Work reality

I started a new job last week doing some training docs for a project at a fairly large English company that has been around for over 100 years. This is a completely new experience on many levels--let me explain:

I have been contracting for over 10 years in the US. There are usually two options for getting paid: have the agency pay you as a W2 employee or go on a 1099 and invoice the agency directly and deduct expenses like you're running your own business. In my experience, most people choose to be a W2 employee to save the paperwork hassle.

Here, it's totally different. If you are doing contract work, most people set up their own limited company and do all the paperwork themselves, similar to a 1099 in the US. The other option is to use an "umbrella" company, which is basically like working directly for the agency, except you are still following the rules for a 1099 (gross billing less expenses) and the umbrella company does all the paperwork for you and just sends you a net check.

Instead of trying to deal with setting up my own limited company over here, I opted for the umbrella company route. Which just adds another layer on top of the process. So I technically work for myself, send my timesheets to the agency who recruited me, also send my time and expenses to the umbrella company (who invoices the agency), and then wait for the money to be deposited into my bank account.

Which it does only ONCE A MONTH. Thank goodness I started in the middle of the month! At least I'll get paid in a couple of weeks instead of waiting a whole month. I've never been paid once a month before. Most of the time, it's been weekly, with the occasional twice a month here and there. But I still have to complete weekly timesheets for the project.

And, to make it even more complicated, I'm technically working for a consulting firm that has been hired by the company for this project. Similar to a company hiring Andersen or IBM to come in and do stuff. So that makes 4 layers I have to keep in my head: the company, the consulting firm, the agency, and the umbrella company. (Don't worry...I'm pretty confused about it myself)

And the fun hasn't even started yet.

This is one of the most politically-charged workplaces I have ever been in in my entire working life. I've been really lucky as a contractor to be able to stay out of the political stuff, mostly because the companies I've worked for just want you to get on with the work since you're costing them money. But this place is a completely different animal. The consultant who is the head of the whole project is supposed to be this complete control freak who plays mind games with the staff, including the worker bees at the lowest level (i.e., me and my co-workers). He apparently has fired several people because they've told him the reality of the project's situation and he just didn't want to hear it. I've had a reprieve from him because he was on vacation last week and this week. But he's back on Monday, so we'll see. I've been told to keep my head down, do my work, and try to stay out of his way. Encouraging, isn't it?

Not to mention the fact that the previous manager of my group made a complete shambles of the work that was done up to now, and it took the management 5 months to figure out that he had done no work and put them way behind. He was let go the week before I started. The bright spot is that our current manager (until we get a team lead, anyway) is this really great guy who has managed projects all over the world. He even worked in San Jose for 15 months. He has really pulled things together in the last couple of days and he's a straight-shooter. I really like his style. Plus, the people I'm working with are really friendly and we all have kind of a "we're all in the same boat together" attitude, which helps.

So we'll see how it goes. I was telling Kev that this is a good opportunity for me to "grow up" and deal with the reality of the political work climate, even though I really hate work politics. I just don't see why we can't all just come in and get our work done. I guess I'm naive, but it just seems like all the politics just gets in the way and makes things more complicated when they really don't need to be. But whatever. If I can earn more cash so we can take an extra trip or two, that's what I really want.

Unless I get fired for speaking truth...