Well, I just gave notice. I have been working as a contractor for somewhat over a year and am moving on to be a full time employee somewhere else. I was a contractor for just one company. I spent the time building knowledge of their business and systems and my area withing the company, developing scripts and databases to help manage the things I was responsible for and along the way greatly improved my skills, and now, I think that knowlege I gathered is going to be flushed down the toilet. There is a huge upcoming project that I have been laying the groundwork for, and poof all that work will be lost.
I was asked to get with someone who has no expertise in the main technology I worked on to tranfer knowlege to her. While she is bright, good at what she does, it is not what I do and there is much that will be lost. I don’t see how that company survives when it builds the skills and expertise in contractors and then allows them walk out the door. There are others here with expertise in my area, but either they are busy or the manager thinks that they should not be bothered. I’ll do my best to leave them in a good spot, but they are not going to make it easy.
This has been a great experience for me, but damn am I glad for it to be over.
Ridiculous, isn’t it? I don’t have enough fingers on my hands to count the number of people that we have spent months training in our area, only to be let go 6 months later. I mean, a huge (HUGE) amount of time and work goes into training someone, and then they’re gone, and then we start all over again. Fiscally, it’s great for the company. For the moral of the contractors, and of those training contractors, it’s a motherfucker and down right rude to treat people this way.
The thing is, while I don’t like being a contractor, it was overall good for me, and even better because the company is a bit, at times quite a bit, messed up. I ran into situations that would not happen in any sane company which really honed my skills. The manager I gave notice to seemed largely unconcerned. This can’t be in the real best interests of the company, but know one who realizes that is in a position to do anything about it.
When I started, it was in the ideal situation to be covered by a contractor. I was covering for employees who were out for extended periods. But, after they found work enough for me to be on the books for over six months after the employees returned why not hire me? I was told that they had me in the budget for the foreseeable future which was more than a year from now according to how they predict things there. It had to cost less than renting me from my service. They would not even pay a penalty and what is more, this is an employment at will state, so it is not like they could not get rid of me easily enough if they wanted to.
I have overheard the people carry out the wishes of those who decide how to treat contractors talk about how they are to cram contractors into as little space as possible and do other things to deliberately make them miserable. I do not understand why.