Gov Contractors Hit by Contract Cycles
Government contractors are experiencing widespread job insecurity due to contract cycles and cost-cutting measures. This results in abrupt changes, pressure to accept increased workloads, and a feeling of being disposable, often accompanied by dismissive or exploitative management practices. The lack of job stability and perceived disrespect are causing significant distress.
SOURCES (60)
“Probably not since all the managers they hired apparently "knew nothing" lol. Either that or I'm guessing the firm expects managers to be partner level, I worked at a firm like that and they were hiring managers the entire 6 years I was there and…”
“This! They reduced your hours, therefore it is a new contract. It’s a contract for them as well as you, they agreed to full time, they are violating the contract.”
“Thanks, that’s helpful. I’m not really complaining about the $21 itself—I’m grateful for the experience and for getting into real estate after working in telecommunications. My bigger concern is the workplace culture and whether I’m limiting myself by staying here. Sometimes I feel like there’s more out there for me, especially with my background. Would you say it’s worth starting to look around while I complete my CPA prerequisites?”
“The math don't math. The slowdowns means you won't work. Does the pay increase offset the downtime? Consistency is always more valuable than speculation.”
“The compensation can be quite good but I feel like the effort (units, cpa exam, hours worked) and the overall hours we have to work in general takes away from the feeling that we are paid well. If you’re in a MEC/QEC role as well, every month end and quarter end is “restricted” in a way which kind of sucks too I’m 15 years into my career and can’t imagine “closing the books” for another 20-30 years.”
“There’s average and there’s outliers. On avg the pay is not adequate for the sacrifice.”
“It depends on you. Generally you'll make solid money when compared to everyone. But most people will compare to higher paying jobs. You can make a lot but it will require a lot of sacrifice. Check out the salary thread on here and decide if that's worth it to you.”
“I’m a few years into my career now and I still feel behind compared to where I assumed I’d be financially at this point, even though nothing has actually gone wrong. Is that just a comparison problem, or is there something practical I should actually be doing differently? submitted by /u/Legal_Signature_6856 [link] [comments]”
“I’ve been a Senior for a while and feel like Manager should be the next step soon. I’m currently at $122k, which already feels pretty high for a Senior (definitely not complaining about it) so I’m wondering how much of a raise I could realistically expect with a promotion. For those who went from Senior to Manager, what was your salary before and after the promotion? Also curious what percentage increase you received. submitted by /u/Straight-Mud-1150 [link] [comments]”
“Thankfully I have a stable job, at least for a while, but I’m already planning my next move. I got at least 30 years until I retire and it’s hard to see a path where i stay employed and progress my career in this industry when job openings are drying up and salaries are stagnating due to devs competing for the available positions”
“26% increase for potentially 17% of the year being slower. Say your hours are half of what they usually are in December/January in current job, that’s ~9% of the year you’re not working. Take the job if you’re good at budgeting. You’ll never say ‘I wish I worked more’ on your deathbed.”
“Yeah, that’s honestly one of my concerns. I’m not sure if making the move right before the slow season is the smartest timing, especially if the hours aren’t guaranteed. But what really motivates me is the long-term increase in pay once the slow season is over.”
“I would take the new job and keep the old job. Try to finagle the schedules to keep the both. I almost always had 2 jobs during my career.”
“If you’re talking 40 hrs a week, that’s roughly an extra $800 a month after taxes. Pretty substantial and could help cushion the slower months, but I think you need to know how much slower they are and what that would mean for your paycheck. If it means your paychecks are 10% smaller than usual, you’d still be coming out ahead of where you are now.”
“Do the math. Calculate a year at your current job vs 10 months at the other job. Also factor in vested retirement and all you will be losing if leave. Look into taking one as part time to keep connectivity just to keep options open. Present your current job with the new job offer and see if they can match or get close to it.”
“If you won't get hours in Dec and Jan then the increase is almost counterbalanced, but maybe you could make it up elsewhere? If it was similar hours and you asked around and the new place was a decent workplace, I'd jump.”
“Different companies. Different industries. Different skill levels. Different pay.”
“Hey all, I work at a temp agency. I've been there for a while. The company I work at is a long-term contract, and I'm on month 6 of about 12. I work for Robert Half, and I don't like working for them. It's difficult that I don't get benefits, but I'm treated like a full-time employee. The role is long-term, so that bothers me even more. I get health insurance benefits, but that's only because of ACA, and I get Sick-and-Safe, but that's because my state allows it.”
“How many of you are doing work on the side? I'm hearing of it more and more often from friends and coworkers. It seems regardless of effort jobs are giving poor raises so alot more people people are just doing the bare minimum at work then doing a few return in their own personal time. submitted by /u/Unhappy-Fennel-2862 [link] [comments]”
“10 people that don’t know or barely know how to do the job is less valuable than 1 person that does it properly”
“I’m also in this boat. If I take any kind of new title, my job will automatically transfer to hybrid. IMO, if you are still receiving raises and the pay/benefits are better than what you can get in person/not worth the trade off to go in person, just keep the job. You can always look for a different remote role in the meantime if you want.”
“So I currently have 2 part time jobs. My first job pays me 38.69 hourly with 14% in lieu of benefits bringing me to 44.14 hourly My second job pays me 30hourly with no benefits, no in lieu pay and at the time of hire they didn’t inform me I would be an “independent contractor” so instead of receiving a tax refund like my first job I would have to pay back 25-30% of my income. Plus I have to get insurance since I’m independent and liable so I pay 20$ monthly to be able to work. That was rough to”
“its one of those "always keep your resume up to date" jobs, because one day, whole business going BOOM, from all this mess, and there goes your paycheck. its easily the type of place where you'll NEVER convince them to spend anything to upgrade anything because "eh, its still working". IF you really want to convince them they need to invest SOME money, probably best tack would be "without it, you risk your entire business" type lines.”
“Exactly...an economy minting new trillionaires and billionaires...while most of us are being left way behind..”
“Is the salary so low because it all goes to paying off debts? The taxes we pay are just too high.....Is the point of working to pay off the country's debts? I quit! submitted by /u/AvailableChoice3130 [link] [comments]”
“Do you get treated better at lower or higher wage jobs? I know it varies but in general. submitted by /u/Solid-Mood9571 [link] [comments]”
“It's not a shot when it changed that early for us. I took a 60% pay cut from age 20 to 23 because the bottom fell out of my industry. Shit, I have like 10 previous employers that don't even exist anymore. And yes, you're right that it's worse now. Unfortunately for me, the people about 8 years older were in a safer spot since they had enough time to move up at their companies.”
“Crazy how employees are fine getting more responsibilities and automating themselves out of their jobs for no increase in pay. How are people so blind?”
“I have to spend the first 30 to 45 minutes of my morning shift cleaning up after yesterday's staff, which is why I got an extra hour added to my schedule. Why? I told my boss he is literally paying me 5 extra hours a week, sometimes overtime, to wipe other people's asses. submitted by /u/ProserpinaFC [link] [comments]”
“I be seeing people post they offers and be jealous. I havent seen anything above 70 in so long and i really just started a couple months ago at first it was a 100 here 90 there now this all i see. i hate it here submitted by /u/Jodeciovo1942 [link] [comments]”
“I asked people the other week how many hours they actually worked a week. This has given me some numbers to math out. Some people said they worked as little as 36 and others said they worked over 70. I think an average is about 60-70hrs. Someone said they made $48k their first year. People claiming to make six figures. Well, 70hrs a week for $48k and then $100k are $13.19hr and $27.47hr. I know there is a good handful of people that make hourly and Union, but they seem to be the minority. I gues”
“my last post on here i was mentally crashing out about how this industry is taking a toll on me. bc of how tough the current job market is, i’ve decided to stay w/ my current company and stick it out for a bit longer. tomorrow, i’ll be having a discussion with my regional manager about a potential raise and title change. i am currently a leasing agent and get paid $23hr w/ $100 commission per move in. i was looking to ask for $28 and leave any room for negotiation. i would also like to get a tit”
“My firm did not even give us brownies. We just got more work that was extended into the summer months and told to be grateful.”
“Still pretty new to TQL, but I have been plotting my departure since I found out about the non-compete thing. I'm currently only in Week 7, and I'm kinda on the brink with the company. I just want to know those who have left. What did you do? Where did you go? submitted by /u/Main-Unit-6547 [link] [comments]”
“I feel like most people are gonna tell you to jump if you don't like it, but work usually sucks these days. It's rare to find that perfect job anymore. Healthcare is just changing. I'm more of a "work to live" instead of a "live to work" type of guy. Find happiness outside of work and the job won't be as bad. I feel like jobs are harder to come by, even as nurses, so definitely weigh the pros and cons before you make the leap.”
“Fair on both counts. FUTA and SUTA are a small slice next to FICA and benefits, and I shouldn't have led with them. And 45% was one illustration, not a rule, your 30 to 55% range is the honest way to put it. The front-loading worth modelling isn't the tax side anyway, it's that the early months pay full cost for partial output. Equipment, training time and ramp all land in the same weeks the person is least productive. Same conclusion, better reason.”
“The sign for me wasn't a feeling, it was math. When I was turning down more than about a day of booked work a week, and I could still cover that person's pay for two slow weeks out of float, that was the time. First hire usually costs you take-home for a few months because you're buying capacity and training, not profit. Put them on the jobs you already know how to quote and finish, keep sales and the weird ones yourself, and set a clear go/no-go date at 90 days. If you can't wri”
“I work for a State agency. Each year we get this email. They compare our compensation with other similar government agencies throughout the area. They have it down pat I'll give them that! So long as someone doesn't stick their head up and give their employees a raise, then no one else needs to in order to "align". BS. submitted by /u/Al_Kydah [link] [comments]”
“I’d be going down 3 dollars in pay which after taxes for me is around $1600-1700 every two weeks. How did you calculate this? Your amount seems really off, but maybe I'm missing something.”
“Forget not keeping up with inflation (The pay has never been able to keep up with inflation lol... I get paid less now on my 7th year than my corporate starting base salary out of college) Im literally making less per check this year versus last year because the monthly insurance contribution went up more than the raise... They also gave me three new preps on top of the 2 I already had. (Last year I had 3 preps, they took one of the easy ones away and gave it to some new nepo hire teacher) So th”
“Thanks all — sounds like the consensus is: don't use a flat %, itemize it (payroll tax, UI, workers' comp, benefits, tools, training time), and 20-30% above salary is a reasonable range once benefits are modest. A couple people also mentioned thinking in terms of cost per productive hour rather than per year, which after backing out PTO/holidays/ramp-up pushes the effective number higher than it looks on paper. Appreciate the input, way more useful than a flat "add 25%."”
“Corporations don’t want employees that challenge their managers. They want worker bees, generally speaking. Also, most workers don’t want risk. Without penalties, such a system wouldn’t work because there would be no downside to taking risk for the employee. Besides, performance bonuses and commission based pay exist.”
“I worked for the same company for over 10 years, always a high performer, always the max raise. I was given so many opportunities to which I’m thankful but the pay never matched the job title because I was an internal hire. Last year I was laid off from my role, went to school, did some part time work to fill the time. I got an offer last week for a JUNIOR role doing what I did previously yet the pay difference is + $15k. The kicker, my old company has a different much higher paying role than be”
“I recently completed another qualification related to the work I already do. It took time, money, assignments, stress, studying after work, and basically giving up a chunk of my free time because I thought improving my qualifications would eventually improve my career too. My salary increase after completing it? About $50 a month. And I think that’s what has finally started changing the way I look at work. Employers constantly talk about professional development. Keep learning. Improve your skil”
“Raises (effective October 1) are starting to be communicated verbally to people in the offices. Provide in your comment: Location: Service Line: Old Base Salary: New Base Salary: Performance rating: Old Position: New Position: Thoughts: submitted by /u/Amknss [link] [comments]”
“Stop hiring a second permanent team for a six-week hill. Keep a small year-round core that already knows the returns policy, and buy the peak as overflow, not as new employees. The overflow has to be trained before the hill, not during it. Record the returns policy as a short written playbook with the twenty cases that create 80 percent of tickets, and run that playbook with the overflow vendor or a returning seasonal bench in September. If a vendor cannot pass a test on those twenty cases, they”
“ive had my job over 10 years.. the current boss took over about four years ago (instantly got promoted to dept head after a few months) and 14 people have either quit, retired early, or left for whatever reason… I’ve been here longer than anyone at this point and I’m the only one at my job with children and I am between 15 to 30 years older- than all of the people I work with and I’m really not that old… The current boss doesn’t really know what she is doing at least if it’s something she doesn’”
“This is exactly what's happening with our company currently. For the first time in 12 years we've hired two new IT staff (to replace the one that is has been there for 26 years and is retiring). Company mandates KPIs for other departments but IT has been in a grey area/nebulous space, but we got a new manager that came from a department where they implemented KPIs heavily. The main problem is they're in a director role now and not actually IT but is our direct manager, so they're”
“Where I am, it is not a livable wage ($14/hr, all breaks unpaid) so it attracts people who don’t NEED the job (since it’s not enough to live on) and are just working for extra funds (sometimes people who mainly rely on their spouse’s income, but more often really young fresh out of HS or in-college kids who can’t be bothered and don’t have any real bills). The mindset is often “If I get fired, I get fired, and I can almost always find something that pays more.” Paras should be paid as profession”