Re: Contracting

[Marilynne Smith <mrsmith -at- CTS -dot- COM>]

At 01:28 PM 9/29/97 -0700, Elna Tymes wrote:
>Chuck -
>
>> In my case, I sacrifices a couple of dollars an hour to take thisoption,
>[of working through an agency]
>> which I thought was well worth avoiding the time and cost needed to manage
>> all the peperwork of "my own business."
>
>Would that the agencies around here take 'just a few dollars' as their
>markup.  Most of the agencies around here take a 35-50% markup over what
>the contractor gets; if you're netting about $50/hour before taxes, you
>can imagine what the agency is charging for you.  Further, realize that
>the companies are willing to pay that $65-100/hour for the services of a
>decent technical writer -- which means that on your own, if you're good,
>you should be able to get that too.
>
>And there's the rub.  Most of the agencies around Silicon Valley have
>convinced the HR departments of most companies around here that the IRS
>is gonna pounce on 'em if they don't have W2 employees, so without
>thinking things through, the companies blindly insist on W2 employees,
>which the agencies can provide.  Which penalizes a lot of otherwise very
>talented and willing people who simply don't want to do W2 work for an
>agency.  We run into that situation all the time - and while we bid on a
>project basis rather than an individual person basis, we still get
>treated to the same ol' W2 logic.  I have *very* little respect for most
>of the agencies in Silicon Valley precisely because of this.
>
>Elna Tymes
>Los Trancos Systems

I work for an agency most of the time.  At one time I worked at a company
that had permanent workers, independent contractors, and agency
contractors.  The rule about how long an independent could work for a
company really caused problems.

In this case, the company we worked for really liked an independent
contractor's work, but finally let him go because they were afraid of the
IRS.  It was pretty stupid in this case.  The man was good, the company
wanted him, the rules were getting in the way.

Because I was an agency contractor, the rule didn't apply to me.

Marilynne
---------------------------------------------------------------
Marilynne Smith
Writing, Editing, and Online Documentation
---------------------------------------------------------------

 TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send commands
   to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
  Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/  or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html