The IT Contract from Hell

http://www.itcontractor.com/Articles_IR35_News_Advice/view_article.asp?id_no=4842

by swombat • 18 years ago

133 27 18 years ago

alecco2• 18 years ago

  2.The ADMINISTRATIVE FASCIST. Usually a retentive drone (or rarely, a harridan ex-secretary) who
    has been forced into system administration.

evilneanderthal2• 18 years ago

as a sysadmin, i can only wish i had the power to kick people out of meetings...

i guess i haven't tried shrieking.

DanielBMarkham3• 18 years ago

E-gad. I wouldn't want to work with any of these jerks, including the author. What kind of punk keeps a diary of how bad his contract is?

I've never had a bad contract -- and I've been in situations more stressful than this. A good attitude, good people skills (fundies a problem? Yeesh. What a piece of cake), and the ability to say "no" will fix about anything.

But I have worked with a lot of folks who were smarter than everybody else, who kept a running list of grievances, who had to work with poor managers.

Contracts are like playing cards. Each time you get a different combination of people, skills, and faults. I can imagine myself walking into a job with such a piss-poor manager: you either convince them that you are working to cover up for them and make them look good or you fold your cards and find another contract. Sulking for 5 months isn't much of a life. Life is short.

It was a bad contract, yes. But it takes two parties to continue something that painful. The author bears quite a bit of responsibility (and needs to grow up), in my opinion.

shiranaihito• 18 years ago

Yes, there are usually at least two sides to everything, but I enjoyed reading the story nevertheless!

As the guy said, the money was "that" good.

marvin• 18 years ago

I think it sounded like fun. As long as you know you're not doomed to a lifetime of fail-work, a four-month stay like this could be an adventure. Expanding your horizons, meeting interesting new personalities etc.

It seems like the author got what he wanted out of the job - good money. Some of this seems a bit childish, but it's definitely a fun read. It's always awesome when a few guys at a party have stories like this one.

cabalamat• 18 years ago

> I think it sounded like fun.

That was my reading of it too -- he enjoyed winding up his idiot boss.

narag• 18 years ago

> What kind of punk keeps a diary of how bad his contract is?

I don't, but I always use a paper notebook where I keep track of precise start and end times, work done and what bosses ask me to do in each moment. In addition to keep me focused, it's sort of a CYA diary, and a couple of times it has been useful.

On the other hand, there's people like the woman in the story, that shows hostility from the beginning, not because others did something wrong, but preemptively being an ass just to intimidate and keep others under their thumb.

tdavis• 18 years ago

Sulking for 5 months isn't much of a life. Life is short.

Exactly my thoughts. The author's tolerance for ignorance and blatant hostility is far greater than mine. I would have booked a flight back home as soon as I heard "We don't take the lord's name in vain." Life is too short to deal with such a low caliber of human being on a daily basis, especially for such a long time.

patio11• 18 years ago

<i>I would have booked a flight back home as soon as I heard "We don't take the lord's name in vain."</i>

That attitude confuses me. It's a norm of professional behavior that is trivially easy to satisfy. Is it that much of an imposition that he not verbally curse in front of his coworkers? That's like a request that you come to work in the morning with clothes covering your belly button -- I mean sure, it constrains your options somewhat, but is it something to lose sleep over?

Mocking them about their religious convictions is also a bit more small-minded than I'd expect from someone working in a multicultural office. I shudder to think what would happen if he were exposed to someone with beliefs or behaviors a bit more exotic than a garden-variety evangelical Christian.

thomasmallen2• 18 years ago

> What kind of punk keeps a diary of how bad his contract is?

An IT guy who has nothing better to do because they won't let him go online. Somebody who's working in hell and has one place to truly vent. Someone with self-restraint? This guy's unbelievably patient; I might've been out of there in a week. Looks like the catharsis paid off...give him a break.

DanielBMarkham3• 18 years ago

There are two sides to every story, and all I got by reading this story is that the guy learned absolutely nothing in all that time he was there -- not how to respect others' viewpoints, not how to deal with insecure bosses, not how to make decisions regarding money vs. job enjoyment, not how to make allies of people who have different cultural/religious views than your own.

He probably has the ability to be a good worker -- there's too little to go on here. But I'm seeing a lack of seeing both sides that is crippling for a career. It just doesn't appeal to me. In fact, if anything it's sad to see a waste of time and energy.

Sorry. I don't see any catharsis. All I see is a lack of evolution in attitudes. There are a lot more bosses and jobs like this one. At the end of all of that, I'd really hope he made some decisions/grew so not to end up there again.

By calling it out in a harsh light, I _am_ trying to give him a break.

jwilliams• 18 years ago

> It was a bad contract, yes. But it takes two parties to continue something that painful.

True - And a skilled contractors need to be able to deal with these situations - it's part and parcel of their job.

trickjarrett• 18 years ago

There's nothing worse than an insecure boss.

alecco2• 18 years ago

A horny boss?

swombat• 18 years ago

I'd reply "a horny, insecure boss?", but then people will accuse me of turning this place into another reddit - and they'll be right!

ibsulon• 18 years ago

I thought that was a perk.

SingAlong• 18 years ago

Those guys didn't know about the DNS? Heck, I bet they had another contractor setup their domain name too. :P

The statement below was right in the face!

"That's what I get paid the extra for"

Tichy• 18 years ago

At least the payment was not from hell, from the sounds of it.

jcl• 18 years ago

The sad thing is that the company was not getting fleeced... They were paying a premium for having made a bad hire that they couldn't get rid of. I bet they settled on the high price after having found that anyone paid less leaves right away.

sharkfish• 18 years ago

How does anyone with dev background bear a job for any length of time where all you are doing is editing HTML and ftp'ing it?

ciscoriordan• 18 years ago

The money was "that" good

antidaily• 18 years ago

The "digital service" comment takes me back to right after college when I took a job full of idiots using odd and just-plain-wrong terminology like that all the time. Made me feel really dumb until I learned they were all full of shit. Ha.

aagnihot• 18 years ago

Mail this to Scott Adams!!!

mattmaroon• 18 years ago

Maybe I'm crazy, but that job sounds like fun. I love messing with incompetent people.

The IT Contract from Hell

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