SPUG: It's in the pod, really. Re: JOB:...

[Fred Morris]

#!/usr/bin/perl

=pod

Why does it always seem that stuff like this comes over the wire on the 
weekend? I looked in the posting headers to see if there was additional admin 
information, but there was nothing different than the spug-list. I recognize 
that Andrew sent this message. 

Don't we have guidelines for job/contract postings? With Tim among other 
notables at least at one time pushing for Perl certification (my objection: 
it always seems to cost money or end up being who you know, and it's hard to 
say what value it represents to a customer or what the cost/benefit ratio is 
to the certificate holder... oh I know, I know: "sell the dream"), it seems 
to me that people ought to recognize that one of the first tenets of 
I<ethics> is that people representing that they are in business ought to be 
registered as businesses, and that so-called professionals and their 
customers who disagree ought not to cheat on their taxes... which is what 
"independent contractors (wink-wink, nudge-nudge)" amounts to.

Do we need a talk on what it takes to be a licensed business in the State of 
Washington, and how to look up whether your customers or vendors are properly 
licensed (most of that is on-line these days and doesn't cost anything and 
takes just minutes with a web browser)?

=cut

print <<EOD;

They've been looking for someone for this position for a while; I went to sort 
of a "pre bid conference" on Oct. 4th of this year; there were three of us 
attending. I left early given that it was Windows and well...

On the plus side, the description of the duties and environment has improved 
markedly with this posting. W-2 is now an option as well.

On Friday 28 December 2007 17:46, SPUG Jobs wrote:
> [...]
>     - initially a contract position, but could turn into a
>       permanent position
>     - duration is ongoing.
>     - no stock options; medical and dental benefits paid by company.
>     - Placement is directly through our company
>     - W-2 if permanent; 1099 if contract.
>     - No restrictions on 1099 status
> [...]
>     - Primary business: Municipal codes.

They had an employee (my understanding was that they had primarily other 
duties but did some Perl hacking on the side) who originally set this up. 
They wanted a contractor back then, to the best of my recollection W-2 was 
not an option. They didn't want to pay the overhead associated with someone 
having their own business. The work is under their direction, on their 
equipment, and on their site... at least initially. They don't want to listen 
to professional advice (at least my advice): they're happy with the way 
things are and want them to stay the same. (I'm not mentioning this because 
they aren't entitled to that opinion or that prospects or even customers 
aren't entitled to disagree with my recommendations; I'm mentioning it to 
establish that the work is under their direction and control.) I didn't get 
the impression that they were going to verify people's business registration 
status.

A company which publishes municipal codes ought to know better, methinks: "W-2 
if permanent; 1099 if contract"? What does that mean?

  http://www.carpenters.org/misclassification/

--

Fred Morris Consulting, a *licensed* business since 1984
"..but if you want to tell me what to do, it's W-2"
http://www.inwa.net/~m3047/data-services.html

EOD