3 ms·

I have heard this so many times indeed, and as a contractor myself, it is so tiresome. Taxes, pensions, insurance, reservations for sitting without a contract,

I have heard this so many times indeed, and as a contractor myself, it is so tiresome. Taxes, pensions, insurance, reservations for sitting without a contract, courses etc etc etc. Those "30 Euro p hour" People actually easily cost around 100 for the company at least, and that is without factoring in sick leave, severance pay etc. Is there still a difference? yes, that is the risk contractors take. I agree that it can be weird for companies to have contractors in the same role for years on end, but I have also seen one or two contractors effectively doing 80% of all the relevant work in a 15 man team. Major incident? Contractors in the warroom. Coming up with a new architecture? Contractors. etc. etc. Do not get me wrong I have also seen it the other way around, that definitely happens, but I have also talked with tons of employees, and 9 out of 10, when pressed, do not become a contractor. They value the "stability" of the employment too much, or are simply too risk averse or afraid of running a small business by themselves. The ones that did make the jump are often very happy once they settle in and of course, financial security varies a ton between people. Parents, kids, nest egg, health, it all plays a role. But employees complaining about contractors, and the difference between their salary and a contractors invoice... what is holding you back? I also find it funny that OP mentions he would like to freelance extra hours at his current employer. Just make those extra hours (or all your hours) somewhere else. You are not married to a company, especially not an F500 one. Those will lay you off without hesitance when deemed necessary, and typically find the limits of the law to do so.

tasuki 2y ago
> I have also seen one or two contractors effectively doing 80% of all the relevant work in a 15 man team. Major incident? Contractors in the warroom. Coming up with a new architecture? Contractors. etc. etc. I have also seen the opposite (as one of the contractors): the employees knew their system well, while the contractors were really missing all the intricacies of the architecture. It would take five years to learn, and contractors wouldn't stick for that long.
- mvdwoord 2y ago
  Most definitely, like I also mentioned. Actually at my current gig there is one engineer in the networking who is basically the load bearing wall of the department. Internal, will never even think about going external (or ask for a raise even...). One of my old managers always kept roughly 70-30 fixed/temp in his department, just for the scaling down quickly options, as well as occasionally pushing the contractors for the slightly shittier tasks every now and then. I have had two 5-7 year streaks now as a contractor with a large institution, at which point something funny happens, the internals on large struggling projects tend to move on to greener pastures, and it comes to me and a couple of other externals to keep things moving and effectively trade some extra money for the lack of inspiration at work. Lastly, sometimes, managers simply have a job which is a 200-300k a year job, but due to the HR policies, the position has a salary cap of e.g. 75k. Bringing in an external means they are able to spend more, and get more experience / higher quality people onboard. In any case, the market is open, so anyone who thinks that the contractors are unfairly advantaged, either put in your resignation and go for it, or enjoy your stability but accept the deal you made. Corporate does not owe you anything, and certainly not rationality in what they do ;)

tasuki 2y ago

> I have also seen one or two contractors effectively doing 80% of all the relevant work in a 15 man team. Major incident? Contractors in the warroom. Coming up with a new architecture? Contractors. etc. etc. I have also seen the opposite (as one of the contractors): the employees knew their system well, while the contractors were really missing all the intricacies of the architecture. It would take five years to learn, and contractors wouldn't stick for that long.

mvdwoord 2y ago
Most definitely, like I also mentioned. Actually at my current gig there is one engineer in the networking who is basically the load bearing wall of the department. Internal, will never even think about going external (or ask for a raise even...). One of my old managers always kept roughly 70-30 fixed/temp in his department, just for the scaling down quickly options, as well as occasionally pushing the contractors for the slightly shittier tasks every now and then. I have had two 5-7 year streaks now as a contractor with a large institution, at which point something funny happens, the internals on large struggling projects tend to move on to greener pastures, and it comes to me and a couple of other externals to keep things moving and effectively trade some extra money for the lack of inspiration at work. Lastly, sometimes, managers simply have a job which is a 200-300k a year job, but due to the HR policies, the position has a salary cap of e.g. 75k. Bringing in an external means they are able to spend more, and get more experience / higher quality people onboard. In any case, the market is open, so anyone who thinks that the contractors are unfairly advantaged, either put in your resignation and go for it, or enjoy your stability but accept the deal you made. Corporate does not owe you anything, and certainly not rationality in what they do ;)