Re: Contract vs. Permanent

["John W. Sliger" <jsliger -at- PDQ -dot- NET>]

Jill, et al.,

I treat every job as if it were a contract position. The reason: in my experience, it doesn't make any difference how the job is called (permanent or contract) sooner or later the job will end, at the behest of either the employee or the employer The idea is to do your best and be prepared for when the job ends.

Arguing doesn't change the facts; in today's economy, the average job lasts 4.7 years and when it ends, 95% of the time the employer makes the decision. Just be prepared.

JWS

John W. Sliger
Technical Writer
Phone: (281) 353-0567
E-mail: jsliger -at- pdq -dot- net


-----Original Message-----
From:   Jill Burgchardt [SMTP:jburgcha -at- PESTILENCE -dot- ITC -dot- NRCS -dot- USDA -dot- GOV]
Sent:   Wednesday, May 13, 1998 4:44 PM
To:     TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject:        Contract vs. Permanent

I've never understood the contract vs. permanent holy war,
which has been a sub-thread on the secretarial issue today.

We can have different, valid reasons for making different (or
even the same) choices. Salary, type of work, environment,
location, flexibility, custody arrangements, medical
conditions--the reasons vary dramatically. Arguing this issue
seems analogous to convincing everyone they should wear the
same size shoes.

Saturday night another mother bragged about her daughter's role
in a musical. It WAS wonderful and she's a nice lady, but I
struggled to be gracious. My daughter had a good role that was
challenging musically, although her speaking part was smaller.
Some specific comments unintentionally hurt me, though this
mother was only showing pride in her own child. The
contract/permanent discussion seems to have a similar effect on
people regardless which group people are in.

Jill Burgchardt
jburgcha -at- pestilence -dot- itc -dot- nrcs -dot- usda -dot- gov


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