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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."
When I did some contract work at Microsoft a few years ago, I was a v- prefix (a vee dasher). The article suggests that a- was a temp worker. I've seen a-, t- and v- prefixes. Any blue badgers out there that can clarify the prefixes?
- Ois
PGP KeyId: 0x08D63965
Once bitten twice shy--the contractor rules make sense. What doesn't make sense is why someone is a temp when they work a year, wait three months, wash and repeat a few times.
It is Microsoft's problem, and their responsibility to fix, and there is only one way. They need to hire more full time workers and not use temps in vital position. Otherwise the software quality will continue to be awful.
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...
boohoo, they don't get other benefits, but that's just the tradeoff..
I think there were rules about not inviting them to employee parties, and I was told that we could not send a consultant a gift when he or she was hospitalized or had suffered a family tragedy.
Because of this, when one extremely worthy consultant lost a parent, her gift went on my personal credit card rather than a company card. My understanding was that one or another of the managers would do this in similar cases, in this case I was the volunteer. We handled gifts out of our own pockets because we felt the policy was crass, denying the civility that we should display as managers.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
The article makes it sound like people are being forced to work for M$. If people don't like their work environment, either organize a union, file a lawsuit, or quit. Whining does nothing but make you sound like a whiner.
As a total aside...Having worked at HP, they had (have?) a policy of forcing contractors (who took home much more than full-timers per year) to take 3 months off after working there for 9 months, in order to avoid permatemp problems.
I'm a contractor. I don't get benefits from the company I'm working for and nor should I - I'm not its employee. I would expect it to treat employees better. Frankly, I can live without 'promotional swag'. I don't get invited to company parties? Well, guess what? The client company doesn't get invited to mine either...
As a contractor, I am the boss of my own company and I have an explicit business arrangement with the client. That's it. Doesn't go any further, shouldn't go any further. I have no interest in whether they give me blue, orange or sky-blue pink with polka dots security cards - their choice and privilege. Now sign this invoice here...
Cheers,
Ian
withholding full-time benefits and pay while working them like full-time employees
Check. I did a 9-5 like everyone else and was paid according to the contract. Which, if it was less than others, I was SOL.
Microsoft does not allow these workers to use employee discounts for products they help to design
Check. So? They're a temp, that perk it would appear if for perminant staff. I don't see a problem here.
They aren't invited to company parties. They don't get promotional swag.
Same again. I was never invited to parties nor did I get swag from anyone. Because I was a temp.
Contractors must wear orange name badges to contrast with the blue of full-time employees.
Check again. Been in places where security needs to identify you as either perminant, contract, intern or whatever.
a nickname borne from the "a-" that precedes any Microsoft temp's e-mail address.
They're lucky they got an email address. Often I wasn't even on the network.
Maybe the working laws are different in the US to the UK - but i've been through all the above and people here go through all the above on a daily basis without complaining.
I can't really see what they're complaining about.
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Before the lawsuit: MS is treating us like fulltime employees when we're not!
After the lawsuit: MS isn't treating us like fulltime employees anymore!
Seriously, you get a paycheck? Good. You do not have a right to anything beyond that. That's it. Don't like it? Seek a fulltime position or find work elsewhere.
Wax-Museum Fire Results In Hundreds Of New Danny DeVito Statues
What doesn't make sense is why someone is a temp when they work a year, wait three months, wash and repeat a few times.
When you factor in the higher rates (and overtime) paid to contractors I think 3 months holiday a year is a pretty big benefit most perm-staff to love to endure/b>.
There is a similar situation in the UK, with contractors typically working only 9 months a year, and thereby gaining a massive saving in tax by being classed as self employed.
I'm certainly no fan of Microsoft but on this point they have my backing, in my experience 50% of contractors are worthless more interested in their wallets than technology.
Of course they don't get the same benefits. Contractors are mercenaries who go from job to job working for whatever company will pay them the most. Most contractors I know boast about how much more they get paid than full-time employees.
If they want the same benefits as the rest of the full time staff then they should show some loyalty for once and ask for a full time contract. The pay may be lower but I least they can wear the same colour badge.
Silly...
Companies are required to make a distinction between contractors and full time employees. Even simple things like company-wide mailing lists are, in theory, supposed to be segregated between the two. When push comes to shove, the company has to be able to demonstrate that contractors are NOT full timers.
Microsoft got sued for not doing things like this. They were exploiting contractors by using them just like full time employees, but not giving the all of the benefits like insurance. _That_ was/is a slimey practice.
So now, they are required to conform with the letter and intent of the law, and it's a "caste system." You can't have it both ways.
The differentiation between full time and contract are there to PROTECT the contract employees.
Anyways, in this day, most people are just happy to have a job.
Just my $0.02.
-buf
1. Put contractors in vital development roles
Seriously, I can think of a number of other companies that have similar caste systems, sometimes even within the hierarchy of permanent positions in the company. Unless I missed the graphic descriptions of inhuman torture and anal probing, I can think of several businesses that I've been told are much worse places to temp for.2. Treat all contractors like utter crap
3. Exclude contractors from having the most current and accurate information with respect to project specs, company standards, and their team's vision & progress by excluding them from important meetings
4. Depend heavily on the quality of the work the contractors do, including their code in the latest version of MS BugMaker 2003.
5. Whine about the mean lawyers and judges who make you play nice with the other kids
6. Charge an exorbitant per-seat license for each application that expires approximately 27 minutes and 3 seconds after registration, but includes a feature that automatically takes out a second mortgage on your home so that you're able to continue working
7. Profit!
Reading this article I couldn't help but think that MS is doing the same thing to contractor abuse that it did with DOS a couple of decades ago- they didn't actually invent the concept, but it's been lovingly adopted and taken in directions that only MS would dare to go. Where would you like to be screwed today?
"Linux doesn't exist. Everyone knows Linux is an unlicensed version of Unix"- Kieren O'Shaughnessy
It's truly unfortunate that the Microsoft employees started this "caste" system. While the corporate management could do more to eliminate this nonsense, the truth of the matter is that the Microsoft employees are mostly responsible.
You only need to look at the moniker "dash trash" to see how a full-time Microsoft employee feels about a contractor. But why should this surprise anyone, Microsoft is one of the most arrogant and self-righteous companies on the face of the planet (superceding SGI at its peak).
What's truly unfortunate is that Microsoft employees employ this "caste" system, yet they are largely a benefactor of contractors themselves. It's well established that Microsoft likes to compensate employees with Microsoft money (stocks, stock options). You do not need to be a Wall Street analyst to know that the biggest attraction of using contractors is reduced employee costs, which translates into more profit and better stock prices.
Of course, the full-time Microsoft employees know this. They know *everything*.
I think there are two kinds of temps. The first, the specialist, is responsible for making the perms look stupid and lazy, whereas the second, the indentured slave, is responsible for working like a dog to deliver the product and routinely grovel before his overlords...
:-)
Somebody throw me a bone here..
So long, and thanks for all the Phish
From the article:
"This," West says, "makes the company look like it is performing better than it actually is. It gives people a false sense of what's going on in the organization."
When times are bad, Microsoft can lay off hundreds of contingent workers without a word to the analysts or to shareholders.
See this also, about the practice of firing every consultant after one year, then hiring them after 100 days of unemployment:
"Those who work neither as blue- nor orange-badges may wonder why they should care about Microsoft's practices. The answer is that from day 366 to day 466, Microsoft temps still get paid. Only the check is written not by Bill Gates, but by the State of Washington. [unemployment benefits from the state]
As our state government faces budget crisis after budget crisis, there are legions of temporary workers that regularly go on the dole because their assignments have ended. Whether a Microsoft employee or not, every Washington resident pays for the company's unwillingness to put these people on its payroll.
Look I've been a contractor for awhile with a very large company and let me give you a little bit of insight into the reality of this situation. Before the permatemp suit with MS, contractors everywhere who worked for big companies had it A LOT better than they do now. When I first started at my current position, there wasn't anybody worrying about the 365 day limit or whether or not they should invite a contractor to a company party.
When this suit went through - everything changed. 365 day employment limits came down like clamps and contractors became somewhat more alienated in the grand scheme of things. In the long run this doesn't bother me as I believe the pros of contracting still far outweigh the cons. Not to mention the fact that there are several loopholes which can be employed to keep contractors longer than a year (which incidently are currently keeping me employed here since I've been here close to 3 years).
Does this situation bother me? Not too much. Does the linked article bother me? Damn straight it does. These contractors that work for MS really have nobody to blame but themselves for the current set of restrictions they work under. Frankly I'm amazed that these people complained in the first place. As a contractor you are typically paid by the hour rather than salaried. This means that (A) you either work less than your fulltime coworkers or (B) are better compensated for your time spent at work or even (C) both. What truly boggles the mind is that these people sounded like they were getting some fulltime benefits such as product discounts, party invites, and a few other things. So I have to ask, what was the problem? The answer of course is that they got greedy.
Personally I have absolutely no urge to work fulltime for anybody again. Clamor on all you want about better benefits and other intangibles that come with being a fulltime slave but keep this in mind: A lot of contracting agencies provide a full benefits package (i.e. Mine) along with paying the actual employee more money and they still somehow manage to do this cheaper than their customers are able to. And to top it all off, in all of my three years in my current position I've only worked over 40 hours a week once. That leaves a lot of time for recreational and social activities that I otherwise would have to forego.
Bottom Line: The MS contractors made it worse for everybody else so I have nothing to say beyond "fuck you" when I hear them complaining about what has sprung from the seeds they have sown. I know a lot of you will view this story as an opportunity to bash MS but keep in mind that everything was fine and dandy right up until the contractors got a little too greedy for their own good.
J
I love idealists not because I am one, but because they make life bearable for pragmatists such as myself.
As someone who has been interviewed by a journalist for a similar article (taken completely out of context by the New York Times, no less), I think I detect some serious fudging here.
When a reporter goes to get "the story," they start with something either they THINK they can make a big hit with, or take some cruddy assignment and try to take off with it. They interview some people "in the thick" of the issue, and get some "expert" opinions.
This particular article seems to be a re-hash of some old '90s era brou-ha-ha about FTEs vs. Contractors at Microsoft. And it starts out with "you thought you knew the whole story. But we have MORE horrifying, panic inducing rumor and speculation to throw at you now!"
They then spin sound bites from their interviews to argue their angle for the story. And barring that, take a couple of really positive sound bites, like Jannell Myers did in this article, followed by "but others would tend to disagree!" Follow with the thrust of your angle, without any supporting opinions or evidence.
Throw in the testimony of a psychiatrist who basically says "yeah, people outside of a clique often feel left out; and the people in the clique make fun of them."
To flesh it all out, we go for the "public outrage" angle. We get the implication that all of these poor defenseless contractors go on unemployment when they leave Microsoft, and Microsoft is placing undue liability on Joe Taxpayer by their naughty employment practices!
Honestly, this is one of the most transparent pieces of dispassionate journalism I have seen in months. If I were teaching Journalism 101, Jannell Myers gets an "F-."
mbbac
You're too locked into the standard /. groupthink.
To quote from the the article "When times are bad, Microsoft can lay off hundreds of contingent workers without a word to the analysts or to shareholders. It's a common practice that most contractors know and fear.".
There you have it, this is the corporate culture at Microsoft. Every single day i find a new reason to dislike that company.
To quote from the the article "When times are bad, any corporation can lay off hundreds of contingent workers without a word to the analysts or to shareholders. It's a common practice that most contractors know and fear.".
There you have it, this is the corporate culture at any corporation. Every single day i find a new reason to dislike uncaring corporations.
Before we go too far into the MS bashing, or Other-Big-Like-Evil-Company(TM) bashing for caste mentality division in the workforce, remember that we have a similar problem in the OSS world.
Anti-noob and RTFM mentality is a serious obstacle for the heavily geek-driven projects in the OSS world. Both on the side of new developers and new users. These are important people and a valuable resource for renewing project growth, ideas, and direction.
Just something to think about...
(\(\
(^.^)
(")")
*beware the cute-bunny virus
There's a reason for this. There have been lawsuits in the past from former contractors. Their claim was that since they were treated equally with employees, they deserve the benefits that come with being employed by the company. So to stay on the safe side, never let your contractors forget where they stand. It may sound asshole-ish, but you've got to CYA.
You know, I've been on both sides of the fence as well, and as a contractor I have to say that I almost don't WANT those kind of benefits. You are a terminal employee and your contract with the company is terminal as well. They can just walk into your cube and say, "Leave, we don't need/want you anymore.", and that's that. When you have that scenario hanging over your head, why would you want to get deeply involved in the company?
I dunno, I chat with our contractors at the office just because I'm a nice guy, but most people don't. They get the crappy equipment that no one else wants. They get the crapy, busted up chairs. They get denied access to the source control system. They get denied access to documentation over our critical algorithms that make the company competitive. All in all, if you don't like that, don't contract.
The upside is pay -- most contractors get paid waaay more than the perm employees. If they're lucky, they also get benefits from the agency they contract through. Even better, they get overtime during those crunch periods where the perm employees are begging the management to spend a few bucks on Subway sandwiches for dinner. Most contractors I know take the money as compensation for not always being considered a true team member.
that this is segregation. It means that your
chance to meet someone interesting is reduced.
The more people are invited to the party, the
greater chance you have to find
someone to have a relationship with.
That IS the point with a party, or what???
The rule of life: do not reject people for
stupid and pointless reasons.
Or live and die alone.
zugedneb
Company must hire to meet work demand in a fluctuating economy.
Or is that to create supply? Funny how "free-market" capitalists can't make up their minds.
Government regulates pay and benefits to full-time employees to make them very expensive.
Right. Please demonstrate how the government regulates pay at a private firm.
Company reacts by hiring more part-timers and temps.
Because it is too concerned with short-term bottom-lining than long term growth of its company with dedicated employees who show up to do incredible work for a good wage and benefit package.
Government regulates temps to try to force companies to hire more full-time workers.
Again, show how the government does this.
Company pushes temps to the margins.
By definition, a temp is a marginal worker.
Full-time workers given busier workload and longer hours.
Because, company is too concerned about short-term bottom-lining to invest in more dedicated workers devoted to the company and rewarded with a good wage and benefits package.
Arguably the company may eventually hire more full time workers, but at the expense of a lot of decent part-time and temp jobs.
Part-time and temp jobs which do not pay benefits and are usually lower waged, thereby increasing the profits for the company at the expense of workers.
See where this is going folks?
Yes.
I remember when the commie pinkos picked up the cause or the "temps" and "contracted workers" a few years ago.
Wheeeeee! Red Baiting! Welcome back to the 1950s! Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? No. But you were a member of the IBEW? Ummm, that's a union not a Soviet cadre.
Only an idiot would doublt it would end in the same way the "benefits" of unionizing did.
I am waiting to see how this ends... Waiting... Waiting...
Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
That's also true in the US. I work with a small company of career contractors. We are always the top tech guys in the client environment, and most of the other serious contractors I've met are the same way.
However, among many large companies, there is definitely a feeling that the contractors are "a level beneath" the perms, even if they are smarter and more productive. Because what it comes down to is that when the money gets tight, they're going to get rid of the contractors before firing any perms.
I'm not whining here, this is what I've signed up for and I wouldn't want it any other way. However, I do think a lot of consulting companies misrepresent the nature of the work to employees who are not necessarily interested in becoming "career contractors" - these guys get pay and benefits on the scale of normal employees but have all the job insecurity of contractors. From what I've seen, these are generally the people who would rather be perms.
What I find annoying is a) the consulting companies who are essentially misleading these people into thinking they have normal jobs and b) temps who think legal action against the clients is the appropriate course of action and end up screwing us career consultants in the process.
This whole thing irritates me. Allot of the "problems" I've seen have stemmed from these morons and their lawsuit in the first place. I know suing people to get something for nothing is becoming part of the American Way, but get a grip. Because of this stupid suit, my current client has a 12 month limit on contracts and a required 90 day break in service to regain contract elligibillity.
Contractors are NOT employees. We get a nice fat hourly rate (if not, bend over and grab your ankles while your at it) for the work we do for our CLIENT. That's it. Want more, call your mommy and whine to her!
I personally do not want any perks that are going to cut into my rate. I work to get paid. I do things for fun off the clock. I thought an honest days pay for an honest days work was part of our moral fiber.
Want security? Join the drones and be an FTE. Just remember corporations will cut your throat to save their bottom line.
Those who work neither as blue- nor orange-badges may wonder why they should care about Microsoft's practices. The answer is that from day 366 to day 466, Microsoft temps still get paid. Only the check is written not by Bill Gates, but by the State of Washington.
That's one of the way temporary workers have been punished. Real nice of them. Think about doing routine work for M$ and having to take 100 days off every year. Right now that means being unemployed. Washington State might have better benifits than my state where the best you can get in benifits is minimum wage. What a great way to treat the people who get your work done: no retirement, no stock options, 25% of your pay comes from welfare. This is a much larger slap than being called "dash trash" and otherwise treated like an outcast.
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.
"Let them eat cake" indeed. Fuck you Joe.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
I've been contracting mostly at MS for about 5 years, and yes, contractors are treated differently in all the tangible ways mentioned in the article. But I haven't noticed any caste system, or a demeaning attitude on the part of full-timers I have worked with. I expect that, like most things, it depends on individuals. Some people probably look down on others for wearing dorky clothes.
One point I strongly disagree with was the assertion that we are all on the dole for our 100-days off. I sat out my first hiatus because I could afford to. I didn't even collect unemployment that time. The second one happened during the dotcom crash, which hit the Seattle area especially hard. I did go on unemployment that time, and it took several months to find another contract job (which turned out not to be at Microsoft). Next I came back to MS and am now looking for another job as my year is about to end.
Maybe my experience isn't typical, but I fail to see how being a temp at Microsoft should stop anyone from looking for jobs elsewhere when the year is up. Any contract job anywhere could end after a year, and then you move on. You don't just lie there until the same company hires you back. How difficult is this concept?