RE: Consultants who have to work on junk equipment

Dean,
----- Soap Box ---
errr, ERRR, I need to take exception with one small point here! In
spite of the fact that I also am a contractor, and that on occasion I
find in-house staff that might  be lacking in knowledge about the
latest bells and whistles, on the whole I believe that it is unfair
and unprofessional to draw a generalized conclusion about clients!
----- End Soap Box ---   

______________________________________________________________________
___
Howard Weatherly

hweatherly@dlis.dla.mil
howard.weatherly@ctg.com
hweath@ibm.net

X4324

 <<Re: Consultants who have to work on junk equipment>> 

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• Subject: Re: Consultants who have to work on junk equipment
• From: DAsmussen@xxxxxxx
• Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 03:06:36 -0500

Hank,

In a message dated 98-11-16 02:31:23 EST, you write:

<<snip>>
> One of the things that was pointed out to me was that the high
salaries they
>  were paying for the contract coders was making the regular staff
jealous,
so
>  they felt justified in giving the new people poorer conditions to
work in. 

Errr, Errrrrrr, ERRRRR!  Numero uno problemo mis amigo -- the existing
staff
should _NEVER_ know what your people are making!!!  In the first
place, it's
none of their %$##@&* business (do they know what their co-workers
make?).  In
the second, it undermines your ability to work effectively with the
in-house
staff.  The latter arrangement (in those rare instances in which
they're not
completely worthless) can save both you and your client _TONS_ of time
and
money.  Whoever "let the cat out of the bag" regarding your
compensation
should be taken out and flogged, regardless of whether they worked for
you or
the client.  Even if you want them, you cannot ethically hire any
member of a
client's staff, so what good does it do for them to know your billing
rate?

While I'm personally opposed to our industry working at any one site
for more
than a few months, I'm also opposed to employers that subsidize
worthless
employees with our services instead of giving a deserving employee a
perm job.
We definitely fill a need for "one-time" jobs like Y2K or mentoring
staff on a
new application/platform, but for the love of Pete just "toast" people
that
refuse to work or learn new methodologies.

>  My reply was that I was there to bring the project in on-time,
under-
budget,
>  and with a very high level of quality. The quality of the workplace
would
>  reflect the quality of our production. If they want junk work,
write it
into
>  the contract, and we'll deliver it in the junk environment. 
>  
>  Funny thing is, the manager that I fought this battle with - he's
one of my
>  best references.

And they always will be.  Don't ask for more than the "real" employees
get
(like the "Big 5" do), but don't accept less, either.  Managers
respect
someone that will stand up for their people, especially if they do the
same
for theirs.  If you walk in with the "I can help you" attitude instead
of the
"I'm better than you" attitude, you'll win friends and influence
people.
Otherwise, you can watch the client switch between the other "Big 5"
as each
one proves worthless...

JMHO,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-Mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"If you had to identify, in one word, the reason the human race has
not
achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would
be
'meetings'". -- Dave Barry
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