The Joys of Being a Contractor

I had planned to bring you gently forward from those first work-related experiences to the present day. However, given news I received today, I will yank you all forward in time to the present!

I’m currently working as a contractor for Medico Mecca. This was to be a six-month contract but Jolly J kept saying that they were going to keep us until the end of the year. Did you know September has now become the end of the year? I say that because to say otherwise, at this point, would be to imply that Jolly J is a liar.

Jolly J is not exactly “supportive” of my tenure at Medico Mecca. She frequently gets her panties in a wad and does her best to get me similarly hysterical over things that the managers at the Mecca sortve derisively snort at because while they certainly love to CREATE drama, they don’t particularly seem to like resolving drama. I can pretty much sum up the management style as “If we just ignore it, it will go away”.

Jolly J also was very pushy about me doing my part to make sure I got my 6 month review. I was nagged daily to do this “completely voluntary” paperwork which I finally submitted under duress. Yeahhhh, ummmm, guess who hasn’t had a review yet (which is fine with me).

Anyhoozle… Jolly J emailed me today to let me know that my contract is ending in a couple of weeks, for budget reasons, not because of performance. Oh yay. So, I was told that I’d have a job through the end of the year and now here it is, if I am reading my calendar correctly, only September. She’ll be by on Thursday with my paperwork.

I did negotiate a couple of points with the Medico Mecca Manager (ahhhh, alitteration). First, there will be no announcement to the group of my imminent departure (so they don’t get a treat day out of the deal). I head you gasping at my heartlessness. Hear me out. There were 5 contractors to begin with. 1 got fired, one just left to take a better job, two got hired on (I was told that because I don’t have a degree, I will NEVER get hired by Medico Mecca because the doctors insist on being supported by EDUCATED people). So, yeah, I was good enough to come and do the work every day, but didn’t make the cut when they were hiring. That makes the old ego just burst with pride, let me tell you. Secondly, my co-workers have gone out of their way to make sure that the CONTRACTORS were reminded at every opportunity that they were CONTRACTORS. (As in, “oh, we would have invited you to happy hour… but that’s for EMPLOYEES”). My second negotiation was that on my second to last day there is a 7:30AM meeting and I am working 9-6 that week. I will NOT be going in early for that 7:30AM meeting because I love my sleepin’! I will stop short, however, of stamping my feet about all of the money I’ve donated to the Holiday Committee towards the Holiday Party (because, in reality, it’s less than $20) because I knew in my heart, right from the start, that Jolly J was bullshitting me about the contract going until the end of the year.