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The obvious short-term action is to start shopping yourself around. In
theory, that should also include having your current recruiter/agency
look for something else for you and they shouldn't have a problem with
that, since they will lose out on their substantial markup on your
hours if you don't have any hours. But if they have had a long
relationship with the client, that might not be a good idea. Remember
that in the relationship between recruiter and client company, you are
always the merchandise.
Longer-term, if you desire independence from being chained to a desk
for long stretches of time, consider changing your focus to
shorter-term gigs. You'll find you can live with most restrictions if
you know it'll all be over in 90 days or so.
Gene Kim-Eng
On Fri, Jan 25, 2019 at 10:56 AM Tony G. Rocco <cityfeller55 -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
>
> Greetings, dear tech writers,
>
> I've been contracting since 2006 and I've seen some lousy clients and bad
> managers, but this one beats all. I've never seen so much managerial
> ineptitude in one place in my life.
>
> I've been working for a major Bay Area software company remotely from San
> Diego since last August. Halfway through, the project I was hired for fell
> apart due to a lack of SME resources - poor planning on their part - and my
> lead contact unexpectedly left on a six-week sabbatical. I've been left
> hanging ever since, with only makeshift busy work to keep me occupied on
> less than a full-time basis. After initially trying to help me, my boss
> became indifferent, defensive and blaming, imploring me to "take charge" of
> a nonexistent project.
>
> Oddly, my boss has asked my recruiter to renew my contract, but has told me
> privately that due to an impending reorg, he doesn't know if/when he'll
> have any actual work for me to do. In fact, he doesn't even know if funding
> for my position will be available. I've informed my recruiter of the
> situation, but they are not allowed to contact my manager directly to get
> clarification or sort things out. They have never had a client ask to renew
> a contract without know if funding is available.
>
> I resent being left in limbo, waiting to find out how this situation is
> going to play out, and have started looking another opportunity. But remote
> gigs are hard to come by for some reason and I'm not willing to take a job
> that doesn't let me work independently. I plan to travel and I can't travel
> while tied to a desk.
>
> Any thoughts about how you would deal with a situation like this? Ever been
> in a situation like this before? Any feedback is welcome.
>
> Tony
>
> --
> I am a freelance technical writer and author of fiction, biographical
> non-fiction, first-person journalism and essays. My work can be found on
> the BrooWaha.com online community newspaper
> <http://www.broowaha.com/search-author/tony-g-rocco> under my own name and
> my pen name, cityfeller.
>
> *No Regrets: Memoirs of a Punk*, my first ebook, is available from
> Smashwords Publishing. It recounts my early days on the San Francisco punk
> scene, and tells the tale of a young Catholic boy who escapes his
> conservative Texas upbringing to live the life of a free-spirited punk
> rocker in the San Francisco of the 1970's. Download it at:
>https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/315495.
>
> My first novel, *On the Steps of St. Dymphna*, is due out in the Spring of
> 2019.
>
> View my professional website at: http://tonygrocco-com.webs.com.
>
> View my LinkedIn profile at: www.linkedin.com/in/yourperfectwrite/
>
> Follow me on Twitter at: yrprfctwrt and trocco
>
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> 01/25/19,
> 10:49:53 AM
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