I do IT contact work, I generally prefer full time work but a decent contract can pay well above a full time job even when you factor in benefits. But it can also be exploitive, I have to be an incorporated company which really just strips away a number of workers rights but this one took the cake:
getting the job:
the agency that I found this job through pulled crap right from the start:
– I actually had the job offer but they said “the client cant afford the rate we discussed, we need to cut it by %20. which was below market rates.
– its common practice to pay contractors monthly, so its 30 days, after I had the job I found out when looking at their pay schedule that it would be 30 days plus 45 days until the first pay so 75 dqys until my first pay cheque.
– the job itself was a total bait and switch, the agency had me redo my resume a couple of times to fit the job description better but that was a waste of time. It still fell within my experience except more junior.
– they had me do a background check 3 times, the last time was while I was actually working. The work is financial for a top employer so background checks are very important. There is an old financial item that caused me trouble once so this freaked me out.
– the background check company would not accept my certified copy (had a watermark) of my college transcript, it had to be setup through a service “mycreds” etc so which now costs me $25 every time I want to send my transcript to some employer.
– the agency had me start the day the clearance came through, it was noon, I said lets wait to the next day, nope today. I ended up waiting 7 business day for my laptop, I work remotely so I couldnt even talk to people, hang out. Then a month later there was a dispute if I was going to actually get paid because I was not logged in into the client. I had to force the issue by sending emails to the manager about.
– over the last 15 years agencies have insisted and even spoke to an employer about working extra hours. Not one minute over 7.5 hours a day or pre-approved and its paid, actually every job but this one was 7.5 hrs, this job was 8hrs plus whatever you need to do to get the job done, if you want to be renewed, if you want to work through us etc
– they said it was a one year contract and even set me up with a written contract for year (which they could end if the work ran out but it was the intention) but the contracts for everyone was renewed quarterly, they had write new Statements of work for the next quarter and get it approved by the client. And it was pretty clear from all the plans this would go 8 months max, likely 6.
This is getting too long, I haven't even mentioned my manager, if there is any interest in this I will add a part two which is even worse.