Monday, 17 January 2005

Personal

Leap of faith

A friend I used to work with resigned just before Christmas. He's back at work today. Back, not as a full-time employee, but as a long-term contractor.

This is the IT leap of faith. Resign then be re-employed - typically with better reward.

It breeds resentment and demoralisation, but it still goes on. I can only guess that companies consider the financial benefits sufficient to balance the risk of alienating the remaining permanent staff. A few years ago scarcely a week would go by without someone taking the leap. Its occurrence is far less frequent now, but it's interesting to note that it still works.

One day someone will jump and not make the other side. That's the day permanent employees are looking to. Or perhaps sometime the political mood will shift and contractor staff will start to take the reverse jump.

But until then, every new body gathered on the far side adds more weight to the suspicion that the employer/employee relationship within IT may soon be gone for good.

Posted by pab at 22:56 | Comments will be back later in the year. Please email me instead!