Contract to Hire (Take a Chance With Us …. We Won’t With You).

LIfe’s no fun if you don’t keep things interesting. It’s time to ruffle a few feathers.

caveats

  • I have nothing against contracting … I have many you friends who prefer it.
  • I’m sure many folks have had great experiences with contract to hire.
  • I have no experience with contract to hire

Nonetheless I do have a diatribe against contract to hire. Since I get daily offers for contract to hire… why not weight on on the subject? I don’t have a particular axe to grind, but there are a few things that bother me about the pervasiveness of contract to hire I see is the software world.

Axe Grinding

What bother’s me the most about contract to hire is general uneasy feeling that someone … or something .. is taking advantage of someone else. It just seems a little strange. Companies … non-being entities want your allegiance, devotion, they want the best of you. As they should. But, typically relationships are based on mutual trust etc.

I mean, I can hear the arguments “if you can do the job you have nothing to worry about, it will work out fine.” Yeah …. except I’ve been alive enough (more than 5 minutes) to know that is a hollow truth. It’s obviously not that simple.

I mean doesn’t it just send the wrong message? Just like the title. It’s all fireworks, parties, stars, we have great benefits, pay, people, come on over here and join the team! Except … you’re not really on the team are you.

Also, once you’ve worked for enough companies you come to understand certain truths. Generally speaking culture says a lot about a company. Certain decisions and stances the companies take tell you about that company. That’s an interesting one to muse on … a company that does mostly contract to hire … what does that mean? I’m trying to think of what positive message that sends … coming up blank.

Working for the Man

It probably comes down to my half jaded view of working for The Man my whole life. I’ve worked for great companies, and not so great ones. And even with the great ones there always comes a point where you realize you’re just working for a few weeks of vacation, a cog in a wheel, always replaceable .. it’s just a means to an end.

I think that’s what rankles me the most about the prevalence of contract to hire in the IT world. It just seems to me like the wheels aren’t satisfied with the blood, sweat, and tears of the cogs. They want more. They want complete and utter control over a person to say … you’re good enough … or not.

Working in Tech isn’t that easy in the first place. Most people are expected to work extra hours, keep systems up, weekends don’t matter if something goes wrong. It’s typical to have official on call duties, and unofficial “keep the systems up” duties. Those things are necessarily bad in themselves if The Man reciprocates. But these days it’s just considered par for the course.

So, making contract to hire the norm seems like it’s just going too far.