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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

My contract at work has "ended"...

I'm in New York right now, having a hell of a good time, despite the fact that when I return I may not have many days left on my current job. That's okay, I guess, except for how it's being handled. You see, I've worked for this company for more than a year now. At the end of March, my contract was supposed to end and I planned to begin marketing myself late January, so I wouldn't be out of work for too long.

Except in late January, my manager asked if I would consider working another six months. I agreed, and so my current contract lasts through September. So, of course, I didn't start looking in January as I'd intended...anyway, my manager said that the company wasn't hiring contractors anymore so she had to slide my contract through under the wire.

Flash forward to two weeks ago. In my weekly 1-on-1 meeting with my manager she asked if I would consider having it extended again, despite the fact that she'd had trouble the last time. I agreed to it since the country seems to be headed for some rough times, financially. Security and all.

And then last week...a few days before my vacation...she told me that her boss said that my contract could end "any day ". I was shocked since I hadn't planned for "any day". After all, my contract was extended to late September and was in "the system" as such. So as she continued to talk, she mentioned that she was looking for a writer in India. Now she didn't come out and say it, so I guess she wanted me to put two and two together. I'm being replaced by a much cheaper writer in India.

Despite my personal feelings about how wrong sending our jobs out of the country is, my real concern was that I had committed to them...and was prepared to see that commitment through, EVEN if something better came along (which it has in the past), and here they are, giving me a shitty "any day" cancellation of our agreement.

So I'm translating "any day" to "as soon as you finish the project you're on", which, by the way, I'm working on a bit while on vacation because the team in India got behind and had to make some changes to the software, but you see, I see through my commitments.

So anyway, it's been a little over a week since that conversation, and yesterday, my manager sent the team a message explaining she was working at home because she had an early meeting and it looked like she was going to be hiring a writer in India!

My current project was supposed to be complete on 5/2, but was pushed to 5/16. That gives me a couple weeks to look, I guess, because once they hire the writer in India they will need to do a little long-distance training, so the writer will probably need a week or so before the he or she is up to the task. At least, that's my assumption.

Oh well, to be honest, I was ready to move on. Never, and I mean never trust a corporation. Really. It's unsound and suspect behavior to do so.

I have a meeting with the team in India tonight at 12 am to 1 am. Then it's back to vacation...tomorrow morning, around 7:30 a.m., another friend arrives. He's going to be here my last two days in Manhattan, so it'll be a whirlwind of activity as this is his first trip to Manhattan. I probably won't be doing too much work until I get home on Saturday...that said, this has been a fantastic vacation so far...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wait a second. So what does "contract" mean, then?

That sucks.

Clifford said...

Good question...I guess it means "we want a commitment from you, but reserve the right to do whatever we want".

Clifford said...

Good question...I guess it means "we want a commitment from you, but reserve the right to do whatever we want".

Anonymous said...

That's just no good. It needs to go both ways.

Ah, it's times like this when I'm glad to be chained to the Massive Public Bureaucracy... :-)

RK Sterling said...

That sucks, I'm sorry.

Charles Gramlich said...

Never trust a big corporation, is right. Or maybe any kind of business or corporation. I hope it won't end before you have a chance to find something else. Shitty of them to treat you that way. But, like you say, they want a committment from you but want to do anything they want themselves. It's everywhere.

Clifford said...

Thanks, Kate! I'm just getting back in town from Manhattan and I see that they hired a writer in India, and it was explained to the team that this writer would indeed be replacing me, so I was right on all around...now, I wonder if they'll keep me until the 16th...

About Me

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This is me and one of my two cats. His name is Cougar, and he’s an F1 Chausie. A chausie is a new breed of cat under development. Chausies are the result of a cross between a domestic cat (in Cougar’s case, a Bengal) and a jungle cat (Felis Chaus). Cougar’s mom is 8 pounds and his father is a 30-pound jungle cat. He’s about 16 pounds, super intelligent, spirited, and toilet trained. A writer without a cat (or two) is not to be trusted.