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Just to address one of your many points: "contractors don't get raises" I heard similar at my company. But every year I write a letter requesting a raise and s

Just to address one of your many points: "contractors don't get raises" I heard similar at my company. But every year I write a letter requesting a raise and send it to at least two people in the company. "One of the owners..." then send the letter to more than one owner or an owner and your direct manager. That owner probably wouldn't re-iterate how cheap they are if a direct-hire is cc'ed. In the letter, I politely explain my recent contributions, the fact I have competing interests and other opportunities but would like to keep working there. I don't make it sound like I have one foot out the door but it's implied I am standing near the door and it's up to them to keep me. I have never failed to get a raise in over 10 years. When I shared this with a co-worker (contractor), I learned she hasn't received a raise in 4 years. Same goes for the other contractors (5+ years?). The money is there, so just ask for it. If they don't have the money for a modest raise then it's sinking ship.

uri4 4y ago
Contractors get contract renewed, usually every year or so. Thats time for renegotiation, never hurts to bring competing job offer. Asking politely leaves money on table. Being contractor for 4 or even 10 years is kind of fishy. Most countries have a law that converts temporary contractors into permanent employees after N years (4 in Ireland).
- JAlexoid 4y ago
  I really hate being an employee in EU. I don't want to be an employee. I want the flexibility and lack of those crappy "what do you want to do in 5 years" type of convos. I know what I want to be and it's none of my client's business. I currently have to lie to my employer about "what I want to be", because there's an expectation. What if my employer doesn't like the fact that I want to show off my feet on OnlyFans in 5 years, instead of being their "lead architect"? I have literally moved out of Ireland to avoid being an employee.
  - disgruntledphd2 4y ago
    There's a lot of contracting work in Ireland. What's your area? If it's around the data space I might be able to put you on touch with some people.
    - JAlexoid 4y ago
      I live in NYC now, but thank you. (Funny enough I am a data platform engineer)
JoeAltmaier 4y ago
Huh. I'm a contractor. I just tell them what my rate is. Then they have to pay that, or cut my hours. There's very little in the way of 'negotiation'. In fact, the last two years require a rate bump of 25% just to beat inflation. You don't do that, you're losing ground.
- pc86 4y ago
  This is the correct way to do it. There is no "negotiation" when you're a contractor, except between you and the market in that broad hand-wavey sense. You set a rate. They have a budget. The rest is just math. The inflation number is absolutely wrong though. There obviously hasn't been nearly 25% inflation over the past 24 months.
  - CoastalCoder 4y ago
    The concept of asking for a raise doesn't make sense to me even as a regular employee. If you need to beg for a raise, you're already in a bad negotiating position. The ideal situation is to figure out what you'd require to stay with your current employer, and see if they want to match that. You shouldn't need to care what their HR says is the "going rate" for your position, nor what the company has allocated for yearly raises. That's largely posturing on their part, and tells you little about how much they're willing to pay you if push comes to shove.
    - pc86 4y ago
      If you're at a toxic company, you will need to ask for every raise, and will only ever get less than you ask for. But I feel like this comment ignores the fact that companies do have budgets, and the people above you still have their own budgets and bosses to report to. If you work for a company (especially public or non-venture, especially non-tech) there will absolutely be a lot of cost controls and constraints around what is allocated to raises, new hire salaries, retention and signing bonuses, etc. It's exceedingly rare that the line manager has authority to give anyone a 20% raise when he's given a 4% budget increase across the board.
JAlexoid 4y ago
You're a contractor. You don't get a "raise". You tell your client that your rates are changing and you would like to renegotiate your rate. Also - if you're in a contract job for 4 years, there's something wrong
- sometimeshuman 4y ago
  " if you're in a contract job for 4 years, there's something wrong" Depends on your goals. I've been contracting at the same company for 10years. It gave me the flexibility to run and operate a successful side business and take unpaid vacation time whenever I want.
  - JAlexoid 4y ago
    Let me correct myself - if you're in one contract doing the same thing for 4 years, there's something wrong.(IMO) I love contracting and it's my preferred method of working. However - staying in one contract for 4 years is a red flag. (barring some really long term projects)
    - samstave 4y ago
      as a contractor for over a decade of my 25 year career - I would do big builds and some contracts were only like 9 months... and when I would apply at other places they would always ask me, because they were ignorant of what I did - "Why were you only there 9 months" And I would have to explain "Because that was what I was contracted to do" The only contract that I was terminated early from was FB -- but that was because I accidentally, through my status reports, revealed that a certain executive named "the Captain" was hiding build schedule delays for the Sydney office (he went on vacation so I had to speak directly to the contractors building out the office, and found out they were behind schedule by a month and over budget and I put it in my status report, and upon his return from vacation he had me terminated for revealing that info) and the fucked up part was that my manager and team just left the area, then I got a call from the contracting company telling me I had to leave the building - and I was commuting to work via the FB van... so I was stranded in Menlo Park....
- 4y ago
yamtaddle 4y ago
One important thing to know is that people can say whatever they want, but it doesn't make it true. Folks in business—especially sales—seem to do this a lot, where they say one thing as it's a firm rule, but it's actually not at all. It's probably super-effective against people who tend to take any statement by an authority figure as final, but in the end they're just some asshole saying whatever they like, they're not the arbiter of reality. You can't know the truth until you push back on it and see what happens. If saying "yes" to a raise (or, rate change) is better than whatever risk they perceive from saying "no", they'll very likely agree to it, and you'll find out "contractors don't get raises" was just a self-serving lie.

uri4 4y ago

Contractors get contract renewed, usually every year or so. Thats time for renegotiation, never hurts to bring competing job offer. Asking politely leaves money on table. Being contractor for 4 or even 10 years is kind of fishy. Most countries have a law that converts temporary contractors into permanent employees after N years (4 in Ireland).

JAlexoid 4y ago
I really hate being an employee in EU. I don't want to be an employee. I want the flexibility and lack of those crappy "what do you want to do in 5 years" type of convos. I know what I want to be and it's none of my client's business. I currently have to lie to my employer about "what I want to be", because there's an expectation. What if my employer doesn't like the fact that I want to show off my feet on OnlyFans in 5 years, instead of being their "lead architect"? I have literally moved out of Ireland to avoid being an employee.
- disgruntledphd2 4y ago
  There's a lot of contracting work in Ireland. What's your area? If it's around the data space I might be able to put you on touch with some people.
  - JAlexoid 4y ago
    I live in NYC now, but thank you. (Funny enough I am a data platform engineer)

JoeAltmaier 4y ago

Huh. I'm a contractor. I just tell them what my rate is. Then they have to pay that, or cut my hours. There's very little in the way of 'negotiation'. In fact, the last two years require a rate bump of 25% just to beat inflation. You don't do that, you're losing ground.

pc86 4y ago
This is the correct way to do it. There is no "negotiation" when you're a contractor, except between you and the market in that broad hand-wavey sense. You set a rate. They have a budget. The rest is just math. The inflation number is absolutely wrong though. There obviously hasn't been nearly 25% inflation over the past 24 months.
- CoastalCoder 4y ago
  The concept of asking for a raise doesn't make sense to me even as a regular employee. If you need to beg for a raise, you're already in a bad negotiating position. The ideal situation is to figure out what you'd require to stay with your current employer, and see if they want to match that. You shouldn't need to care what their HR says is the "going rate" for your position, nor what the company has allocated for yearly raises. That's largely posturing on their part, and tells you little about how much they're willing to pay you if push comes to shove.
  - pc86 4y ago
    If you're at a toxic company, you will need to ask for every raise, and will only ever get less than you ask for. But I feel like this comment ignores the fact that companies do have budgets, and the people above you still have their own budgets and bosses to report to. If you work for a company (especially public or non-venture, especially non-tech) there will absolutely be a lot of cost controls and constraints around what is allocated to raises, new hire salaries, retention and signing bonuses, etc. It's exceedingly rare that the line manager has authority to give anyone a 20% raise when he's given a 4% budget increase across the board.

JAlexoid 4y ago

You're a contractor. You don't get a "raise". You tell your client that your rates are changing and you would like to renegotiate your rate. Also - if you're in a contract job for 4 years, there's something wrong

sometimeshuman 4y ago
" if you're in a contract job for 4 years, there's something wrong" Depends on your goals. I've been contracting at the same company for 10years. It gave me the flexibility to run and operate a successful side business and take unpaid vacation time whenever I want.
- JAlexoid 4y ago
  Let me correct myself - if you're in one contract doing the same thing for 4 years, there's something wrong.(IMO) I love contracting and it's my preferred method of working. However - staying in one contract for 4 years is a red flag. (barring some really long term projects)
  - samstave 4y ago
    as a contractor for over a decade of my 25 year career - I would do big builds and some contracts were only like 9 months... and when I would apply at other places they would always ask me, because they were ignorant of what I did - "Why were you only there 9 months" And I would have to explain "Because that was what I was contracted to do" The only contract that I was terminated early from was FB -- but that was because I accidentally, through my status reports, revealed that a certain executive named "the Captain" was hiding build schedule delays for the Sydney office (he went on vacation so I had to speak directly to the contractors building out the office, and found out they were behind schedule by a month and over budget and I put it in my status report, and upon his return from vacation he had me terminated for revealing that info) and the fucked up part was that my manager and team just left the area, then I got a call from the contracting company telling me I had to leave the building - and I was commuting to work via the FB van... so I was stranded in Menlo Park....
4y ago

yamtaddle 4y ago

One important thing to know is that people can say whatever they want, but it doesn't make it true. Folks in business—especially sales—seem to do this a lot, where they say one thing as it's a firm rule, but it's actually not at all. It's probably super-effective against people who tend to take any statement by an authority figure as final, but in the end they're just some asshole saying whatever they like, they're not the arbiter of reality. You can't know the truth until you push back on it and see what happens. If saying "yes" to a raise (or, rate change) is better than whatever risk they perceive from saying "no", they'll very likely agree to it, and you'll find out "contractors don't get raises" was just a self-serving lie.