Another writer was also hired, he for RoboHelp work and me for FrameMaker (yay!). We started this contract on St. Paddy's day. Then it got weird. The product that we were assigned to document originated with a sister company in Pennsylvania, which closed down at the end of March, and responsibility for the product passed to the Buffalo Grove location. The product manager had been very busy, helping to close the facility and picking up a lot of new responsibility at the same time, but he was responsive when we asked for direction. We set up a phone meeting with him and the local lead writer which actually never happened. Then we learned that all responsibility for the product had transferred to yet another sister company, this one in Alabama.
Were we still on the project? Did the new company have its own writing staff? Should we even be spending time on these documents?
Last Wednesday afternoon, each of us contractors got a phone call on our home phones. I would be retained for awhile to work on at least one other project; the other writer was not so lucky.
Then I got sick--I mean knock-down, drag-out sick such as I had not been since I was a kid--and did not go to work on Thursday or Friday. With my position being already tenuous, I was sure they'd just give up on me. Fortunately, I was wrong and am still working hard.
One day, I feel certain, I'll even get paid. But not before I have to come up with a few thousand in estimated taxes (April 15). Ah, contracting!
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2 comments:
Eeek on the sickness....
So... sounds like contracting can still come with all the bullshit of a 9 to 5 as a w2??
Well, not quite ALL of the BS. It still comes without the personal affect of office politics and without the stigma of "quitting" when you leave after three months!
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