4 ms·

Employees are both a pain and a liability, and few people in government are even aware of the problem. When I was an employer as a small business, my heart wou

Employees are both a pain and a liability, and few people in government are even aware of the problem. When I was an employer as a small business, my heart would skip a beat every time I received a letter from the many local, state or federal agencies that would chime in on some requirement as an employer. For someone that wants to do it right, it's very hard to know exactly what "right" is without paying an arm and leg for professional services. Each letter was a reminder about how easy it would be to outsource each position to another company or country.

dboreham 8y ago
>When I was an employer as a small business, my heart would skip a beat every time I received a letter from the many local, state or federal agencies that would chime in on some requirement as an employer. For someone that wants to do it right, it's very hard to know exactly what "right" is without paying an arm and leg for professional services. Hmm. Wondering what country you are in. I'm in the USA and for "reasons.." I ended up performing all the admin tasks relating to employees (payroll, witholding, IRA, unemployment, insurance) over the past 6 months. I had to learn everything from scratch. Yes it was quite a bit of work, but I don't have the same experience you report at all. I haven't received any letters other than helpful reminders of things I need to file. Yes we have an accounting firm who have over the years educated us on what we need to do, forms to file, and so on. But nothing much changes year-to-year so once you're running the cognitive load is not too bad. None of it scares me at all. Certainly nothing in comparison to running the actual business, where you have customers who don't pay you; risk of being sued; requirement to use Node.JS -- you know -- real scary stuff ;)
- everdev 8y ago
  Wait until year 2 or 3, governments are slow. I've had countless accusations of unfiled paperwork and numerous refilings. If 1 thing is off it seems like it takes atleast 6 months to correct it. I also seem to get a fake workers comp claim or two per year that needs to be sorted out. By the time your correction is filed, another notice had already been sent out. So, you need to refile again to be sure then they call asking why you refiled twice. It's a pain. Also, if you have an employee that owes alimony or child support it's another hassle that the employer gets sucked into.
  - dboreham 8y ago
    We've been in business for 17 years.
- born2web 8y ago
  As a small software agency owner based in the USA, i too experience the same dread as everdev... perpetual fear that i am failing to comply with some arcane rule/law especially at the city and state govt levels...
Johnny555 8y ago
Employees are both a pain and a liability Aren't they an asset too? A contractor doesn't really care about the long term health of your company, if your company folds, he'll go down the street and work for a competitor. He knows that you'll dump him in an instant if you want to so he has no incentive to go the extra-mile for your company. I can see outsourcing peripheral tasks, office cleaning, etc, but for any important part of the business, outsourcing seems like a gamble. (somewhat related, I helped in-source a project that had spent 2 years outsourced off-shore which had met few of its deliverables. In 6 months the new local team got it back on track with literally 1/5th the headcount the outsourced agency used which made it cheaper to bring it back in house) Granted if you're hiring minimum wage workers, maybe it's hard to find quality employees, but for any non-trivial position, outsourcing to contract workers seems like a short-sighted move.
- magnetic 8y ago
  > Aren't they an asset too? A contractor doesn't really care about the long term health of your company, if your company folds, he'll go down the street and work for a competitor. Is this any different with an employee?
  - jasonlotito 8y ago
    Yes.
  - white-flame 8y ago
    No. Unless there's a non-compete clause, which is yet another problem.
- logfromblammo 8y ago
  > ...he'll go down the street and work for a competitor. He knows that you'll dump him in an instant if you want to so he has no incentive to go the extra-mile for your company.... Exactly how I feel as an "at will" employee. At least the contractor has... whaddyacallit... a contract. I really have no incentive link to the company I work for beyond ensuring that they'll continue to have enough paid tasks to offer me for as long as I want to take them. Even if the company announced some sort of profit-sharing or bonuses, there's no reason for me to believe that I'd be able to collect. As far as I can tell, the only reason companies around here have employees at all is so they can credibly attach their resumes to bids and proposals.

dboreham 8y ago

>When I was an employer as a small business, my heart would skip a beat every time I received a letter from the many local, state or federal agencies that would chime in on some requirement as an employer. For someone that wants to do it right, it's very hard to know exactly what "right" is without paying an arm and leg for professional services. Hmm. Wondering what country you are in. I'm in the USA and for "reasons.." I ended up performing all the admin tasks relating to employees (payroll, witholding, IRA, unemployment, insurance) over the past 6 months. I had to learn everything from scratch. Yes it was quite a bit of work, but I don't have the same experience you report at all. I haven't received any letters other than helpful reminders of things I need to file. Yes we have an accounting firm who have over the years educated us on what we need to do, forms to file, and so on. But nothing much changes year-to-year so once you're running the cognitive load is not too bad. None of it scares me at all. Certainly nothing in comparison to running the actual business, where you have customers who don't pay you; risk of being sued; requirement to use Node.JS -- you know -- real scary stuff ;)

everdev 8y ago
Wait until year 2 or 3, governments are slow. I've had countless accusations of unfiled paperwork and numerous refilings. If 1 thing is off it seems like it takes atleast 6 months to correct it. I also seem to get a fake workers comp claim or two per year that needs to be sorted out. By the time your correction is filed, another notice had already been sent out. So, you need to refile again to be sure then they call asking why you refiled twice. It's a pain. Also, if you have an employee that owes alimony or child support it's another hassle that the employer gets sucked into.
- dboreham 8y ago
  We've been in business for 17 years.
born2web 8y ago
As a small software agency owner based in the USA, i too experience the same dread as everdev... perpetual fear that i am failing to comply with some arcane rule/law especially at the city and state govt levels...

Johnny555 8y ago

Employees are both a pain and a liability Aren't they an asset too? A contractor doesn't really care about the long term health of your company, if your company folds, he'll go down the street and work for a competitor. He knows that you'll dump him in an instant if you want to so he has no incentive to go the extra-mile for your company. I can see outsourcing peripheral tasks, office cleaning, etc, but for any important part of the business, outsourcing seems like a gamble. (somewhat related, I helped in-source a project that had spent 2 years outsourced off-shore which had met few of its deliverables. In 6 months the new local team got it back on track with literally 1/5th the headcount the outsourced agency used which made it cheaper to bring it back in house) Granted if you're hiring minimum wage workers, maybe it's hard to find quality employees, but for any non-trivial position, outsourcing to contract workers seems like a short-sighted move.

magnetic 8y ago
> Aren't they an asset too? A contractor doesn't really care about the long term health of your company, if your company folds, he'll go down the street and work for a competitor. Is this any different with an employee?
- jasonlotito 8y ago
  Yes.
- white-flame 8y ago
  No. Unless there's a non-compete clause, which is yet another problem.
logfromblammo 8y ago
> ...he'll go down the street and work for a competitor. He knows that you'll dump him in an instant if you want to so he has no incentive to go the extra-mile for your company.... Exactly how I feel as an "at will" employee. At least the contractor has... whaddyacallit... a contract. I really have no incentive link to the company I work for beyond ensuring that they'll continue to have enough paid tasks to offer me for as long as I want to take them. Even if the company announced some sort of profit-sharing or bonuses, there's no reason for me to believe that I'd be able to collect. As far as I can tell, the only reason companies around here have employees at all is so they can credibly attach their resumes to bids and proposals.