Job thread

[Yegolev]

There is a laundry-list of reasons to use contract work.  Short version is that it is easier and cheaper.

Plus you get to treat them like shit AND treat them as employees, but you don't have to pay them like employees, or pay taxes on them like employees. And it's all legal. My wife has work for a few places like that - you're considered self-employed so you get to pay your FICA taxes instead of your employer, and you have almost no legal recourse about any disputes like a real employee does.

In short, it's the next best thing to slave labor for companies needing skilled workers! Did I mention I think the whole practice is fucking disgusting?

It's not legal if you fall into the right categories, and the IRS is really cracking down on it. If you think you are a employee, you file a SS-8 with the IRS for a determination. Once you do that, you file a form 8919 if you want to get the employer to pay your side of the taxes until you get a determination. If the employer fires you for filing the SS-8, you can sue them for wrongful termination and nail them to the wall.

I'll second that stuff.  The IRS, per my understanding, uses the Duck Test to see if someone is an employee and it does not matter one bit what is in the contract if they are actually treating someone as an employee.

[HaemishM]

That of course assumes one wants to take the time, effort and trouble to deal with the IRS AND possibly lawyers. Which is I think what most of these shithead businesses who do this are counting on you not doing.

[Torinak]

There is a laundry-list of reasons to use contract work.  Short version is that it is easier and cheaper.

Plus you get to treat them like shit AND treat them as employees, but you don't have to pay them like employees, or pay taxes on them like employees. And it's all legal. My wife has work for a few places like that - you're considered self-employed so you get to pay your FICA taxes instead of your employer, and you have almost no legal recourse about any disputes like a real employee does.

In short, it's the next best thing to slave labor for companies needing skilled workers! Did I mention I think the whole practice is fucking disgusting?

It's not legal if you fall into the right categories, and the IRS is really cracking down on it. If you think you are a employee, you file a SS-8 with the IRS for a determination. Once you do that, you file a form 8919 if you want to get the employer to pay your side of the taxes until you get a determination. If the employer fires you for filing the SS-8, you can sue them for wrongful termination and nail them to the wall.

So after a potential legal battle, you win the right to keep working for a place that treated you badly enough you had to get the IRS involved and may have had to file a lawsuit. I'm sure the employer will be looking for every possibly justifiable reason to fire you if you win.

If you lose, who will hire you after that?

[Paelos]

No, if you win the battle you win all the past income they stole from you, which is 7% of your income x however many years essentially. And they have to give you benefits and all the things that come with employment, including FUTA and SUTA. Plus if they fire you, you can get lost income, punitive damages, and you strike a blow against a company doing shitty things.

As for who hires you after that, no employer can use it against you. In fact, if the prior employer even mentions it during a reference, you could get them AGAIN for more damages. You could just retire on your shitty company breaking the law.

Employment lawyers don't typically charge you by the hour for this stuff, they do it by percentage. Also, the IRS is putting these laws in place because employers are fucking this up.

[Tannhauser]

I'm happy to say I'm employed again!  Yesterday I went back to the company to meet the Governor (see other thread).  They gave me a nice white shirt with the company logo, which I took as a good sign, and after the governor left, took me into HR.  I said "So, are you gonna make me an offer or what?"  I'm charming that way.  They said yup and handed me a pack and sent me packing.  I stopped at the Perkins at exit 107 (you know the place), and opened it up.

Very nice!  Pretty standard except that they are offering 4k higher than I was going to ask for!  I'm very happy and I'll take it.  They treated me quite well while I was there and I think I can really contribute.  I'll be in a great cubicle, the only negatives is that I have no window and the fat-ass IT guy (Sheldon's his name I shit you not) is next over and he has already told me of his love for Trump.  Sweet Jesus.

I figure I can do two years in Naples and see if I like it enough to stay.  Got to say, they treated me very well.  I hope that continues.

[Signe]

You sound so happy!  Congrats!! 

[Paelos]

Sounds great, I think you'll like Naples!

[Pennilenko]

...I think you'll like Naples!

Not if he means Naples, Florida.

[Paelos]

It's not that bad.

[Quinton]

tl;dr Amazon is a horrible horrible place to work and makes grown men cry (literally).

This has been Amazon's reputation almost since the beginning so it no longer horrifies me to read stories like this. Jeff of course is now denying this is what the company is about but he's lying through his teeth.

Steve Yegge, a person well known in some programming circles for his well written rants about software and the software industry, wrote a very infamous article about Amazon that was meant for Google internal consumption only but thanks to Google+'s brain damaged permissions system got released to the public.

Well, technically it's not the fault of G+ permissions (not that they're not needlessly obtuse), but the fact that there were two instances of G+, the internal development instance, which was used heavily internally (often for venting about how shitty G+ was), and the live production instance.

Since the G+ identity people were so heavily into the RealNames kool-aid-drinking, the system is dreadful about usefully differentiating which Firstname-Lastname-Avatar you're referring to, making it really damn easy to confuse yourself about what instance you're interacting with if you don't pay very close attention and/or put a super-obviously-different avatar on one or the other.

Steve's looking at Google here through some pretty heavily rose-colored glasses -- by all accounts about Amazon, the GOOG is nowhere near as horrible, but it is broken in plenty of ways that Steve seems completely oblivious to.

Also, good lord, Steve does go on and on.  I had forgotten about "Yegge Posts" and the eyes-glazing-over effect they have on you.

[Fabricated]

Oh yeah, remember how I mentioned the "Justify your existence" email, and my supervisors purging people they didn't like?

Us grunts got an email last week from one of the highest level deans asking us to participate in an evaluation of my group's director; part of the process is being handled by an outside group.

[Triax]

[Fabricated]

Like literally that I imagine.

[Paelos]

Like literally that I imagine.

Yep, exactly that.

[Fabricated]

I have this confidential packet here that was in my mailbox this morning and I'm supposed to fill out this survey about my org's director; a man I have literally never talked to one-on-one in the ~4 1/2 years I've been here. Guess I could just start circling numbers.

[Yegolev]

Be sure to scrawl THANKS OBAMA in strategic locations.

[Paelos]

I have this confidential packet here that was in my mailbox this morning and I'm supposed to fill out this survey about my org's director; a man I have literally never talked to one-on-one in the ~4 1/2 years I've been here. Guess I could just start circling numbers.

I'd say that as much as humanly possible. That you have no contact with this person and you cannot make a reasonable assessment.

Either it's damning to him that he's not reaching out, or it's inconsequential. Either way it doesn't come back on you or say anything about your position.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, I'll second that.  This particular instance sounds like a rare opportunity for hassle free honesty.

[Trippy]

Confidential does not mean anonymous

[Yegolev]

If I were a betting man, I'd say Fab is out of work soon anyway so just fire all cannons.

[Fabricated]

If I were a betting man, I'd say Fab is out of work soon anyway so just fire all cannons.

Someone still needs to keep stuff running and the people who we could be rolled into sure as fuck won't want to do it, and outsourcing us isn't really possible (nor will it save costs).

Basically, we're either all in trouble, our just my managers are and if its the latter this is going to be a good year.

[Yegolev]

While you may have a point, just today I heard a counter-story where someone was basically fired due to comic errors and WHOOPS was the only person who could do several things.  So, I suppose it depends on how dumb your bosses are.

[Lantyssa]

Or bosses' bosses if the bosses are sacked.  In other words, expect anything.

[Rasix]

They are really cramming Agile down our throats now.  Doesn't matter that our product delivery, development process, and organizational model doesn't fit it in the slightest.  WE WILL BE AGILE.  WE. WILL. BE. AGILE.

So, I'm listening to some Aussie chucklefuck prattle on about Agile.  If I hear this asshole punctuate another sentence with "yah?", I'm going to scream.

[Chimpy]

Are they going to use agile in the industry standard model of 30 day sprints or are they going to be more "agile" than the current methods?  

Because we all know how quickly big blue typically moves on things 

[Trippy]

30 day sprints is so mid-2000s. 1 or 2 week sprints is the norm now.

[Viin]

Yeah, 2 weeks max. 30 days is totally not Agile. 

Just wait until they roll out Scaled Agile.

(and for the record, I like Scrum. But not Scaled Agile).

[RhyssaFireheart]

Ugh, they're trying to figure out how to be more Agile oriented for some of our projects but for the vast majority if them, it's just not possible.  I mean, we're in a highly regulated and validated area.  You can't speed those processes up that much.

[Yegolev]

Two week sprints.  For other people, not me.

In regard to Agile and Scrum, it's something that I need to get a grip on ASAP to maintain & grow my leadership skills.

IBM software development will have to do one of these.  I'm sure those then-dinosaur assholes back in the late 1980-early 1990 period were upset about Lou Gerstner until he saved the fucking company.

[Viin]

Your best option is to do a Scrum Master training session, usually two days. It'll go over the basics from start to finish. What it won't cover is how the hell you integrate Agile into a complex organization with multiple dependencies between product/project teams and roll out releases in a way that gives you a wholly operating system. You still need project management for that. And if anyone says the project managers should be scrum masters too, kick them.

[Yegolev]

Nice tip.  I only started looking at resources today and you cut out some reading time for me, so thanks.

Integration into an org... well, that sort of thing comes down from the top, doesn't it?  Neither surprised nor concerned; I'd need to do time as a manager/PO before I move up to that level (I assume!).  Until then, it's the usual Pockets of _________ where you may insert basically anything that someone felt like doing that day.

[pants]

Also check out Scrum and XP from the trenches - its a good guide that started me on Scrum many years ago - good read.

And yes, I echo Viin, integrating Agile into a large company that isn't a software dev house like Atlassian is the holy grail of this stuff.  SAFe has been touted, and has its proponents and haters.  Scrum at Scale I think it is?  (or is that LeSS?  I get mixed up) is getting some good press, but its still pretty new.

Whoever does crack scaling out Agile into a bank or an insurance company is going to make squillions on the book/speaking circuit.

[Yegolev]

Nice, epub goes on the kindle for Memorial Weekend.

[Cheddar]

Yay!  4 job titles in a year (no promotions, just new work with some old work staying on my plate), and today asked if I would accept a new job.  Except, the requirement was a pay band above me and "details."

Scratching my head.  O.O

 Not complaining, first world problems etc. 

[Fabricated]

In addition to all that has happened so far, one of my supervisors has decided to move "onward and upward" to being an IT Director for a different school at our university.

To be fair, he was kinda overqualified as a supervisor (PhD, in a discipline that matches the school he's going to) so this move would make sense as a regular career move. The timing however...