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Stegosaur

@yogthos This is why my tack has been anti-outsourcing in general.

Google gets to hide behind “BuT tHeY wErE cOnTrAcToRs” without consequence, because they know they can easily find a new contractor that’ll charge an even lower rate and solve the immediate problem.

The reality is that contracting is toxic, pure and simple. Contractors (the staffing firms) have no vested interest in the long term success of the company retaining them, or their own armada of temps: it’s all about getting the contract done while extracting as many hours of work as possible (if not fixed-rate/capped) or finishing it as quickly as possible to move on to the next one (if fixed-rate/capped).

Likewise, companies retaining contractors or outsourcing abroad are sending an unambiguous signal: immediate profit now, fuck whatever comes next. They’re admitting they have no desire to build a sustainable or profitable enterprise, and nobody should work for them expecting growth or success.

1 March at 18:07 | Wall-to-wall | Open on defcon.social
3 comments
astroPug

@Stegosaur @yogthos

Yes, this outsourcing/staffing firms model is a big problem.

They are not at all how we imagine traditional employers, and to the detriment not only of their workers but also the projects they work on and the health of the industry they participate in overall.

For example: staffing firms are not really experts in the domain, and they do not have the knowledge to mentor workers, the way a normal team anywhere else would.

1/2

1 March at 18:51 | Open on hachyderm.io
astroPug

@Stegosaur @yogthos

Furthermore, the people who do have the knowledge to mentor those workers are the people from the big corporation. And those guys are very strongly discouraged from doing so, by their own corporate training, to maintain the legal distinction between employee and “contractor”.

Now, there are better and worse contract gigs. My grapevine has had a low opinion of google for a while based on their experiences.

1 March at 19:06 | Open on hachyderm.io
Stegosaur

@astroPug @yogthos I have done the contracting sphere multiple times. Government Contracting, Contract-to-Hire, Uncapped/no-length contract, as well as worked for multiple Managed Service Providers (who, in turn, function off contracts).

Contracting has zero redeeming values to it. Every single contract gig I was on - save one - would have seen lower costs for the contracting entity (company/gov) and higher quality of life for the contractor (staffer) if it had been a permanent hire instead of outsourced, simply by removing the middle man parasite layer.

The sole exception was a contract for a pharmaceutical company that had made grave staffing errors during their growth phase and needed help cranking through basic support ticket backlogs ("reset my password" and "I need Lotus Notes access" stuff). It lasted ~6mo, we crushed the queue, and that was that.

That's what contracting is: temporary help for temporary problems, not replacing or offshoring FTE workers.

@astroPug @yogthos I have done the contracting sphere multiple times. Government Contracting, Contract-to-Hire, Uncapped/no-length contract, as well as worked for multiple Managed Service Providers (who, in turn, function off contracts).

Contracting has zero redeeming values to it. Every single contract gig I was on - save one - would have seen lower costs for the contracting entity (company/gov) and higher quality of life for the contractor (staffer) if it had been a permanent hire instead of outsourced,...

1 March at 19:35 | Open on defcon.social
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