Ending the Madness

Subject: Ending the Madness
From: Maurice King <benadam -at- CYBERDUDE -dot- COM>
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 13:48:56 -0400

A question to all the contractors out there: when you have walked into a contract for which you have not been given accurate information, whether because the contracting firm did not give you the information or because the client decided to change the rules without telling anyone -- and the truth may never really be known about either -- what happens? Do you just take it? Do you walk when you know you've been had? What do you do?

I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the contract you sign. If the contract specifies no dates other than a starting date and does not define the period of time but only states that "employment may be terminated for cause without notice," is the contractor still anchored to a situation that started out wrong?

I have an attorney, so my question here goes beyond the legal implications of the situation. I want to know to what extent do we contractors have to stoop. I don't enjoy being taken for a fool, no matter what the rationale may be. If I've walked into a job that demands that I do a job for which I have absolutely no knowledge while the same client company is looking for other persons with my same exact skills, it seems to me that I have a right to ask who's jerking me around and, in the absence of a satisfactory answer, walk from the scene if for no other reason than to indicate that I'm nobody's fool when it comes to accepting work. I don't have to be beaten down for not knowing how to do something that I never pretended to know when I know that the client company actually does need my skills because it's looking for them elsewhere!

Does this make sense? I've really started to wonder. I'm only back in the U.S. for a half year, and what I've seen in the short period explains in the most graphic form how Jerry Seinfeld was able to make a hit show based on little more than the absurdities of everyday life! When I was running my own freelance operation, I would never have dreamed of taking on a project for which I was clearly not qualified. I cannot appreciate being the round peg that someone else is trying to force into a square hole while that person is making a hefty profit from my sufferings!

I think this discussion merits some online exchanges. I think I'm not alone in saying that if I promote myself as an expert in online documentation for software, it's hardly right to have me writing hardware service manuals about products of which I have zero background while the same company is advertising widely for persons with proven online documentation skills, and that's exactly what I'm experiencing! If this is a tactic to "show the newbie who's boss," I've passed the stage in life in which I'm prepared for initiation rites of this nature; I certainly don't like it when it relates to my livelihood.

- Maury K.

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