I work as a contract technical writer. For those who don’t know what that means, I get hired usually for a specific project and when the project ends, so does my employment. Only, sometimes my employment can end very suddenly, like if funding for the project suddenly dries up. I’ve been on a job that was supposed to last 6 months and after 2 months, someone walked through the office and told us to leave. The job was over.

Well it just so happens that at that particular job, on the same day that we were let go, the agency that I was working through (they generate your pay check and take your tax deductions and take a bit off of what they charge the employer for your services) called me and had another job lined up several states away and I needed to be there tomorrow. Tickets were at the airport in my name.

Turned out to be one of the most challenging jobs I ever worked on. It was supposed to be a 6 month gig and turned into 2 and half years. The pay was great, but the location really sucked. It was the middle of Bumf*ck, USA. After a few months it became apparent that it would be a longer haul and I was able to send for my family.

Everything was great. I had a “boss” from the agency who flew in once a week to attend the project meeting. This guy didn’t have a clue what was going on. He’d visit me and I’d give him a brief on where we were and he’d go to the meeting with all the big wigs (big gov’t project, lots of ‘stakeholders’). After a few weeks things became too complicated for a simple brief, so he started taking me to the meetings. Questions would come his way and it was obvious that I was the one answering all the questions. A few more weeks and the questions would be posed directly to me.

Now, this “boss” had a sweet deal. He lived on the other side of the country and he flew in WEEKLY for these meetings. Usually, he’d arrive on a Tuesday, the meeting was on Wednesday, and he’d fly out on Thursday. The gov’t contract paid for all these trips and he racked up miles and miles of points. He had NO clue about the technical details that I dealt with, but he was there to take the credit. I really didn’t care because I was making good money and doing something I liked. However, I did miss home and really wanted to get back there.

I’ll mention that this was in the early 90s. The internet was in its infancy and most people had not yet heard of it at all. I used it in my job to communicate with the stakeholders who were all over the country. I was using gopher and ftp and logging into servers all over to drop files and pick up files. It occurred to me that HEY, I can do this job from home and maybe just come to site once a month or so.

I brought it up to my boss and he seemed really into it. He said he’d work on it. I kept asking about it on his visits and he just kept telling me that he was still “working on it.”

Well, not long afterwards, the overall project manager came to me. Long story short he told me that my agency was planning to change my contract terms. They wanted me to be considered “local” so that they would no longer need to pay my living expenses and per diem (which amounted to a large part of my income). They also planned to reduce my rate and stop paying time and a half for overtime (and i worked a lot of overtime). The PM said “we know that you’re the one with all the technical knowledge. Go find yourself another agency and we’ll hire you through them at whatever terms you think are fair.” I mentioned the remote work option to him but he wanted me on site, and it was still too early to know if that would actually work well.

Well I went into town to a local job shop, told them the deal and they drew up the contract and I had it signed the next day. Got my self and co-workers a nice rate increase, overtime, and per diem guarantees, etc, etc.

Next day I get a call from my “boss.” He wanted to tell me that the contract was over and that yesterday was the last day I would get paid for. I said, “I know. My team has a new contract because the PM said he doesn’t need to pay you to fly out here every week for nothing.” I could hear his jaw hit the floor. “BTW, I know you were planning to change my contract and screw me out of what’s owed to me.” LOL. All I heard after that was a lot of mf’ing and screaming. Work really started to dry up after that. I hope he was able to pay his bills with all those air miles.

When the project ended a year later, the PM came to me again and offered me a permanent position with the title of Sr. Engineer (I wouldn’t finish my BS degree for another 4 years). I was flattered but eager to get back home and away from Bumf*ck. The best part though, was not letting that a-hole “boss” get the best of me.

wow. this was a long story. I’ll probably get a lot of TL;DR comments, but it was fun putting it down in words.