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Microsoft Caste System
Ericka writes "Computer Source Magazine recently published an article on Microsoft's treatment of its contractors. According to some temps, the work environment for these folks has taken a downturn since the resolution of the permatemp suit."
Contract programmers get a considerably better rate and overtime pay... They also are a bit more secure as they have a signed contract for X hours, which is legally actionable if not met...
The best I've ever had a contract stipulate is a month's notice of termination. I've never seen a true fixed length contract. The ones with fixed length always have an easy out. Not much different from "at will" employment. They just have to claim you weren't doing the work right, or they don't need it done anymore.
Project-based contracts have some implication of stability, but most of these require a company between you and the client. If they don't like you, they'll force the company to take you off the project.
I'm been both a blue and an orange badge.
a- == temp employee
v- == vendor
t- == intern
Contractors get about the same rap at Intel..
The only thing different is we have a green badge instead of orange..
When the president came to talk.. We didn't get invited.
Team building.. Hey where did all the blues go??
You had to be blue to use the on-site exersize room. Naturaly they held the blood drive in there so only blue badges could donate blood. I guess our blood just wasn't blue enough for them eh?
Contractors had to swipe in every time they left the building.. Blue could come and go without stopping.
Even with all that it was a great place to work.. It still made you feel like a 2nd class worker though.
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
as far as the private sector goes, i can't say anything on the motives of most contractors.
however, as a government contractor, i must say that the contractors abilities are about the only thing that keeps 90% of the bureaus operational. most of the management types are given their positions more as a 'certificate of attendance' as opposed to earning it on merit/skill.
just a slightly OT 2 cents.
Are you MORE than your SPINAL COLUMN?
In fact, the eat coast is no stranger to using a permatemp 'solution' to the 'i.t. question.'
i have been in more than one permatemp situation, each of which started as a few weeks' assignment, all while i was looking for a permanent job. the real heartbreaker of these assignments and others like them is that the corporations always make great talk about hiring a contractor permanently once the hiring freeze is lifted, or at the end of the fiscal year, or some other when-my-ship-comes-in time frame.
Frequently, I was as meaningful a team member as the full-time employees. Because the teams i worked with treated me well, reflecting their own dignity, I continued to stay in a contract situation. Financial matters in the tech downturn or receipt of certification ended my contract, and i would be looking for work once again.
The real loser in this schema is not the contractor: they actually get paid very well while being ostracized. Rather, the teams that continue to welcome and participate with a contractor in a meaningful way and the product they develop suffer far more than the contractor.
The permatemp situation is destroying not only good code, but good employees. Many of the team members i worked with feared increasing temp and foreign contracts would land them unemployed or underemployed.
My advice? take it into our own hands. There is more than one Programmers Union going strong these days, despite the downturn. Unions not only are more reliable than a corporate employer, they serve to stop this carousel of a better-faster-cheaper approach to employees. Unions did bring us the weekend, after all.
First of all... I am a blue badge. And anything I say is MY point of view.
But... I was a contracter in a previous life... and I worked for a company who outsourced me to other companies. My benefits came from the company I worked for... not the client companies.
Secondly, the hours I worked were defined by my contract that bound me to my employer... not the client ocmpany.
Thirdly, the unemployement benefits are NOT funded by the government as the article states. Companies pay into a fund that is used to pay these employees who are out of work. It's like an insurance fund, but it's required. Now... it is also up to the contractors employer to keep them busy... they know exactly when they will be let go by MS so it's not like it's a suprise or anything. If the contractors employer decides to lay them off, then it goes against their (not Microsoft's) unemployment account.
Oh... and finally, the v- or a- or t- simply means that someone is a vendor, admin or intern. I've never heard the term "Dash Trash" in all my years at MS.
Bill
It's my Sig and you can't have it. Mine! All Mine!
In brief, the disadvantages of unions are:
"One last disadvantage to union membership is that members can be fined or otherwise disciplined by their union for engaging in activities, which, in the union's opinion, are 'unbecoming' of union members or which violate the union's constitution and by-laws. . . ."
What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
At big corps., contractors are employees of "approved" contract companies. Needless to say, they do not get any of these advantages. They are paid on a W2 (so can't write off things), don't get benifits (unless they pay for them), can be terminated at any time, and (in this job market) get paid somewhat less then comparable full time employees.
Of course, this makes contractors very attractive to these large corps. (especially since they can cut billing rates when the contract comes up for renewal), and so are being used to replace full-time employees who are being "force managed".
If the economy ever improves, the only thing that is likely to change in this whole formula is the billing rate.
The article completely fails to mention that WashTech is a union that's been trying to organize technical workers in Washington State for YEARS with absolutely no success. Reading it carefully, the article appears to be a P.R. piece written by WashTech as a piece of propoganda to try to encourage people to join the union....
As usual, another completely uninformed opinion on slashdot.
Here is a little history for you.
1. Microsoft forces a number of employees to switch to contract positions as a means of reducing cost of benefits. Essentially these people are forced into a paycut through a change in employment method. It is either accept this change in status or lose your job. Back in the early 90s when this happened, there wasn't much of a job market to speak of so these people bent over and took it.
2. Microsoft continues to treat these former employees exactly how they were treated before their switch to contractor status. Except not pay them benefits. Same responsibilities, same employer-imposed restrictions.
3. The IRS comes along and says, "these people do not satisfy the 20 questions rule for distinguishing between contractors and employees." This ruling is largely the result of Microsoft treating these contractors exactly the same way before and after the switch from employee to contractor status.
4. The IRS says, since they are employees, Microsoft must now pay back-taxes on FICA and Medicare. This is double-dipping by the IRS because the contractors have already paid those taxes and they won't get them back, but that is the way the law works. Plus, now Microsoft has to start to satisfy the 20 questions rule.
5. The contractors that have now been officially reclassified as employees by the US government say, "If I was an employee, where are my benefits?" In particular, 401K and profit-sharing - the internet bubble was really starting to bulge and the money involved was enough to retire on for a lot of them. They go to court as the infamous permatemp lawsuit and they win a very clearcut case.
So, all this grumbling about how the contractors screwed themselves is baloney. MS tried to screw some employees, the IRS busted their ass and MS started obeying the rules, meanwhile the screwed employees got what the benefits they were entitled to in the first place.
Meanwhile the entire industry over-reacts and instead of being content to satisfy a majority of the 20 questions, most big companies want to get as close to 100% coverage as possible. Part of the problem here is that the IRS doesn't spell out what the minimum requirement is, that is left up to their discretion on a case by case basis. But the other side of the problem is corporate conservatism where they would rather shoot themselves in the foot than try to put together a reasonable policy.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I was told by MS employees that temps get more in regular salary than full-time employees. MS makes up the difference for full-time employees with stock options. But people who prefer to be payed in cash were working for Microsoft as contractors solely for that reason.
Stock options are cheaper for the company than cash. Companies don't have to count their value in when releasing quarterly results to stock holders, but they can count their value in when doing their tax returns, meaning that they can use stock options to move themselves to the $0 tax bracket. So that would tend to indicate that contracters are noticeably more expensive for Microsoft then full-time employees.
Maybe Microsoft is treating contractors badly because they're trying to convince them that they should go full-time.
What a bunch whining morons. I apologize for being so direct, but I work as a contractor right now. Your job is what you make it not what the company makes for you. While I understand that there might be some preferential treatment for full employees, you won't get anywhere by whining about it. If you want to cross the line to being a full employee, it is your responsibility to impress upon your manager your skills and make them want to hire you. If wanted to go permanent, I would make sure I was doing everything I could to promote the idea of being a full time employee. I personally like the concept of being a contractor since I get paid better, write off more expenses related to my jobs, and I have better choices for retirement options. Ofc, I do a corp-to-corp contract, so I can do most of these things, but I can contribute to a Uni-k (like a 401k) up to $41k/year. My medical is paid for by the company via a 105 plan, and my company can buy my food and transportation while there. Stop whining and take advantage of being a contractorn!!!!
They also are a bit more secure as they have a signed contract for X hours, which is legally actionable if not met...
You have just demonstrated that you have never actually been a contractor. Nobody who has ever worked as a contractor would make such a statement.
Contractors are generally hired to stabilize the work force, so that perms don't have to be hired or fired as often. I have spent more than half of my career as a contractor, and I have never had a contract with a guaranteed number of hours.
Also, the times that I have been dismissed early from a contract have usually been with no warning at all, due to the action of someone who has never met me and has no idea of what I do. It is typical in a really large defense contractor that the 3rd VP in charge of left-handed paperclips will wake up one morning and discover that there are (*gasp*) contractors in his organization, and issue an edict to get rid of all of them. About 6 months later, when it becomes obvious that the work isn't getting done, the lower-level managers start bringing them in again.
And then there are some employers that want their cake and eat it, too, like (a now-defunct telecom company)-- they fired me after less than 2 weeks because I wouldn't work unpaid overtime as a contractor. The amount of 'warning' I got was that my badge stopped working, and I had to threaten to call the police to get my personal items back from my (former) desk. I knew then that they were in deep trouble, and they have since been in the news, featured for being caught doing some creative accounting. Shortly after my experience, I discovered that I had been the 4th contractor in that position in less than 3 months.
Since that experience, I have been more careful about what companies I contract with, and I have 'fired' more than one of my clients at the first sign of dishonesty -- also without notice. The door swings both ways.
Word to the wise: A company that screws its employees (including contractors), its vendors, or its customers will eventually screw all three -- plus its investors. It's part of a general mindset in which the folks running the company think it's ok to screw people.
Concealed Handgun License Courses in Plano, Texas
In Washington and Oregon, you can apply for unemployment compensation (because you pay taxes).
Microsoft has offices outside of the State of Washington. They have rather large campus a few miles away from me in Charlotte. When the contractors are let go after 365 days, North Carolina pays unemployment insurance on those people until MS hires them back 100 days later.
That is why other Slashdot readers should be concerned.
mbbac
Posting as anonymous : Fear of someone not liking what I say or misconstrue what I'm saying.
I've been contracting for many years, going on 8 years now, and I've had good and bad experiences. Most of the time I'm considered one of the team. Boss pays for our lunch, I get to go to the parties, get paid pretty well, though not right now in this job market. I did have one stint where I worked 60+ hours a week like a dog, I quit a few months later for a contract job at JPMorgan Chase where I was contract for 2 years. I've been in the stages of going perm, but boss was rotated so I had to start again. Headcount was trimmed so now I'm at HP (after a few months doing other temp/contract work to pay the bills). HP has the same contract limits as Microsoft: Work 365 days, leave for 100 days, then you MIGHT come back. I'm at my 6 month mark in about a week. I'm going to talk to my boss about going perm or prospects of my position in about another month. If it doesn't look good then I'm going to start the hunt to give me plenty of time to find other work. I'd LOVE to go perm, but it's this dang blasted economy. HP has a few quirks when it comes to contractors, but my boss makes me feel that I'm part of the team. We all get to use some of the company purchasing plans and clout.
ONE WIERD THING: There used to be a way for employees/contractors to buy Compaq hardware, but since the merger they've taken that away. There is no way to buy parts direct or at a discount. WTF?
Microsoft is clearly very aggressively managing temps. I'm at a company right now that is at the other end of the spectrum and it is no picnic.
When a company doesn't manage contractors and consultants well, the contracting houses can set up shop inside the company, cultivate close relationships with managers, elbow employees out of the way, and generate business for themselves by cross-pollinating their resources onto related projects. It sucks.
This story presents the temps as the innocent victims, which individually they are. But don't forget that every one of those temps has a big part of their paycheck going to a Volt or Manpower, and those body shop contractor houses don't have anyone's interests in mind but their own.
Premature optimization is the root of all evil
First, I've worked for Microsoft and I can tell you that some contractors (and vendors) are treated with immense respect, and some aren't. The same goes for full-time employees. The same goes for anybody, anywhere.
Further, some of this article, like "They are not allowed to have their own offices" is outright false. I didn't hear the expression "dash trash" in four years, and it's a little too catchy have been invented by a geek, if you ask me. Maybe they use it in the marketing department, I don't know, but it's all very suspicious.
Contractors also attend parties. I've been to parties thrown specifically for a contractor, because they were leaving, trying to woo the contractor into taking a full-time job.
The whole thing just reeks of bias.
How Politicians Lie: http://www.factcheck.org/
1) Yup. My role is vital. :)
2) No one has treated me poorly.
3) They are required to leave us out of future planning meetings... but our feedback is accepted and taken to heart.
4) I'm build, not code... blame the developers.
I won't specifically address the rest... as for the article. I was at all the parties, even for what you called MS BugMaker 2003. Things have changed... before we were the same as the blue's. Now they're required, due to the lawsuit and the IRS fines, to be held apart... but in the groups I've worked, it's only superficial and technical. We're still part of the 'team'.
I'm a Unix SA who can't find work in my field... so my scripting skills are applied over at the Empire. Beats being broke and out of unemployment bennis like the rest of the SA's I worked with at my dot-com-gone-under.
Contractors at IBM are not even allowed to talk to their own managers. They must communicate through their contracting firm. The badges are different, the e-mail addresses are different, they are not allowed to go to group functions, including their own department's meetings. Like many Very Large Corporations of America, they treat valuable and important workers as if they were third class citizens in a caste system. We have the legal system and the greed of lawyers to thank for this (not to mention the folks that worked at IBM as contractors and decided to sue the hand that fed them).
StyleChief
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government! -M. Python
Is this what we can expect in the future from Corporate Amercia? Microsoft is one of the few companies that really grew in the last 20 years. If they won't treat their employess well, who will? Reading storries like this makes me sick.
Yes. Yes, it is what you can expect. D3LL does exactly the same thing in Austin... Down to the Red vs. Blue badges. And to the other guy who said contractors get paid more, NO, we're paid less, and less, and less, as the economy sinks and they're able to get away with paying less. No benefits, and then three months of unemployment. Then come back for more of the same. This article only barely touches on the thrills of coming to work each day not knowing if your job will still be there. Not just because of layoffs, but because as a contractor, YOU have to fit in with the regular full-timers, and not the other way around. Thus, their idea of 'teamwork' means being the bitch of whatever fulltime employee wants to make you lick his boots. Don't even get me started with this stuff. I don't have enough time in a week to detail all my gripes with this system.
Kudos to the contractors who won the suit, good for you. But the govt should have left well-enough alone, because the end-result is the rest of us are royally screwed.
These people looked deep into my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined.
My states Former governer was famous for all the "work" he brought to the state. Unfortunately, when most of the shops opened, the workforce was 10% smaller and 30% temps! They bragged about bringing in 1000's of jobs for big-name companies--but if you're a permatemp you don't get to actually work for the company and get the rewards!
The whole issue is about honesty of management! I've come to the concusion that most company management executives will not follow the law unless it's at gunpoint! [hence the need for more gun control!] They are not "honest" people: they're scammers. I've worked for union shops that the union was the only thing saving the boss's a$$ from the slammer due to his illegal decisions! I'm not a big union freak, but they represent the interests of the employees for the most part. I find it funny that employers don't mind industry "associations" that set wages and jobs, but think that unions of employees are unamerican and against their owner's "rights". Bosses routinely try to break the rules as often as possible-the first year at my current job, they changed the rulebook 4 times because things worked "too well" for the workers. In tech, I don't think unions are the answer, things move too quickly. I do think that Unemployment Insurance laws should be changed to count all employees at your site, not just on your "books". Another interesting thing is the bosses version of "honesty": What you tell them in passing banter, at interviews, etc is expected to be absolute truth, concerns you have about your work don't need to be in writing; When you expect them to do something though, the only "truth" they point to is what's on paper, not what they "might" [told you at interview, etc to get you to take the job!] have said--[that you "didn't need" to write down!]
Like another poster said though, many of these same executives are/will be paying the piper soon anyway..They've lied to the banks, IRS, vendors, customers, and stockholders as well as employees! The true irony of it all is that the same stockholders that "approve" this are generally getting their money out of the pension funds of the 60's, 70's & 80's! One day soon, they'll want to cash-out-only to find that their stocks are worthless because the younger generation working at their old employers don't have pensions or benifits that ever let them have enough money to buy stocks.