Another Ethical Question

[Karla McMaster <mcmaster%pcmail -dot- cti-pet -dot- com -at- CTI-PET -dot- COM>]

"lemming's" post about contracting in Florida made me think about posting this
question to the list...What do you all think about long-term (i.e., more than a
year) contracting job situations? About two years ago, I turned down a long-
term contracting job, in part because I had an ethical problem with the
middleman (contributing only paperwork) getting paid over such a long period. I
can see placement fees, and short-term contract situations, but this position
was going to be at least 18 months, and given that it was government-related,
would more likely drag on far longer.

The reason I had been thinking about this was that my husband had come home
from work at a government facility (run under contract by a large corporation),
and told me this tale. It seems there was some delicate remediation work (my
husband's a geologist in water quality) to be done at this facility. My husband
was interested in participating, however was told that a contract firm would be
hired, in essence because the firm that employs him did not want to be held
responsible for this work. That's our tax money going for that kind of thing!

My experiences here sound like lemming's experiences in Florida. Most of the
technical writing/editing work in this area is
contract/subcontract/subsubcontract/etc. In principle, I don't want to
participate in this "scam." However, at the time I turned the job down, I
already had enough work to keep me going, for the time being. Will I be as
tough next time? Is it important? I don't know. What do you all think?

Karla McMaster, technical writer
CTI PET Systems, Knoxville, TN
mcmaster -at- cti-pet -dot- com