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This article was sent to us through our Feedback mechanism by a permanent employee who said that he is used to working with contractors.
My View of Contractors
Contractors can sometimes be useful at a site, but too many of them are a waste of time. Here are some reasons why:-
1) Inflated Idea of Worth - They have an inflated idea of their own worth. Although they may have more experience of technical skills, they have less experience of the company’s mix of tools and how they are used, as well as less experience of the company’s business. However, they don’t take this into consideration
2) No Social Skills - Despite traveling from site to site, many of them have no social skills and don’t fit in with the permanent members of staff
3) Don’t Think of Future - They don’t write programmes in a way that they can be easily amended. As they will never have to amend them, this is not a great worry to them.
4) Bad for Morale - They disrespect the Project Manager in front of the employees who work for him, and say derogatory things behind his back about his abilities. This undermines morale in the project
5) High Attrition Rates - They are always trying to convince employees to go contract, and tell them how much money they can make and how to go about it. This leads to a high attrition rate at any site where there are contractors
6) Prima Donnas - They always know how things should be done better. That’s fine if we want to do it that way. However, if we decide that we don’t want to do it that way, they continue to argue for it, and run down the way we have decided to do it. They can get quite angry about it. I’ve seen some slam down their pencils and storm away. They can give advice, but it’s our job to take decisions. If they wanted to take those kind of decisions, then they shouldn’t have gone contract
7) Know Alls - They never like whatever Methodology that you use, and they carp about it all the way through the project. They always have a favourite one which is much better
8) Won’t Help - Some can be helpful to permanent employees, but too many prefer to pour scorn on employees when they don’t know something instead of helping them
9) Never Happy - They get double the money that permanent employees get, yet they are never happy. They are always trying to enlist our help in getting more of their agencies money. As far as I’m concerned, you sign a contract that you are happy with and then you concentrate on the work. They are always slagging off the agencies who got them the work in the first place
10) Out the Door - As soon as it hits five o’clock they are all out the door – despite normally getting in a little after nine o’clock and having an extended lunch break, often spent in the pub. It is soul destroying for permanent workers, immersed in the project, watching them all skip out the door before the clock hits one minute past five, often to go to the pub again
I have to say that this doesn’t apply to all contractors, that there are some very good and dedicated ones, but there are far too many, perhaps a half to three-quarters who fit into the category above.
No wonder some of us are looking abroad, especially to the Indian sub-continent, for more dedicated workers.
This article was sent to us through our Feedback mechanism by a permanent employee who said that he is used to working with contractors.
My View of Contractors
Contractors can sometimes be useful at a site, but too many of them are a waste of time. Here are some reasons why:-
1) Inflated Idea of Worth - They have an inflated idea of their own worth. Although they may have more experience of technical skills, they have less experience of the company’s mix of tools and how they are used, as well as less experience of the company’s business. However, they don’t take this into consideration
2) No Social Skills - Despite traveling from site to site, many of them have no social skills and don’t fit in with the permanent members of staff
3) Don’t Think of Future - They don’t write programmes in a way that they can be easily amended. As they will never have to amend them, this is not a great worry to them.
4) Bad for Morale - They disrespect the Project Manager in front of the employees who work for him, and say derogatory things behind his back about his abilities. This undermines morale in the project
5) High Attrition Rates - They are always trying to convince employees to go contract, and tell them how much money they can make and how to go about it. This leads to a high attrition rate at any site where there are contractors
6) Prima Donnas - They always know how things should be done better. That’s fine if we want to do it that way. However, if we decide that we don’t want to do it that way, they continue to argue for it, and run down the way we have decided to do it. They can get quite angry about it. I’ve seen some slam down their pencils and storm away. They can give advice, but it’s our job to take decisions. If they wanted to take those kind of decisions, then they shouldn’t have gone contract
7) Know Alls - They never like whatever Methodology that you use, and they carp about it all the way through the project. They always have a favourite one which is much better
8) Won’t Help - Some can be helpful to permanent employees, but too many prefer to pour scorn on employees when they don’t know something instead of helping them
9) Never Happy - They get double the money that permanent employees get, yet they are never happy. They are always trying to enlist our help in getting more of their agencies money. As far as I’m concerned, you sign a contract that you are happy with and then you concentrate on the work. They are always slagging off the agencies who got them the work in the first place
10) Out the Door - As soon as it hits five o’clock they are all out the door – despite normally getting in a little after nine o’clock and having an extended lunch break, often spent in the pub. It is soul destroying for permanent workers, immersed in the project, watching them all skip out the door before the clock hits one minute past five, often to go to the pub again
I have to say that this doesn’t apply to all contractors, that there are some very good and dedicated ones, but there are far too many, perhaps a half to three-quarters who fit into the category above.
No wonder some of us are looking abroad, especially to the Indian sub-continent, for more dedicated workers.
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