Tired of broken promises, one woman develops a culture based on trust.
Have you ever worked in a profession with a huge shortage of qualified personnel? Because I have, I can tell you prospective employers promise you the sun and the moon and the stars to get you on board. Keeping those promises is not high on their priority list.
There was never a time when the company could spare me for the promised four-week vacation. Instead, there were 60 to 80-hour workweeks to meet impossible deadlines. The comp time I accumulated could never be used because of those same deadlines. Finally, the project was completed. Time to relax and celebrate? Absolutely not. If the company had another project, the cycle started all over. If not, well, it takes a lot less people to maintain a product than to develop it, so there were mass layoffs,
Many of us, me included, became so jaded that we refused to take a job. Instead, we turned to contract work. We made higher hourly rates and were paid for every hour we worked, but only for those hours we worked. The tradeoff was worth it. A side benefit was that the client thought twice about long hours when they were paying for it. Still, there were drawbacks.
We wondered if others were getting paid more for the same work. We also knew our needs and professional growth were unimportant to the agencies.. Their allegiance was solely to the client. Also, the work was uneven. Peak times when there was more work than I could handle were followed by weeks of forced unemployment. I could never plan my time off or make the most of it due to the uncertainty of future pay.
I decided to get around this by starting a consulting company. Contracts were easy to find; senior-level employees were not. I was competeng with companies that had a lot of money to throw around. They were offering sign on bonus, company meetings in resort areas, and matching IRAs to name a few promised benefits. I had managed to pull together a used refrigerator and new microwave for the ‘eating area’. But I did have one advantage over the prestigious, big money companies - I was an engineer, I spoke their language, and understood them.
I was completely transparent. I told them I would pay everyone a set percentage of their billing rate and, whenever possible,I would walk away from unrealistic deadlines. I also told them I would let them know upfront if a steady client was in a bind and I felt compelled to take on an assignment with an ambitious deadline. I said keeping their skills current was important to my company and I was in a position to go after interesting, challenging contracts, but again, there were times when I would take crappy contracts because client retention was also important. Everyone had to control their own skill development - and there would be no hard feelings if anyone left rather than work on a dead-end project. I ended my recruitment spiel by saying there were no guarantees I would find another contract when the current one finished. As much as I wanted to keep us all together, it might not pan out! My exact words were “no promises, no guarantees.”
The first time I nervously stuttered out my job offer, I was shocked when the man sitting opposite me smiled said it was refreshing, and he would think about it. Of course, not everyone accepted my offer but enough did so i had my dream team. We became a tight-knit work family and my guys would frequently say “no promises, no guarantees” when asked to take on a risky project.
As I look back over my engineering years, I realize I benefited most from others’ broken promises. Not only did I build a successful company, but I learned that transparency builds trust, trust can overcome many disadvantages, and sometimes, the best promise is no promise at all.
I like how you begin your story with examples of what fed your discontent and why. Then the progression through to the solution reads like a road map for others to follow. Very well done.
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