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Today was my day to go to off-site to a company conference and run IT support. As I was sitting there, working through my lunch hour, as well as staying until 6 PM, I started thinking "am I really putting in extra time for this company, even though I'm only a contractor?" Am I looking at this the wrong way? The way I see a contract is: the hiring company hires a contractor to perform a specific task. Since I'm getting paid hourly, I figure I should work 8 hours a day, and no more. So me putting in an extra hour, and working through my lunch hour seems like free work. Maybe what they think a contract is: they basically hire a contractor, pay him hourly, and work him like a salaried full-time employee. Doesn't seem like a fair deal, but the IT industry is saturated with potential employees, and so its an employer's market. They get the choice of a ton of people, and we get caught scrambling around accepting any job we can get. Am I a bit screwy with my understanding of contracting?
After work
So, once I finally left the hotel (way up north on Brokaw) I headed off towards 880. When I got closer, I realized that I was stuck up north, and the southbound freeway was, of course, totally packed. I decided to stop by Fry's to kill some time. I wandered around the store, payed homage to the Apple section, checked out the iPods, wandered around the XBox games, the Anime section, the TV section, the Mac software section, the SciFi section, and so on. I picked up a couple of Doctor Who stories on DVD; "The Two Doctors" and "The Five Doctors". I remember seeing "The Two Doctors" on KTEH a few years ago, and remember it being a really great episode. Patrick Troughton plays the "guest" doctor, with Colin Baker as the "host" doctor. It features Nicola Bryant (Perri) & Jamie (I don't remember his actor's name, just Perri). So with two good companions and two great doctors, its set up for an excellent episode, regardless of the antagonist.
Career
And since I am now under the belief that the IT industry is slowly collapsing at the hands of middle-management, I have an interview at Peet's scheduled. I feel pretty comfortable about it; hopefully things turns out for the best.
2 Comments:
If you're getting paid hourly, then just bill them for the lunch hour plus the time you stayed late. So 10 hours, for example.
If you don't fill out timesheets and they just write you in for 40 hrs/week (or if you do fill out timesheets but aren't "allowed" to work more than 40 hours)... confront your boss about it. It's a perfectly reasonable gripe.
I know, normally I'm not "allowed" to record overtime, so I just log it and acrue what my manager calls "comp time". Say I work an hour late on Monday, my manager is totally fine with me leaving an hour early on Friday. My actual employer requires prior notice to pay overtime and such, so this comp time method is a lot easier.
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