Over the past 20 years, we’ve seen a lot more industries supplement their traditional workforces with a pool of independent contractors.
Much like with the contractors we might hire to work on a house , the companies that hire them on are their clients more than they’re their bosses.
And that difference tends to favor client companies as they can cut back on the benefits and salary structures that full-time employees could be entitled to. But at the same time, they’re also not supposed to enjoy the kind of control that a boss could otherwise have over the employee’s time and conduct during business hours.
However, one story does a lot to illustrate that this doesn’t always stop some within management from thinking they can have it both ways.
On January 18, a contractor named Caleb shared an amusing exchange between him and one of his client company’s managers on Twitter.
In his text screenshots , he showed that this person asked why he hadn’t attended a morning meeting, to which he replied that he never does because he’s usually asleep when they happen.
And when that person told them that these morning meetings are a requirement for employment, it was clear to him that this person didn’t know who they were dealing with.
As he said, “Man that sucks for you guys, but I’m not an employee. My contract says nothing about required hours or daily meetings.”
As we can see, this wasn’t the answer the manager wanted and they threatened Caleb’s job. In response, he said the company would be hurting itself more than him if they did so due to the contents of the contract.
And since this apparently wasn’t what the manager expected to hear either, they got agitated and asked him to call them.
It’s not often that the word “no” brings so many onlookers such satisfaction.
Because while some tutted about professionalism and others wondered if Caleb could afford to do this, most loved how he was forcing this manager to leave a paper trail.
And while some were quick to point out that bosses run the risk of tax fraud when they try to control contractors like employees, Caleb explained that the situation was even more absurd than that.
In his words , “This person doesn’t work at the agency that handled my contract. They don’t even run the department I was working in, and have no authority to fire me. Just a middle management nerd trying to be a cop.”
Still, the internal disaster that this seemed to spark revealed to Caleb just what kind of company he was working with.
Because after a consultation with his agency, he found out that someone at that company had indeed terminated his contract.
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So when another executive there texted him saying that that manager had no power to fire anyone and that he still owed them some site installation work, he filled them in on that little detail.
From there, he added, “Your department is a mess and your employees have no clue what they’re doing. I have no interest in discussing this further. Don’t text me again.”
That must have felt good.
h/t: Twitter | @BirdRespecter
