Re: Companys you may not want to subcontract

["Bob La Londe" <none@xxxxxxxx>]

"Just Looking" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:h4CdnWskzM_gJ-LSnZ2dnUVZ_rudnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> By larger security companies not paying their subcontractors, I think it
> is easy to see them all in a negative light, especially if that company is
> the only large customer you have; you're tempted to see it as a one off
> event. In that light only, those companies then seem to have the moral
> compass of plague filled vermin, are are to be avoided.

As a large entity where many things are compartmentalized for efficiency its
clear that they do not have a moral compass except where dictated by law.
Even then its quite often offset by what they can get away with or if they
can shift accountability to others.  How many times have you heard, "I'm
sorry.  I agree, but its company policy?" as an excuse for getting screwed
from some middle management type or even from a scripted nobody.  The
response should always be the same to those:

"You work there and you know it.  That makes you just as guilty as the
hidden evil bean counter who enacted that immoral policy.  You should quit."

Only by magnitude is it any better than committing genocide because you are
"following orders."

> I see it differently. I think larger companies always manage their short
> term cash flow issues on the backs of their smaller vendors, no matter
> what the industry (except some governmental entity such as

Yeah...  and to the small contractor its effectively the same thing.

My policy works better for me.  Do good quality work.  Be honest with my
customers.  Get paid well for it.  Have a progressive payment policy.
Refuse any work for any customer who has any amount past due.  Do not
subcontract for somebody you don't know personally, and then stick to your
payment policies firmly.  And always, always, always, tell out of town
companies that if they can't support their clients in my home town directly
then they shouldn't do business here.  I am sure as hell not going to fix
their problems for them and take my attention away from the customers who
have supported me and my family for the last 18 years.  I may not get rich,
but my bills get paid, and even if sometimes I struggle with that sometimes
I don't ever feel slimy from what I had to do at work.

To be honest contracting is such a sleazy unethical business, and big
businesses are so universally amoral that I wish I could just withdraw...

Fortunately I do have a fair number of customers who appreciate the way I do
business.  Those are the ones who make it worth keeping the doors open
instead of just swiping a used refrigerator box and moving down to the
river.