RE: When you hear the Axe in the dark...

["John Rosberg" <jrosberg -at- interwoven -dot- com>]

Sadly -- there ARE a number of less-than-honorable employers out there
-- my experience tells me that, at this point, the number of
less-than-honorable employees is also considerable -- 

Chicken or egg matters not, I think -- when you brush your teeth in the
morning, it's YOUR face you'll be seeing, not the employer's -- 

I've been treated well and poorly by my employers (both as a contractor
and staff member), but feel pretty good about my treatment of my
employers (and consider that relationship one between equals) -- 

For me, the pay off has been worth the scars resulting from the biting
of a lip from time to time.

Your mileage, of course, may vary.

rosberg

-----Original Message-----
From: James Barrow [mailto:vrfour -at- verizon -dot- net] 
Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2007 3:23 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: When you hear the Axe in the dark...

>John Posada asked:
>>Al Geist asked:
>>
>>What if they burst in with a better offer????
>
>I know you were kidding, but I'd like to ask a related question.
>
>Has anyone ever handed in a resignation, then be given a better offer
to
>stay, and not found out that it was just a stall until a replacement
could
>be found and you were shown the door?

Allow me to step inside my alter-ego Hugh.  Hugh Betcha.

This happened to me last November.  I was brought in on a six-month
contract
to create all of the documentation and training videos needed for an
18-month project that had six months left before the go-live date.

I finished all of the documentation with a week to spare.  My supervisor
called me into his office that week to congratulate me and inform me
that
there was a 'ton of work left to be done on similar projects'.  

As my daily commute was almost four hours per day, I told him that I
appreciated the fact that he liked my work and wanted to keep me around,
but
the drive was killing me, and that this meeting was in effect my
two-weeks
notice.

He then told me that he *really* liked my work and would do whatever it
took
to keep me there.  He offered me FTE, a nice raise in pay, and flexible
hours (as in, I could show up at 10am to avoid the traffic).  I accepted
the
full time offer and he wasted no time getting me started on the next
project
with a critical deadline.  He left for New York on business the
following
day.

For the next week I worked my butt off completing the documentation for
the
project, and my boss was in constant contact with me asking for status
updates.  But there was something odd in his emails.  He would often end
them by asking me to make sure that I backed up my work on the shared
drive,
leave instructions for how I did complex things in Frame, and even where
I
got sound clips that I used in the training videos.

The next Friday I got a call from a recruiter asking me if I would
interested in a tech writer position.  I told her no, that I had just
accepted a full time position.  She tried to get me to change my mind
and
went on to describe the position.  It was precisely what I was doing at
my
current job.  I asked her who the client was and, you guessed it, it was
my
employer.

So I sent the Dice job description to my boss and asked what was going
on.
Basically, without incriminating himself, he said that he made me the
FTE
offer to keep me around long enough to complete the 'critical project'.

- Jim


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