[Gllug] Contract Rates for Linux Admin Work

[James de Lurker]

On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 12:27:24 Jason Clifford wrote:
> On Mon, 18 Aug 2003, Richard Jones wrote:

>>I'm guessing by the nature of the work that Jason Clifford probably
>>doesn't work with other contractors in his job.

It's best/easiest to be the independent individual consultant, but those 
opportunities are harder to find. It shouldn't be a preference.


> On some jobs I do and I always have to deal with the clients own staff 
> when I am doing consulting work.

...And in most cases you have to balance the conflicts inevitable in being
one of a team composed of both permanent staff and other contractors.
Even more complicated when it involves sub contractors and there are
also agencies to please as well as a client's team manager. Maybe agencies
other than your own, if you happen to be a subbie yourself.

    I was a contractor, sometimes subbie at the beginning of the 90's
recession. And was too slow to learn to please the growing "teamworking,
communication skills" expectations of senior decision makers constantly
looking to improve team performance. Individuals that put their head above
the team parapet had better do so in a constructive way, or else...

Use of "constructive" means defining: What is wrong, why it is wrong,
what you propose can be done about it. And persuading others, effectively.


>>What do people do, however, if you have to deal with other contractors
>>on the same job, and they are bone-headed idiots? (To the point where
>>it makes it impossible to perform your own job). Do you take the money
>>and shut up? Do you raise concerns?

With the individual, privately, and tactfully, in a non challenging manner.
Make an assessment of your own. Take the time and effort to practise tact
and diplomacy. Even if you don't instinctively like the person concerned at
all. If they are untrustworthy: get to understand a potential threat.

If still unhappy - ask for the manager to confirm / deny your own personal
assessment, without being a smartass about it (competing with the manager).

Never , ever, go above the line manager unless your position is extremely
secure and that manager is a definate and serious part of the problem.

Use your own leadership / management experience, or develop it. Assess the
person privately. Even if you are highly ambitious and unwilling to spend
time cultivating people of no apparent intrinsic future value to you.


> I always raise my concerns with my client (except where the client is the 
> bone-headed idiot in which case I take the money and shut up where 
> possible).

That shouldn't be the first resort. This is an opportunity to demonstrate
leadership and teamwork skills, and a decent manager will notice if you
don't even make the effort to try.

Act in a way that can be perceived as being entirely self-centred and 
untrustworthy of confidences, and you will be a marked man. Maybe even by
the manager that you are reporting to. And in that case, the poison may
spread to an agency that placed you, if you are a subbie. How do you
feel about snide people that go straight to a manager to report an
apparent problem with you, without warning? It signals lack of 
communication skills: Whose?


> At the end of the day you have a responsibility to your client to provide 
> the service or inform of them of anything preventing you from doing so.

Yup. But preceding that is a personal responsibility to assess as 
objectively as possible whether the team member that is the cause of more
problems than solutions is _only_ a liability. And can't be turned around
painlessly. Pain being the cost of replacement.

RFP ( Feynmann the Physicist ) AFAIR had two classes for fools:
1) Stupid fools, who won't listen, and are not worth wasting time with.
2) Ignorant fools, who just need a little patience, and education, to be
    valuable to you / the team.

They got hired in the first place, so must have something to contribute.
By stating otherwise, be aware that you are challenging the judgement of
the decision maker(s) responsible for hiring them.


> You also have a responsibility to yourself not to let a sitaution get you 
> stressed out.

Quite. In a no-win situation, if you can't constructively change the rules
of the game, then get out while you still have the good reputation to sell
elsewhere!

So much for my experience as an old timer - contractor from the early 80s.
Still relevant and insightful, now?

-- 

   -- James

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