Orange Badge Culture At Microsoft

coolball writes "For those of us that have worked as a contractor (a-dash or orange badge or whatever), Seattle PI's 'Microsoft's 'orange badge' culture gets forum' article caught my eye this morning. He talks about OrangeBadges.com and Contractor's International Network, two forums that have sprung up as a meeting place (cyber & meat) for current/past/future contractors of the empire. If you have been a Microsoftee, then you would laugh out loud in recognition some of the tales he relates."

Comments

Orange badges: are they still called "dash trash"?

[bADlOGIN]

Thats what some of the full time blue badges at one point liked to call any of the vendors/contractors (they get e-mail addresses that start with a "x-" before the username and the different letters stood for differnt contracting & temp agencies. A friend of mine used to work there (went from Orange to Blue badge) said that there were a number of full timers who completely looked down on the contactors. They would ignore thier e-mails, not co-operate with them and brush it off since the temps were just "dash trash". If this is still happens and full time employees still get away with it, they could use a support forum or two...

Life as a contractor is good, why force the issue?

[Television Viewer]

Those hoping to change the situation include the Center for a Changing Workforce, a Seattle-based non-profit that was initially funded by the law firm that brought the permatemps case. The center's director, David West, said the group advocates limiting the cumulative amount of time that a contractor could work for a company, regardless of breaks in service, without becoming a direct employee -- a status that typically results in better benefits.

I knew a guy who worked for a company as a contractor. He was billing $60 an hour, and they were giving him about 50 hours of work a week. They gave him a nice office. The guy turned around and sued the company to be recognized as an employee because he wanted the benifits. I forget the details, but his argument boiled down to "they treated me like an employee, so I am an employee, now give me my benifits or severance pay".

I'm the kind of guy who likes working on projects, then moving on to something different. What is wrong with contracts? I have been very happy working on a project for 5 or 6 months, then taking two or three weeks off before starting the next project. I have more vacation time than my friends who are employees.

I was an "orange to blue" badge

[greg_barton]

I started out at M$ as a contractor. (End user support for MSAccess in Irving, TX back in '95) I was an employee within six months. (Then an ex amployee six months after that.) When I switched over, the difference was like night and day.

While I was a contractor there was a site wide carnival where they trucked in mini roller coasters and other fun stuff. Contractors were literally ushered out the door and weren't even told about it beforehand.

One day when I was a full time employee all of the contractors...ALL 700 on site...were fired because of low call volume.

The class action lawsuit brought in later years by former contractors didn't surprise me one bit after that. :)

A great idea

[sl4shd0rk]

There is nothing that puts more fear in a Megacorp like employee awareness. Especially when they know if they treat someone unfairly, everyone is going to know about it. I've seen temps treated pretty unfairly at times, almost as if they agreed in writing to be treated like a doormat when they signed the contract. Good job Wu.

Re:Desperate for news?

[benjamindees]

I don't know but the article quality on Slashdot really sucks lately. It's winter, and it's the holidays. Geeks aren't looking for articles about what it's like to work at Microsoft or the same old stuff about obscure OSS contests, the US gov't spying on us, Windows having scurity holes, yet another 'Ask Slashdot' "How do I admin a server?", or a (yawn) DE flamefest.

We're looking for something interesting or something to do. This is a site for hackers, remember? Not just middle-managers. I want to see articles about somebody heating their house with a server farm, or HOWTO build your own embedded system from a system-on-chip or something. I mean, ever since somebody decided Slashdot has to only be about OSS, there have been more articles about fscking Microsoft than anything really interesting.