I’m in a weird situation relating to my current job.
I’ve been working as a contractor for a [very large] tech company for coming up on 2 years. The office is based in Austin, TX and I made very little money, leading me to leave Austin to live somewhere more affordable and closer to family. My entirety of my employment I have been WFH and have always been told that I would not have to return to Austin by the contracting company employing me, except to swap out computers or phones for newer models. Especially since I was a contractor.
Last month we (about 200 of us) found out that the contractor company (I am paid by) working with the tech company (I do everything for) has lost their own contract and we were being moved to another contractor company. This new company has been very unprofessional, setting up interviews to “apply” for the work we already do, calling us at all hours of the day and night to talk about the move. When they called me to offer a new salary they offered way below market value and below what I was already making. I had to fight to get them to raise it to a decent amount…which just barely gave me about $3/hour more converted to hourly wage. That was 2 weeks ago.
Now they (new contract company) are sending out official offer letters requiring us to go to the client office in Austin. No one was prepared for that either. The Full Time Employees (at the big tech company) we work with daily are surprised too, and don’t want to lose us if we decided not to move back to Austin. But now there is a disconnect, no one knows who is right – do we move back to Austin on the contract companies orders, with no true word from the big tech company? I haven’t received any indication or email from them and neither have the FTEs we work with.
The culmination of this all brings me to my other anxiety induced decision of what to do. I have been actively applying to tons of jobs within my field and getting a calls and setting up interviews since the contractor move news. I did a couple interviews this past week that felt amazing, a real connection with real companies (no more contractor work :)). I haven’t heard back from any of them, which it is still kinda early, but now I have 7 days to accept the contractor offer and probably be forced to move to Austin (4 hours away from me).
Should I wait? Should I quit? I have no idea if I’ll be able to apply for unemployment from my first contracting employer since we’re just being transferred to a different one. They also sort of ceased contact with us and my point of contact hasn’t responded to any emails.
I guess I could find a temporary retail position but that just sounds unpleasant.
Please any guidance would be wonderful – I’m still young, about 5 years out of college, and have bills to pay – and probably a lease to break if I move…
Recommendations or personal experiences similar to the weird limbo anyone else has gone through would be wonderful.