free probation period even though you had already done your probation time as a temp. Companies were gaming the system against entry level workers, but it was a way to get onto the bottom rung without having parents who knew somebody.

Now it's a lot harder: temp agencies will only place people who already have "current experience in the workplace", and they focus on highly paid specialist placements instead of the low end office jobs. Methinks the temp agencies are not fulfilling the service they were providing society in exchange for enabling companies to work around labor law. Without that service, perhaps its time for temp jobs to be redefines as truly temp. In other words: a "temp" worker automatically becomes full time after three months - the original propaganda promise.


Ps. Don't you also hate how people who work in the job development field explain down to you how temps "love" their work because it's so flexible? No temp ever loved being a temp: they just say so in an interview because they NEED work and they need the favor of the temp agency to get it!

[FrodosPet]

22. Are you misclassified as an Independent Contractor?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025595155

[Paladin]

23. I did time as a contract employee. It sucked. (nt)

[Rex]

24. Yep. I have a salary job and several IT jobs that are on contract.

And I am thankful, since most of my field was outsourced to X, Y and Z.

[uppityperson]

25. I am self employed, meeting all that, by choice rather than overworked/underpaid

with no job security anyway. Employees do not have job security, many can get laid off with no reason or warning and many without a pension. It sucks.

[CrispyQ]

26. It's time to start contracting out C-level, VP & Director positions.

At the company my husband worked at, until last week, they are laying off as many worker bees as possible, but they are not saving money because they continue to create more upper management positions, mostly VPs.

[Xithras]

27. For software developers it's not always a bad thing.

I'm not under contract currently, but was just a couple of years ago. I've spent about a third of my 20+ years writing software as a contractor. The LEAST I've been paid this century was $65 an hour. My last stint was at $122 an hour. While it's entirely true that contract software workers get no benefits, they are generally paid well enough to compensate for that loss. I funded my own IRA, had a $70k "unemployment and sick day fund", etc. As an added bonus, I typically got to take about two months a year off work entirely simply by spacing out my contracts.

Contract work is tougher for the entry level guys who can't command that kind of wage, but most experienced contract programmers actually do fairly well for themselves, so long as they plan and save accordingly. The ones who tend to get into trouble are the ones who buy the big, expensive homes and showy cars, and end up living paycheck to paycheck on a six figure income...and I've met a LOT of those people over the years.

[Ms. Toad]

30. But lose the incredible tax benefits that come when those are provided through your employer -

And, because your "unemployment and sick day fund" is not in a sheltered retirement fund, when you go to apply for assistance to send your child to college, that counts as income you can afford to spend on tuition - so your child's ability to access scholarships and low interest loans will be impaired because income that might have gone into a 401(k) is in accounts the scholarship/loan entities view as unencumbered money.

[Xithras]

31. The tax thing is a real issue.

Still, I've gone back and forth over the years as to which is actually better. My wife is a teacher, and I used to have the ability to stagger my contracts so that we'd both have the entire summer off together. We once spent an entire month just exploring Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Cambodia. Another summer we rented a cheap (relative) apartment on Oahu for two months and became island bums. Contracting gave me the flexibility to schedule those kinds of things, and gave me control over when and where I worked. While I do like the tax advantages of having a full time job again, having that "cog in the machine" employee lifestyle does make it less appealing than it might sound.

[Ms. Toad]

34. The biggest issue is the inability to set aside significant income for retirement

in accounts which have retirement tax advantage. Those hit at multiple levels - the biggest hit for us was the inability to exclude money we intended to use for retirement (but were not able to put into formal retirement accounts) from FAFSA related college assistance.

Everything else is just planning, and charging enough to take the added tax hit.

[WillowTree]

35. And, at least where I work, contractors are paid OT and FTEs aren't.

[Phlem]

28. been in video games for 15 years.

Seems to all that's left anymore. Most of the qualifications I see for positions call for over qualified "salaried" jobs which can be just as bad as contract work.

Salaried jobs = salary based on a 40 hour work week. Reality is 60 hour work weeks on end.

The tech industry has been hammered for a very long time and I don't see relief anytime soon.

Tech workers are fucked in the US.

[DesertFlower]

32. i worked at new york telephone from '79 to '88

as a temp. i was very well paid and very well treated. i had offers to join the company but i didn't need the benefits -- i had hubby's.

when i left in '88 i was making $18 an hour. there was lots of overtime involved which i welcomed -- 1-1/2 after 40 hours.

the temp agency gave a week's pay after every 1,000 hours worked. they also offered medical benefits.

i had very little to do with the agency except for turning in a time sheet and picking up my paycheck. when the phone company wanted to give me an increase they called the agency.

[Starry Messenger]

33. Adjuncts too.

College students are taught by employees in higher education (60-70%) who haven't a scrap of job security or respect.

[Dirty Socialist]

36. It's All About Cheap Labor

I just got fired from my temp job. My job had a week of vacation and paid holidays. No health insurance, and if you get sick three times, you're fired! Ironically, I might get a better job soon, so no loss.
Nowadays most companies rely heavily on shafting the worker, and the MSM ignores the phenomenon. Get used to it. It's now the American Way.