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> A question to all the contractors out there: when you have walked into a contract for which you have not been given accurate information, whether because the contracting firm did not give you the information or because the client decided to change the rules without telling anyone -- and the truth may never really be known about either -- what happens? Do you just take it? Do you walk when you know you've been had? What do you do?
This has happened to me a couple of times. Sometimes, I've been able to do the job anyway, and since I wanted to do the work and learn the new things I'd need, we managed. I was upfront with the client that I didn't feel I was appropriately qualified (I'd been billed as a WinHelp expert, and had never written a help file in my life before.). After long conversations, they decided that I had the basic intellectual skills they were looking for, and they were willing to teach me the technical ones... we got along great, and I fell in love with WinHelp.
Another time it was a total disaster. same agency. They lied in their teeth about my availability and the hours I could work. I was told a 35 hour week was fine. They were told that I could work 50 hours. It took us 17 months of trying to work things out for us both to realize that this wasn't going to work at all, and to pinpoint the issue to that hourly expectation. It was a pity, too... I loved that job.
The third time was similar... I don't know what story the agency told the client (same agency), but it was clear from the begining that it was a major mismatch. I was sold as an expert in instructional design (I'm not) and knowledgable in accounting. (I'm not, and not interested in becoming so.). Had there been only one area of mismatch, we might have been able to work something out... but there were too many other issues that were misrepresented too (I *must have* flexible hours. This is not a preference, and not an option. I have a special needs kid, and I *have* to be responsive when needed.) The agency wouldn't release me from the contract. I walked out on the first day after I realized that all my "going through channels" wasn't getting anywhere, and that the agency was insisting that I do something that I was sterling not
qualified for or capable of doing, and there just wasn't the time to learn on the job.
There were other events, of lesser magnitude, that mostly worked out. sort of. but I will no longer have *anything* to do with that agency.
Legally, I doubt there was any recourse. Most of all, I felt sorry for the client. Contractors usually only get hired when there's a fire to put out, and most of the clients have had very tight deadlines. I felt terribly sorry for them, because really they were the victims of this agency's behaviour. What made me the most angry is that I was being the instrument for that victimization.
-becca
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Becca Price
beccap -at- rust -dot- net
"Wisdom begins when you discover the difference between 'That doesn't make sense' and "I don't understand.' "
Children of God, by Mary Doria Russell; pg 142-143
