Tldr at the end.
This is not my story but my friends. Anyway, he works for the government and is a contractor. The reason being is the salary is not at market rate so this government facility go through staffing companies. Probably the government figures it’s more expensive to hire full time due benefits and can save money via staffing company. Anyway, I’m not going to specifics just to be safe. The job is not desirable, but very needed. It’s not the job itself, but what the job is for. So it’s not for everybody and there are virtually no applicants willing to do the job. Only a select few are willing. His team is the only willing personnel and has been for a number of years now.
Anyway, the government places out bids once every number of years. The old system was every department needing workers have their own staffing company, but this time, the government changed it to only 1 company for everybody, instead of per department. His contract is up for renewal, however, the previous company he works for at the time didn’t even get the bid request. So he has to talk to this staffing company.
Now, this new company’s owner is a piece of work. My friend thinks this company has a contact or insider helping him so he became the top (less) bidder. 3 months before my friend’s contract is up, he tried to contact the company who won the bid to see if they can hire him there, but no answer. The owner was probably in Mexico or Belize celebrating multimillion contract. A few weeks has passed, the company returned his call. Company low balled him and his team, even mocked them saying, “I have candidates lined up from LinkedIn ready to take your positions” when he tried to negotiate pay and benefits. I think the company did that because they thought there will be no other way working there except through them.
So, since being there for number of years and knowing nobody will sign up with the company but them, they didn’t apply and called his bluff. Now the job is very needed or else the facility won’t fulfill certain certifications to keep them running. Few more weeks has passed, the head honcho of the whole facility didn’t like that there was contract renewal for the previous team or new staff lined up for the job. The head honcho and directors met up and agreed to sent out an emergency bid for that department only. Now, their department makes up 75% of the whole contractors there.
So, the piece of work guy caught wind and was frantically calling my friend and his team. Owner of company said some made up crap that he was able to renegotiate and bumped my friend’s position to 50% more pay. My friend said, “I’m sure our replacements from LinkedId will be very happy,” and hung up.
That company couldn’t fill those positions and lost the lucrative contract. The emergency contract was awarded to his previous employer.
Tldr: Company threatened my friend when he tried to negotiate saying there are applicants lined up to take my friend’s position, ended up loosing the contract.