Working the streets as a contractor

June 25, 2009 · Posted in Book Chapters, Computers and Humour, Education

The cartoon today is taken from the Education section of Microholics:

cartoon - house system in a school being progressive

I once worked for a software house. The Chiefs were pimps and us Indians were prostitutes. They used to send me to work “on the streets” for months at a time in exotic locations like Milton Keynes, hire me out to the client for some undisclosed exorbitant rate and pay me a pittance for a salary.

Unfortunately, when you’ve got the word “contractor” stamped on your forehead, the permanent workforce invariably assumes you’re rolling in cash, which tends to affect their behaviour and attitude towards you. So you have all the disadvantages of working as a contractor, with none of the advantages! I believe I lasted about twelve months in this job.

A few years later I became a “proper” contractor, but working for a different kind of pimp - the Agent. The difference was that I got a slightly bigger slice of the pie for each “trick”!

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