Same Work, Different Rules

Remember when self-employed meant you owned your own store or landscaping business? In the days after the industrial revolution people got themselves a job and ticked off the time until they got that gold watch to celebrate 20 years of dedicated service. The recessions of the 70s, 80s and 90s coupled with a steady decline in America as a manufacturing nation saw a change in how people planned their careers. People no longer expected to stay at one company for 20 years. People changed jobs based on career opportunities, available jobs with better pay somewhere else, or the chance of working for a more stable company in a time of instability, basically staying a step ahead of layoffs.

Now we’re mired in another recession; a long and scary one. Recovery hasn’t been quick or easy and many of the unemployed once sat at a lofty salary level. These successive recessions have steadily eroded the landscape of the corporate environment, well that and the escalating distrust of corporate leaders. I watched some of the health insurance hearings the other day and heard one person, the president of a health insurance company, calmly tell the panel that her base salary was $1.1 MILLION dollars per year, she received a $73,000 bonus for 2009 and she also has stock options. Does she need that much money? She’s a rock star at that salary.

But what is the answer? Contracting. I think that may be it. Basically you’re working for yourself. Imagine the freedom of signing on for a project not a life. You negotiate the deal. Maybe not every company will accept your terms but if you have enough to offer they just might. Imagine being able to say, “I only work Mon-Thu unless there is a pressing project-specific need for my time on a Friday, that time will be billed separately above the fixed project cost”, or “My business is closed July and December every year”. In other words imagine being your own boss. The requirement is that you deliver the project on time and within budget, beyond that you make the rules.

I don’t know that corporate America is quite ready to lose control at this level but if the displaced middle-managers of recent layoffs have found that they enjoy having a life more than being a corporate slave then companies may need to loosen up a bit to get the talent they need. There are benefits for the corporations as well but corporations tend to be control freaks and may not embrace the benefits just yet.

Let’s start with the sky-high cost of office space; contractors will most likely want to work from their home offices meaning less need for ever expanding offices with ever-escalating facilities fees. Reduced costs of benefits, contract workers carry their own healthcare benefits and as far as holiday pay goes, if a contractor closes for a holiday it’s on them not the hiring company to pay themselves (so budget carefully worker bees).

Here’s my personal favorite, less need for those awful all-day “teambuilding” events. Let’s face it, the fewer full-time employees the less need to hold pep rallies for them. The cost saving on this alone should make investors and the board of directors pretty pleased.

There’s even a potential for reduced HR intervention. If a contractor isn’t fulfilling the terms of the contract there is usually a 30-day clause whereby the contract can be terminated in writing by either party and the contractor and company go their separate ways, no need for delicate HR discussions behind closed doors.

Let’s not discount the benefit companies get for using minority owned businesses so every female or minority contractor is a minority business just waiting to be tapped.

In the “traditional” structure the company holds all the cards. They say how many sick days you can take, how many weeks of vacation you get, what hours you’re expected to be in the office. Doesn’t really seem fair does it? You no longer get very much in return for that type of servitude. There is no guarantee that job will be there for you in a year or even a week so why should they hold all the cards?

You may say, “as a contractor, if I don’t work I don’t get paid” yeah, but you can charge enough that those unpaid days don’t cut into your budget, you work out your pay, after all you’re the boss. So if you’ve got a contract for 10 months for $200,000 you can put it into a corporate account and then pay yourself out weekly or bi-weekly based on a salary you and yourself have agreed to.

Ahh and one of my personal favorite upsides to the whole “contracting” gig; NO DRESS CODE! I know that seems small but think about the clothes you have in your closet that you only own because they meet your company’s dress code. Certainly you’d need a couple of meeting suits and a couple of business casual outfits for the times you need to show up in an office but you’ll no longer be going to an office 5 days a week adhering to a closely monitored business casual code. Oh yuk, toss those pleat-front khakis NOW.

Most companies would also probably work more efficiently if they broke down their work to projects and then had specific project managers and the work was clearly laid out. When you have people on staff you actually need to have work for them all the time even if it isn’t work they want to do or work that even needs to get done. Contracting means people get paid for the work that needs to get done and then they go away or sign on for another project.

What’s your specialty? Are you the project manager? The one that lays it all out, parses out the budget and assigns the tasks? Then advertise yourself that way. What if you have a different specialty? Do you have a project specific task? Are you a technical writer of some sort? A training expert? Put it out there and keep growing your skills.

It isn’t much different than owning a landscape company or even the corner luncheonette. You start out that landscaping business knowing how to work a lawnmower and you have good people skills. You get a chance to do a little more than mowing lawns, you start trimming hedges, someone asks if you would plant the mums they just bought at the market and suddenly your resume grows but within the field you chose to work. Now you don’t just wield a mean power mower you can start to add landscape “design” to your credits. A neighbor sees the work you did and asks for your business card. Nice.

Or you bought that luncheonette you always wanted. Lots of hard work, health inspections and belligerent wait staff but word of mouth starts to spread that your omelets are the fluffiest or your soup really IS homemade and before you know it you’ve stretched a little in your own field. Sell yourself as a technical writer because you are but the more you do it the more you see what needs to happen to get the job done and before you know it you’re a technical project manager and you’re still selling the business you originally started.

There are so many positives for both the business and the employee that it’s tough to see a downside. Yes, the downside is drumming up the work but aren’t we all trying to do that right now anyway?

The more I think of this work model the less the old corporate model makes sense. There needs to be people attached to the company and the board of directors but maybe there doesn’t need to be as MANY people attached to that. We desperately need to change the way we work in this country, we need to re-ignite that entrepreneurial spirit in America and maybe we can start that with our own revolt against the corporate game. Imagine telling a company that is very interested in hiring you that you won’t work for them but you’ll work WITH them as your own boss.