4 ms·

> A third contractor I knew was trying to do two jobs at the same time. I mean this literally how contractors work. Unless they were taking your IP and using i

• bb88 4y ago
  Not if you're charging hourly, it's not. Then it's time fraud. It's just like a lawyer's billable hours.
  • gabereiser 4y ago
    only if you charge hourly to two companies at the same time. Contractors can work multiple contracts, thats the name of the game.
    • bb88 4y ago
      That's exactly what he did -- charge two companies for 1 hour worked. Even if he wasn't, he was a contractor, and checking code while being on site for another company was sus. Employment is "at will" in the US for the most part -- particularly contractors.
      • gabereiser 4y ago
        yeah, bogus... proper time keeping is key to being a contractor. If you are going to work multiple (which happens when you're brought on as an expert but there's spirts of work between lapses of down time) then you can't be doing one while on the clock for the other. Wage theft.
        • brailsafe 4y ago
          Not necessarily. It depends on the requirement. If I've completed or don't have any real work, but am expected to be around, then that's work. It's only if the second contract breaches the first or creates a conflict, and that's not inherent in time. Edit: Misread your comment. If you're billing for specific and granular blocks of time, and doubling that up, then ya wage theft. But if you're doing that and also expected to be onsite anyway, then no not wage theft imo.
          • bb88 4y ago
            If you're a company and you see github commits through firewall, why take the chance unless he's really really good?
            • brailsafe 4y ago
              You wouldn't, I was saying that there could be situations where it wouldn't be a valid claim for wage theft. I would say that's also true of regular jobs where you're not necessarily even expected to be there all the time. I've made commits from my desk on side contracts, but if there's a conflict, I resolve it by sticking around longer. If my employer or client has a problem with me working on other shit, then they get to stop being my employer or client
• faeriechangling 4y ago
  By working two jobs at the same time, they mean working one hour and then billing two companies for that same hour of work.
• noodlenotes 4y ago
  At tech companies, "contractor" usually means someone contracted from a staffing company to work 40 hour weeks during normal business hours. They're not someone who is providing an end product with the freedom to set their own schedule, like you typically think of when you hear "contractor".
  • shkkmo 4y ago
    That is not correct. I won't speak to relative prevalence as that depends on the size and type of tech company, but there are lots of freelance tech contractors.
  • Lio 4y ago
    That very much depends on location. In the UK a contractor could be someone from an outsourcing company as you suggest or they could be an independent service provider working on their own. This is very common in software dev here when you require someone with specific skills. If you’re the latter kind then you’d be wise to bill on deliverables rather than time. If you don’t you could run into a well known tax reg called HMRC IR35. It bars independent contractors from acting like “disguised” employees. It’s a world of pain if that happens.
    • rentfree-media 4y ago
      > bars independent contractors from acting like “disguised” employees. It’s a world of pain if that happens. The US allows companies to fire long-term employees without cause and replace them with indentured servants. We're the ones who actually hosted the cotton fields full of slaves, after all.