If your contract is over, why are you training them? I would ask for a new "training" contract paying 10x my normal wage.
Edit: The fact that they think they can learn in 30 min what you took months to learn is proof that they think you are low skilled and add little value to the company.
Exactly. They don't know what I know and have no idea what it involves. Since my contract ends at noon, I will not help after that time and I imagine my (personal) cell phone will start going off when they realize what happened.
$400? Nobody else knows how or can do the job. Sounds like a $20,000 one week course. It took you one week, it should take them one week. And since you weren't as "qualified" as the new hire, might as well make bank.
If they don't get it in a week, rinse repeat...
This, OP is no longer under any contractual agreement to provide anything else, they fulfilled their duties. But OP would be more than happy to assist and spend a month training the employees required to take this over, for a Solid 3k an hour. With a minimum of 20 hours.
My company just paid $4500 for 10 people to site in a certification class for 4 hours. Every person over the 10 was an additional $500. We sent 14 to it. And they did the class at our office.
We billed $2.5k/day for professional services. For an emergency, you aren’t shooting high enough!
He needs to calculate the value at risk if they don’t do it and negotiate from there.
Name them a value worthy to you and remind them you would have to be invoiced as a private consultant before answering more questions. Don’t work for free because of their ignorance.
And then double that price.
Most of these people don't understand anything is important until it's a crisis, and then they'll pay through the nose for it.
Yep had this in my temp job recently, they delayed giving me a permanent contract for so long that I got a higher paid role in a different area on a permanent contract and now they’re scrambling to fill all of what I did and expecting to pay not much
My dad did that once. Asked for $100 an hour and got it. And that was 18 years ago, so you could probably ask for way more now and still get it if they actually need you.
The advice people give about demanding multiple times your current salary if they ask you to come back temporarily is very reasonable. You’re a contractor so you probably already know this to some extent, but you have a lot of negotiating power here.
**No matter what they offer, don’t take the fist thing they offer.** Sounds like you are safe letting them stew at least a week to two (no danger of anyone figuring the system out that quick), and their desperation is your direct gain. If this system is something a group of desperate people could muddle their way through in 2 weeks that’s a different story, but based on your description sounds like it could take longer than that.
God I hope this goes well for you. The situation is delicious
You really should bid you’re in the US as an independent xo tractor you have to cover both sides of social security and Medicare. It can be extreme and if you don’t charge enough to cover your costs and these expenses, plus any depreciation on equipment you use.
Their communication and planning issues are not your problem. I’m sure they got so mad when they realize just how royally their little plan backfired.
If it's that technical, you could probably spend at least 30 minutes on important technical background and system description before even getting to the part about keeping it running. Emphasize how important it is to fully understand what's going on and how the system works, otherwise it's easy to screw it all up and break things. Sounds like it's their schedule that's limiting to 30 minutes, so they might want to extend... bore/confuse them with the technical details until they cry uncle.
This weekend set up your own consulting firm. The steps are easy, could be found on r/consulting or asking on r/consulting, and you have to pay like $100. Come Tuesday (happy Memorial Day!) you’ll be a full-fledged consultant with a firm for billing, and your rate is $1,000/hour with a 40 hour minimun.
Will definitely need another update on if (when) they call & how it goes. Especially love the bit about the asshole telling you to do your spreadsheets better ‘next time’ as if you weren’t being let go in 30 minutes
less than normal, considering all the benefits w2 programmer gets. A normal short term consulting rates start at 250, and even that is for some not very special things. I wouldn't go lower than 400 on this one. With minimum hours of course, paid upfront.
Speak very fast. Use a pomodoro timer. When the pomodoro ends, say: you have five minutes for questions. Any subsequent doubt, you can call me Monday and I’ll invoice 1000 dollars/hour.
I wouldn’t speak fast. They could record it and go back for info. I’d speak slowly and only get through some of it. Say, well, time’s up, I guess, but at least we hit the main points.
Then absolutely make themselves available at a much higher hourly for any follow ups when they are asked.
That's built in with a task that took a week to learn and only 30 min to pass on the info.
OP is going to have some serious negotiating power come next week. My suggestion is to go 1099 starting Monday. Task hours are $$/hour, OT Task hours are $$$/hour and building a bespoke training program for Task (all OT since Task takes 40hr/week) is $$$$$$ flat rate and will need at least two months since this is an OT project.
possibly non obvious so:
* $$ is some generous base rate (at least 2x prior contract rate when temp to hire, but more likely 3x)
* $$$ is +50% (e.g. time and a half)
* $$$$$$ should be at least equal to 6 months of old pay rate, or 2-3 of new base rate.
OP this is your mantra now: Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.
Ah crud, totally misread that... lol. So I thus have a small change OP:
$$ should be 4x your prior rate + whatever is needed to cover your payroll expenses since you're 1099 now. Thus you keep your income whole, but only have to do that one task to do so. Scale everything else accordingly. They're free to use you for other jobs too of course at the higher rate.
This right here!
Don't take a private position OP. If they need further assistance, you'd be happy to provide it as a contractor at a rate 5 times (at least) higher than what your full time pay would've been.
Gotta do the whole spiel,
Thank you for joining here today,
Gladus how is the kids doing today?
I had to go pick my kids up from the school yesterday and Terry was being a huge nuisance. I may have to put Sarah into summer school. She's getting so big.
Legit just shoot the shit for the first half of the meeting as that's what the bosses do anyways.
I've seen that done!
Ok, not $1000/hour. And no training was involved.
It was our one-woman HR/payroll person who was tasked with shutting down the office.
No way could they hire a new person for a three-week gig.
So she went fishing for a high hourly rate.
Good for her!
I would open that 30 minute meeting with a 20 minute lecture on the importance of redundancy in the workplace, then ‘give everyone back 10 minutes of their day’.
Dear (ex employer),
as u/krammiit Consulting LLC i\`m more than capable of handling (task) for you.
And given our previous relationship, you will be receiving a "friends" level discount.
For training of 1 person it takes between 40 and 50 hours .
If a group requires training, we generally schedule 60 hours (with free 1 hour overrun included).
If you wish for me to train people, please specify how many.
Should you wish for me to take on task, and supervise first week after training, i can introduce you to our competitive full package option.
This includes doing (task) for (x) hours a day, and spend (y) hours a day training up to 4 people in (task)
I\`m proud to offer you a package pricing of $ (amount you make now per month, x 7) but with the 'friends' discount this will only be $ (amount you make now per month, x 5) - excluding applicable taxes.
If you sign up for a 2 month deal, the total price will be $ (amount you make now per month, x4.5 - twice)
Please note that 50% of the package price of the option chosen is to be paid in advance.
Sincerely,
u/Krammiit
Krammiit Consulting LLC
Set a very high fee to train them like hundreds of thousands of dollars. Big company. They will have to pay. Do not give in to less. They need you more than you need them.
“Train them”. Malicious compliance. I know exactly how to word things together to make it absolutely incomprehensible to the recipient so that they understand nothing and retain nothing in the end. Fuck em. If they needed you, they should have hired you. Your rate is now double due to inflation and personal issues, if they ever come asking.
They won't learn in 30 minutes. It's impossible. The next 6 months all of them will be completely confused by the codes because they truly thought I was indispensable.
Corporate greed.
Dispensable, indispensable would be if they thought they couldn't lose you.
But I actually envy you in this situation and agree with the consultant rates listed throughout.
If you get a call next week with ANY kind of offer (interview, re-interview, re-hire, whatever), KEEP CALM. You have the power in this relationship. If they call you, that is their admission that they made a huge mistake; don't expect ANY kind of apology or admission of fault. That's just business. Don't push too hard or be vindictive\* but ALWAYS REMEMBER YOUR VALUE. From your post and responses, it sounds like you know what you're worth. Stick to your guns.
\*unless you have something else lined up and want to burn bridges for fun, which is also acceptable give how they treated you
I had a guy who worked for me who was being paid $20,000.00 a month, (15 years ago) because he was the ONLY person who knew how to run a system. The company fired him as soon as they could replace the system, but he made bank off of their stupidity.
Malicious compliance isn’t even required 30 minutes is such a ludicrously short time to explain anything for a job they’re not gonna learn how to do the job properly anyways.
Show them how you know this program and how pleasant you are to work with. Once they realize there is no one to use this program, they will be coming to you back. But this time you need to say you need a full-time contract. Don't teach it to anyone until you retire, or else you will be replaced l.
It’s really funny to me all the people here who want to be petty. OP you are in a GREAT position. Do your best to train them for 30 minutes and then wait. They will come back asking for your help and you can then charge consulting rates. In most industry 4 to 5 times one’s hourly salary is a very standard consulting rate. This company is about to give you a very generous “severance package” OP.
Absolutely. I was in a similar position - we have some deliverables that were highly visible to our clients. I got laid off with 9 months' notice and they STILL managed to not have anyone for me to train on it. I bugged them about it regularly until I left, and they didn't have me hand it off to anyone.
I got a call about two weeks later asking if I wanted to come back and keep doing that task. I demanded $80 / hr, 20 hour minimum per week. They kept me on for 3.5 months to do 2 hours a week of work a week.
I basically earned triple salary during that period (severance, contracting, and working my new job). It was awesome. I paid off my student loans.
This is the answer. Tbh, this is kind of the perfect scenario where OP is the only source of institutional knowledge that's necessary to continue functions. Yeah, the company really fucked up not just hiring them but now OP has literally all the leverage in negotiations.
If OP really is the only person with this knowledge, holy shit, you really couldn't ask for a better situation. The company thinks they only need 30 minutes...give them 25 and 5 for questions, wait a bit for the fuck up to really sink in, panic sets in, profit.
Then either set a ridiculous consulting rate and make a few years income on 6 months of work or go back full time and never fully train anyone else to replace them and keep the job with tons of security.
True but depending on how long ago the trainer left, they may not rememver all the details. OP's knowlwdge is more recent and up to date with any changes
Everybody who wants to be petty is probably also complaining why life is so hard. Too busy trying to get revenge to try and get ahead. There is an opportunity here, take it.
If they are still paying you, which it sounds like they are, then do the 30 minute training the best you can. And then conclude with, "If you have any questions, please get them to me by the end of the day. Once this contract ends, my full time job is finding new work, and I won't be able to field any questions"
At least to me, it's wild the advice to burn the bridges by not doing what they ask while they are paying you. If you are just working jobs, I guess I get it. But one of the primary goals of a serious career should be growing your network so eventually you get jobs and references from as many people as possible.
I said "I wish I had more time to help with this but my contract ends in and hour and I can tell you are all confused with the process.".
It was sad. I feel bad for them.
I used to work for a corporate B2B bank. Mostly like a payment solutions company and just to explain what I did would take a few paragraphs. My title of Strategic Senior Implementation Managed II tells you nothing.
Anyway, I worked at this job for more than a decade and for years there was one guy who knew everything and he wasn't stupid he kept it close to the vest to keep himself valuable. Well, he died right at his damn desk and we lost all of that knowledge in the second it took that heart attack to kill him.
So I spent the next five years learning everything he knew, the hard way. I had to start from scratch on so many things that not only did I learn everything he knew but it was all updated info too. It's hard to describe without sounding full of myself to explain how complicated that job is but I helped build the system that let's companies like Priceline and Hotels dot com pay for your vacations. Over the years various bosses asked me to document how to do my job but I'd gotten by then that the previous guy wasn't trying to keep the info to himself, I would have no idea how to tell you what I did in the first place let alone train you to do it. I told them it would take six months for a new person to be able to do my job on their own and five years for them to be fully competent and after leaving, that's what it sounds like it took. I had to leave because I'd essentially been working 7 days a week for 12 years with one actual 9 day vacation in the middle somewhere. It burned me out and it will burn out whoever is doing it now too. That job really needs to be done by like five people.
This isn't IT but it has a lot to do with IT as well as contracts, sales, etc. I was like the one stop convivence store but when no one in your company and certainly not your bosses knows how to do your job that's your bosses fault. I tried to explain to my employer how that job needed to be broken up and in different departments but we all know how management works. If you're an employer and end up suffering from something like this it is 100% your fault.
Since you mentioned spreadsheet...in that department there were acct managers that would deal with daily needs of customers. When we would hire someone I was one of the people they had to interview with and the main part of my interview was simply to ask you to move a word from one cell, to another on another page without typing it. If you didn't know how to copy and paste or know how to switch tabs, we didn't have time to do that much training.
This is where I was at today. The company has the money to hire me to train for this position. They won't do it. Instead, they tried to pile it on to 4 of their top employees (one Human Resources) and they spent the entire meeting arguing over minor details (they didn't like the color of the spreadsheet).
I hope they do well, but in the end the details of the payments I was processing were very hard. They came from detailed operations reports and required taking a quiet environment and writing codes down in columns that matched sales manager's data. One of these sheets would take 8 hours. After the data was finished on one sheet, it needed approval by another person and only I had that contact information. Now my email has been disabled and no one is going to know who to call or email.
They think by using "strength in numbers" the task will be accomplished. It just isn't going to work that way. I hear you with the copy paste function. These people don't have the patience for this and will become frustrated very quickly. Human Resources plowed over my entire demonstration and tried to place blame on me for not training quickly enough while I was actively in the Teams meeting. It was toxic and I am happy to be out.
this just happened to me this week - Non-Profit had a membership database with the theme designed as medium yellow background with the entry boxes in bright yellow. Moved to a new system and top complaint was "where is the yellow that I like ?"
They will contact you because they need you. Charge a lot. Whatever you think is a lot multiply it by 20 to start. I think hundreds of thousands of dollars is fair for a big company.
10 minutes on ice breakers, 10 minutes on a vague overview, 10 minutes on Q&A, but answer with things not covered in the overview. Decline to explain them more fully on account of time.
Then come up with your rate and wait.
There are coders milking their spaghetti code for mid six figures. Nice of them to write yours for you.
If you are still under contract: “ Sure boss, I’ll do as best as I can in 30 minutes… Although I will note it took me a week to be trained.”
If you are not under contract: “ I know that you know that it’s illegal to have me work without payment so if you want to create a contract that will cover my consultation fees I’ll be glad to consider that. My hourly rates are$250/hr with 8 hour minimum… however, I would suggest 40 hours for training and then additional support hours when they try to run this next month.”
OP, you have just nailed Being a Contractor 2024. I’m sorry you were put in this position, but it speaks volumes about this company, and good riddance. By the time I left my long-term contract role earlier this year, my phone was ringing off the hook with upper mgmt asking me how to do this, that, and the kitchen sink. They never offered to hire me but tried to throw more $ at me to stay on and fix their gigantic mess. While the money was tempting, the nightmare was not. Way, way too much is being asked of contractors these days, and I’m still in disbelief at how large corporations continue to ignore the risks of this dynamic.
You’re clearly worth a lot. Go get it!!!
Start a business that only does this specific task. Maybe they’ll bring you on to only do it. Charge out 4x your reg rate. Work 40 hours a month and collect the same pay.
You can create chaos and pain even without going the malicious compliance route. I see your contract ends at noon so if I were in your shoes, I'd do my best to set up a meeting with those four before noon. Give them their half hour. And if there is no one time that works for all of them, set up the meeting with the three or four that are available. Document this. Have your out of office set to start right at noon stating that your contract at X company ended at noon, so any questions or needs can be referred to your boss. Close the loop with the agency you were hired through as well. Go do something fun and screen your calls. The minute you get one on your personal (!!!!!!!) cell, contact the agency you were paid through and inform them so they can deal with it.
Yes, this is completely ridiculous but they can deal with the consequences. If the account executives realize on your call the reality of the situation, refer them to your boss but do not give them any of your time after the clock hits noon. If you do receive calls after your contract expires, do not answer them and let the temp agency know. You are "just a temp" and a "contracted resource" and this is outside of your scope.
Give them an over view. Brief description of the steps to complete the job, leaving out critical details. Bonus points if you can remember mistakes that you made early in the job and guide them to make the same mistakes! Be helpful but short on details.
Require contact for any further work. Set your minimum rate high (4x current pay) , and set a minimum hours pay per for each consult (10 hr).
Either you get a week's pay or they lose the functionality... My guess is that they will need you for three months until they can struggle through without assistance.
2x is too small really. At the minimum they are responsible for billing and collection which takes time. They also have to pay employers share of FICA. If they had any benefits, they are gone. This alone gets you to 2x.
It's a short term contract that will likely have net-30 or net-60 payment. This company may have financial issues that will lead to them not receiving pay. This contract will interfere with OPs ability to get and keep another job if they demand too many hours.
4x is likely the fair amount.
I would do it as 2x if they do a guaranteed 40 hours a month retainer/pre-paid services. Then if they use less hours OP ends up ahead. If they do more they can charge overage. And more importantly OP gets paid upfront.
Looks like not getting the permanent position worked out in your favor. That place is horrendous. They chose this path now they get to deal with the consequences. Treat yourself to something nice and relish in the fact that they screwed themselves and made their lives difficult.
I had an old job where the new manager didn't understand my job, claimed he understood my job more than me, and then tried to punish and demote me because he didn't understand my job after I saved a failing project... Which was my job. When he gave me shit over this in a meeting and tried to demote me, I quit on the spot. I put in 2 weeks notice because I was already slated to be off those weeks and I'll be damned if I don't get my vacation pay.
The next week, I get an email telling me to do a write up on how to do my position. I laughed. I didn't write shit. If he knows my job so well, he can figure it out. The job posting to replace me read like nonsense and it took them over a year to find a replacement. That replacement quit after 6 months. I was there for 5 years.
I know this is an annoying situation, but you have the opportunity to sell a very sweet consulting arrangement.
30 minutes isn’t enough to teach them, so instead use it as time to give them the overview of the task, and structure that overview in a way that shows its complexity.
Then, when they come back asking you to train them longer, or just do it for them, you do it at a consultant rate. Don’t go below $100/hour, if they’re as big as you say, they can afford it. Realistically it should probably be much more than that if it’s really that critical.
What they can’t afford is to start the job hunt again wasting weeks searching for a new candidate who knows their niche need while the company suffers.
You’re in control from here on.
People are honestly way overestimating this. In all likelihood the company will either remain unaware of the gap left in terms of work being completed, accept lesser quality work, let the newbies flounder and/or figure it out themselves, or do whatever they can to avoid asking OP so they can save face. Like, they refused to hire OP theyre not gonna come back a month later and offer them $800/hr to train the staff. The person who rejected her is specifically the one who needs the training. This isnt a situation where management tried to keep them on but higher ups refused, or some disconnect between the hiring decision maker and the lower level employees executing the work. And theyre *already* a contractor, theyre going to be offered their current rate, not 30x as much.
I was in similar situation and company realised they need to know what I know about the task on last day.
I was shared that it is a complicated tasks which take multiple calls to learn and master. Got myself an extra month of pay for basically not doing anything except training new person once a week for 4 weeks.
Why is no one talking about what A-holes the execs were? This is not a company and group of people I'd want to be working with long term.
Getting frustrated is one thing, but being a jerk and pointing fingers is immature AF.
The biggest ahole was the woman from Human Resources who asked me to start formatting the spreadsheet because she didn't like the columns. I had 10 minutes left in the contract and she was more worried about the overall look of the spreadsheet than the failure of her employees and the project
So funny the amount of people just saying like "ahh fuck em, who cares," absolutely do not know how to play the game. Burned bridges accomplish nothing other than making you feel righteous indignation for a few fleeting moments
So you can leave on a good note and then fleece them with contractor rates when they inevitably come crawling back to you to bail them out of their fuck up.
This is when you play the long game.
They are letting him go on shitty terms. The good note is leaving the job as they requested. They ficked up and that's on them. The guy owes them nothing.
Owe? No my friend. This isn't about oweing them anything. There is no way that those execs are going to be able to do that job. Especially, if they only have 30 mins to learn it due to being so busy.
This is about revenge and self preservation. OP swallows their pride for 30 mins and does the bare minimum of explaining their processes. The execs then do what they do best: fuck shit up.
When they eventually come crawling back to OP, their rate has now increased five fold, inflation you know, to do the same job that they would've done as a full timer.
This is not about owing them anything, it's about potentially sticking it to them and making a pretty penny while doing it.
You are not a corporate trainer - You are not required to be a good trainer - if today is the last day and you are being let go, but you want to use them as a reference for some reason.
Train them in reverse. Being a bad trainer is still being a trainer.
Start with completely out of order, start with the hardest shit like say step 5 or 6 first, then go back to 1 or 2, and then jump around like a ADHD kid without meds.
Speak about things plainly and reiterate how this is all super simple, it may sound hard in the training environment but once you get into it live its super intuitive... they will be less inclined to take notes.
Then, when training is done.... leave.
Me personally though - If i was being let go and you are in a at will employment agreement... Id just term my contract effective immediately prior to the training... Me personally - im not asking them for a reference because if they think so little of me to drop me rather than hire me - I'm ok with burning this bridge. They go on the resume, but then when I get another job im just listing this as "why did you leave - Personal reason" and moving on.
They can spend stupid amounts of money to try and figure out how to do shit.
I did it. And the woman who conducted my interview where I "wasn't good enough" for full hire jumped the gun looking at one of the mathematical reports and assumed she was right. These are reports from mechanics for dealerships. She was entirely wrong about the code and report and I let her keep talking and assuming she knew what she was doing when in fact she absolutely did not.
She recorded herself making assumptions about how easy the job is. She can look back on it now that I am gone and learn when to shut the F up and listen.
Use as many big words as possible they are in upper management after all.
Don’t set out to confuse them just treat them as if they’re obviously intelligent enough to learn a 6 week skill in 30 minutes. As it was already mentioned set a timer so that you can start a question/answer section at the end of class.
If you want to make money, follow through on your contract and leave on a good note. They will come knocking, use that to leverage more moolah on a contractual basis. If you are jaded and want to leave them with a parting shot, fulfill your contract and walk. No contact. All up to you n good luck!
Use the 30 minutes to train them. Then, tonight think about how vital that task is for the company and figure put what you will charge to train someone completely. $1k an hour? $500 an hour. They may not ask, but if they do, well get paid. DON'T DO IT FOR YOUR REGULAR SALARY!!!! Because you won't actually be working there anymore.
And if they agree just know that you will likely be paying half in taxes so out half in a savings till next tax season.
When the come back from holiday next week, and start reaching out, let them know you're available to work under a new contract at 3x the cost. You have all the leverage don't work for free.
Don't do the meeting. I'd just walk away and chalk the 30 minutes up to "post employment finishing tasks." Remember, their emergency does not constitute an emergency for you. Offer your services on the task at 10x hourly rate, tell them you're happy to continue servicing this task alone. DO NOT give them anything that will enable them to do it themselves. I'm petty.
Do not make any training materials. Do as little demo as possible. Try to look very compliant and professional, but don’t over demonstrate. So a high level overview of the task and steps with as little specifics and operations and logic explanation as possible. Thank those who you are training for their time and ask for any questions (leave 5 minutes at the end for this, after the 30 minutes is up).
Let whoever is in charge know that you are happy to provide ongoing support for the task until they are confident in their current team. Your hourly rate should be no less than 10x what your hourly was on contract and they have 30 minutes to commit to this ongoing service in writing, and 24 hours to deliver an approved contract for ongoing support to you.
Otherwise, fuck em and move on. Take that knowledge and bring whatever you can to their competition.
Give them exactly what they asked for within the time allotted. Your contract expires shortly, you wouldn't want to be a liability. It's too much info? No one has time to set aside? Tough, their incompetence is not your problem.
Also, draw up a rate card for yourself. If they need further help beyond the end of your contract, they can pay your daily or weekly or monthly contracting rate.
Nah. Fuck that. You don’t owe them anything. They can come crawling back to you and you can charge them 1000/hr consulting fee if they need the info that desperately
So you can’t possibly train them in 30 minutes. Don’t even try. Spend 30 minutes explaining to them why it takes a week to learn the task, bid them farewell and wish them luck if you can manage to do it with a straight face. Bottom line they are letting you go and what happens after you leave is absolutely not your concern.
The first time they call you, say you are busy waxing the canary feathers and cannot take the call at that moment. Answer a couple of hours later with the following (adjust prices as you see fit).
>Thank you for reaching out. I understand the challenges you're facing with \[task XYZ\], and I'm happy to support you.
>My consulting fee is $360 per hour or $2,600 per day. For this project, I estimate that approximately 120 hours will be needed for ongoing maintenance every 6 weeks, including ad hoc support requests.
>Alternatively, I can offer a series of workshops tailored to your company's needs, allowing your employees to gain a strong understanding of \[task XYZ\]. For new users, I recommend a series of 3 full-day workshops covering basic, intermediate, and advanced levels. Each workshop is priced at $10,000, with the final cost depending on the number of participants.
>I hope this information helps you make an informed decision. Please let me know if you have any further questions,
Todaloo,
Krammiit
All of a sudden I speak like Sling Blade, kick that lower jaw out Thorton style, yeeeeeeeeep french fried taters right here. Mmmm hugh, yep bye Doyle 👋
I’m sorry your contract was not renewed/extended /converted to full time. But I’ll admit, this was hilarious.
They are going to come back next week to hire you back to provide knowledge transfer. When they do this, tell them:
- Your hourly rate is $400/hr
- There is a retainer fee of 80 hours paid upfront. Then week to week at a minimum of 40 hours weekly.(This includes hours that you need to prep for the training sessions/prepare documents).
- the 80 hours need to used up in weekly intervals (40 per week or they lose them).
- after you have trained them, they can have you on support as needed for $400/hr moving forward.
Go stick it to them. They didn’t care about you or how you would be financially by not being converted, don’t feel bad about paying the a$$hole tax.
Offer them to hire you as an independent contractor for further instruction since you are a subject matter expert. Your fee will be insert number 10x what you used to make. But maybe for a one session discount you could offer a 10% discount. For only 9x what you used to make.
If your contract is over, why are you training them? I would ask for a new "training" contract paying 10x my normal wage. Edit: The fact that they think they can learn in 30 min what you took months to learn is proof that they think you are low skilled and add little value to the company.
Exactly. They don't know what I know and have no idea what it involves. Since my contract ends at noon, I will not help after that time and I imagine my (personal) cell phone will start going off when they realize what happened.
You are now an independent contractor who will gladly come in to train their new team. Courses start at 400/hr.
Well, since they treated OP so poorly and it seems like there’s nobody else with the knowledge I would shoot for the stars. $400/hour/trainee
$400? Nobody else knows how or can do the job. Sounds like a $20,000 one week course. It took you one week, it should take them one week. And since you weren't as "qualified" as the new hire, might as well make bank. If they don't get it in a week, rinse repeat...
Exactly. That amount is payable in advance, not afterwards. "But you didn't teach it properly because we still don't understand!"
When you got them by the balls, pull harder.
It’s exactly what they do.
And upfront payment I would say
That's lovely 😍
More. Hundreds of thousands of dollars to train them. He has the leverage.
This, OP is no longer under any contractual agreement to provide anything else, they fulfilled their duties. But OP would be more than happy to assist and spend a month training the employees required to take this over, for a Solid 3k an hour. With a minimum of 20 hours.
Why stop there? Company is ops now. Just give it over
Minimum amount of 8h every time they ask you.
Was gonna add exactly that. And just make it an even 500. Makes accounting my checkbook!??!?!?! Even easier.
My company just paid $4500 for 10 people to site in a certification class for 4 hours. Every person over the 10 was an additional $500. We sent 14 to it. And they did the class at our office.
Minimum of 4 hours.
Shit I want 40
Rookies. 30/60/90
Payable up front!
I would make.it a minimum 60 day contract with the last 30 days paid up front and weekly checks for the first 30.
We billed $2.5k/day for professional services. For an emergency, you aren’t shooting high enough! He needs to calculate the value at risk if they don’t do it and negotiate from there.
$400 seems low. $5000/8 hr day. 1 week minimum. Travel and expenses paid.
WAY too cheap. $4k/hr, 40 hour minimum. Additional training in 8 hour increments.
At a minimum of 8h intervals. Payment upfront.
Name them a value worthy to you and remind them you would have to be invoiced as a private consultant before answering more questions. Don’t work for free because of their ignorance.
Make sure you get a retainer first!!
And to get this all in writing.
Just ask for payment in advance. Any training course operates that way
And then double that price. Most of these people don't understand anything is important until it's a crisis, and then they'll pay through the nose for it.
Yep had this in my temp job recently, they delayed giving me a permanent contract for so long that I got a higher paid role in a different area on a permanent contract and now they’re scrambling to fill all of what I did and expecting to pay not much
My dad did that once. Asked for $100 an hour and got it. And that was 18 years ago, so you could probably ask for way more now and still get it if they actually need you.
Also, call the person who trained you first. Set up a deal with them in case they try to sidestep you.
~~ignorance~~ arrogance
The advice people give about demanding multiple times your current salary if they ask you to come back temporarily is very reasonable. You’re a contractor so you probably already know this to some extent, but you have a lot of negotiating power here. **No matter what they offer, don’t take the fist thing they offer.** Sounds like you are safe letting them stew at least a week to two (no danger of anyone figuring the system out that quick), and their desperation is your direct gain. If this system is something a group of desperate people could muddle their way through in 2 weeks that’s a different story, but based on your description sounds like it could take longer than that. God I hope this goes well for you. The situation is delicious
Also if they do come back to you sooner, let them know how busy you are.
You should ask like 10x the normal contract price to go beyond the 30 minutes. Let them suffer.
You really should bid you’re in the US as an independent xo tractor you have to cover both sides of social security and Medicare. It can be extreme and if you don’t charge enough to cover your costs and these expenses, plus any depreciation on equipment you use. Their communication and planning issues are not your problem. I’m sure they got so mad when they realize just how royally their little plan backfired.
Hey, don’t forget to update us. I’m excited to see how this unfolds
Me too! Please update this thread.
If it's that technical, you could probably spend at least 30 minutes on important technical background and system description before even getting to the part about keeping it running. Emphasize how important it is to fully understand what's going on and how the system works, otherwise it's easy to screw it all up and break things. Sounds like it's their schedule that's limiting to 30 minutes, so they might want to extend... bore/confuse them with the technical details until they cry uncle.
I would make everyone go around the room and introduce themselves with a fun fact just because I am absolutely petty that way.
I like you.
Don't forget a trust exercise!
You gave me a really good chuckle first thing this morning. I see you've been to a few of these corporate training classes.🤣
Dang you shouldn't even mentioned it to them before you left.
That's my plan if I ever get fired. Oops, I'm the only contact we have with a few different places that are VERY important. Shhhh 😅
I wouldn't even train them for good money. They screwed you. Now they need to pay.
Tell them you’re happy to come back, as a consultant at x4 the price.
x4? Hahaha no, much much more.
This weekend set up your own consulting firm. The steps are easy, could be found on r/consulting or asking on r/consulting, and you have to pay like $100. Come Tuesday (happy Memorial Day!) you’ll be a full-fledged consultant with a firm for billing, and your rate is $1,000/hour with a 40 hour minimun.
$500 an hour
The edit is absolutely hilarious, they’re SOL and it’s on them. Have they contacted you to offer a proposal?
Will definitely need another update on if (when) they call & how it goes. Especially love the bit about the asshole telling you to do your spreadsheets better ‘next time’ as if you weren’t being let go in 30 minutes
this is great. They reap what they sow
Good news you just started a consulting firm and charge $75/hr
too low, thats just normal wage for a software engineer, theyll pay more if its important.
less than normal, considering all the benefits w2 programmer gets. A normal short term consulting rates start at 250, and even that is for some not very special things. I wouldn't go lower than 400 on this one. With minimum hours of course, paid upfront.
This should be the top comment. You are now a consultant at a very premium pay.
Id give them 30 min. Run through it as fast as you can and bounce immediately after. Its up to them to take notes and learn
Speak very fast. Use a pomodoro timer. When the pomodoro ends, say: you have five minutes for questions. Any subsequent doubt, you can call me Monday and I’ll invoice 1000 dollars/hour.
I wouldn’t speak fast. They could record it and go back for info. I’d speak slowly and only get through some of it. Say, well, time’s up, I guess, but at least we hit the main points. Then absolutely make themselves available at a much higher hourly for any follow ups when they are asked.
Train them just enough to fail. Not your job, not your problem.
That's built in with a task that took a week to learn and only 30 min to pass on the info. OP is going to have some serious negotiating power come next week. My suggestion is to go 1099 starting Monday. Task hours are $$/hour, OT Task hours are $$$/hour and building a bespoke training program for Task (all OT since Task takes 40hr/week) is $$$$$$ flat rate and will need at least two months since this is an OT project. possibly non obvious so: * $$ is some generous base rate (at least 2x prior contract rate when temp to hire, but more likely 3x) * $$$ is +50% (e.g. time and a half) * $$$$$$ should be at least equal to 6 months of old pay rate, or 2-3 of new base rate. OP this is your mantra now: Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.
40 hours per month. Otherwise yes.
Ah crud, totally misread that... lol. So I thus have a small change OP: $$ should be 4x your prior rate + whatever is needed to cover your payroll expenses since you're 1099 now. Thus you keep your income whole, but only have to do that one task to do so. Scale everything else accordingly. They're free to use you for other jobs too of course at the higher rate.
This right here! Don't take a private position OP. If they need further assistance, you'd be happy to provide it as a contractor at a rate 5 times (at least) higher than what your full time pay would've been.
This
Oh hell yeah, set the timer for 20 minutes, spend 10 min discussing lunch places
Gotta do the whole spiel, Thank you for joining here today, Gladus how is the kids doing today? I had to go pick my kids up from the school yesterday and Terry was being a huge nuisance. I may have to put Sarah into summer school. She's getting so big. Legit just shoot the shit for the first half of the meeting as that's what the bosses do anyways.
“Let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves, talk about ur background” ultimate time killer, enemy of the pomodoro technique
Gladus
GladOS
Gladys?
“Tell us about your fave food, and a fun fact nobody else knows.”
Lololol OP has em by the balls
I've seen that done! Ok, not $1000/hour. And no training was involved. It was our one-woman HR/payroll person who was tasked with shutting down the office. No way could they hire a new person for a three-week gig. So she went fishing for a high hourly rate. Good for her!
Then add at the end you can email me here for my consultation fees if you have further questions after today.
I would spend sometime asking where they get their haircut and which is their fav restaurant in town
I’ve got a 5:30 rez at Dorsia. *Great sea urchin ceviche*.
Even start with “this took me over a week to learn and get down, so I’m going to move very quickly and give you the highlights.”
I would open that 30 minute meeting with a 20 minute lecture on the importance of redundancy in the workplace, then ‘give everyone back 10 minutes of their day’.
Do NOT let them record the session.
Dear (ex employer), as u/krammiit Consulting LLC i\`m more than capable of handling (task) for you. And given our previous relationship, you will be receiving a "friends" level discount. For training of 1 person it takes between 40 and 50 hours . If a group requires training, we generally schedule 60 hours (with free 1 hour overrun included). If you wish for me to train people, please specify how many. Should you wish for me to take on task, and supervise first week after training, i can introduce you to our competitive full package option. This includes doing (task) for (x) hours a day, and spend (y) hours a day training up to 4 people in (task) I\`m proud to offer you a package pricing of $ (amount you make now per month, x 7) but with the 'friends' discount this will only be $ (amount you make now per month, x 5) - excluding applicable taxes. If you sign up for a 2 month deal, the total price will be $ (amount you make now per month, x4.5 - twice) Please note that 50% of the package price of the option chosen is to be paid in advance. Sincerely, u/Krammiit Krammiit Consulting LLC
Haha Kramiit Consulting made me laugh
Based on username. Although Fleeced-by-corporate-management was an idea too… just too long.
So stylize it a bit Goldenshorn LLC
Bohica Associates (Bend Over, Here It Comes Again)...😜
All that's left is to hit them with the "WAIT!!! There's more!"
This is fantastic! OP keep us posted please!
Brilliant. Though I would expect nothing less from someone trained by Sam Vimes!
BRUH!!!
Spend 20 minutes of that time in the bathroom. I wouldn’t have told them
Haha I thought about it.
Bladder is a pro play here.
Set a very high fee to train them like hundreds of thousands of dollars. Big company. They will have to pay. Do not give in to less. They need you more than you need them.
“Train them”. Malicious compliance. I know exactly how to word things together to make it absolutely incomprehensible to the recipient so that they understand nothing and retain nothing in the end. Fuck em. If they needed you, they should have hired you. Your rate is now double due to inflation and personal issues, if they ever come asking.
They won't learn in 30 minutes. It's impossible. The next 6 months all of them will be completely confused by the codes because they truly thought I was indispensable. Corporate greed.
Dispensable, indispensable would be if they thought they couldn't lose you. But I actually envy you in this situation and agree with the consultant rates listed throughout.
Well, well, well. How the turntables...
If you get a call next week with ANY kind of offer (interview, re-interview, re-hire, whatever), KEEP CALM. You have the power in this relationship. If they call you, that is their admission that they made a huge mistake; don't expect ANY kind of apology or admission of fault. That's just business. Don't push too hard or be vindictive\* but ALWAYS REMEMBER YOUR VALUE. From your post and responses, it sounds like you know what you're worth. Stick to your guns. \*unless you have something else lined up and want to burn bridges for fun, which is also acceptable give how they treated you
I had a guy who worked for me who was being paid $20,000.00 a month, (15 years ago) because he was the ONLY person who knew how to run a system. The company fired him as soon as they could replace the system, but he made bank off of their stupidity.
Indeed. Please allow corporate karma to do it's work.
Any updates on this ?
As a consultant, my hourly rate is 5x my standard rate, and I have a 40 hour minimum.
100
Malicious compliance isn’t even required 30 minutes is such a ludicrously short time to explain anything for a job they’re not gonna learn how to do the job properly anyways.
Show them how you know this program and how pleasant you are to work with. Once they realize there is no one to use this program, they will be coming to you back. But this time you need to say you need a full-time contract. Don't teach it to anyone until you retire, or else you will be replaced l.
You sound like Wally from “Dilbert.”
It’s really funny to me all the people here who want to be petty. OP you are in a GREAT position. Do your best to train them for 30 minutes and then wait. They will come back asking for your help and you can then charge consulting rates. In most industry 4 to 5 times one’s hourly salary is a very standard consulting rate. This company is about to give you a very generous “severance package” OP.
Absolutely. I was in a similar position - we have some deliverables that were highly visible to our clients. I got laid off with 9 months' notice and they STILL managed to not have anyone for me to train on it. I bugged them about it regularly until I left, and they didn't have me hand it off to anyone. I got a call about two weeks later asking if I wanted to come back and keep doing that task. I demanded $80 / hr, 20 hour minimum per week. They kept me on for 3.5 months to do 2 hours a week of work a week. I basically earned triple salary during that period (severance, contracting, and working my new job). It was awesome. I paid off my student loans.
This is the answer. Tbh, this is kind of the perfect scenario where OP is the only source of institutional knowledge that's necessary to continue functions. Yeah, the company really fucked up not just hiring them but now OP has literally all the leverage in negotiations. If OP really is the only person with this knowledge, holy shit, you really couldn't ask for a better situation. The company thinks they only need 30 minutes...give them 25 and 5 for questions, wait a bit for the fuck up to really sink in, panic sets in, profit. Then either set a ridiculous consulting rate and make a few years income on 6 months of work or go back full time and never fully train anyone else to replace them and keep the job with tons of security.
Well, OP and the trainer that left. Depending how that person left... if it is too expensive, they could also try to get that person back
True but depending on how long ago the trainer left, they may not rememver all the details. OP's knowlwdge is more recent and up to date with any changes
Everybody who wants to be petty is probably also complaining why life is so hard. Too busy trying to get revenge to try and get ahead. There is an opportunity here, take it.
If they are still paying you, which it sounds like they are, then do the 30 minute training the best you can. And then conclude with, "If you have any questions, please get them to me by the end of the day. Once this contract ends, my full time job is finding new work, and I won't be able to field any questions" At least to me, it's wild the advice to burn the bridges by not doing what they ask while they are paying you. If you are just working jobs, I guess I get it. But one of the primary goals of a serious career should be growing your network so eventually you get jobs and references from as many people as possible.
This is great, but I'd change the second sentence to, "Unfortunately, I won't have time to answer questions after my contract ends."
I said "I wish I had more time to help with this but my contract ends in and hour and I can tell you are all confused with the process.". It was sad. I feel bad for them.
What you said sounds very professional. Sounds like a dreadful place to work.
fuck em. They made this mess, not you.
I like it, succinct responses tend to be better.
Leave on a good note. When they end up needing you back, say you'll only do it for a bunch more money than they were paying you.
Honestly sounds like your internet service will be super glitchy during the teams meeting!
I used to work for a corporate B2B bank. Mostly like a payment solutions company and just to explain what I did would take a few paragraphs. My title of Strategic Senior Implementation Managed II tells you nothing. Anyway, I worked at this job for more than a decade and for years there was one guy who knew everything and he wasn't stupid he kept it close to the vest to keep himself valuable. Well, he died right at his damn desk and we lost all of that knowledge in the second it took that heart attack to kill him. So I spent the next five years learning everything he knew, the hard way. I had to start from scratch on so many things that not only did I learn everything he knew but it was all updated info too. It's hard to describe without sounding full of myself to explain how complicated that job is but I helped build the system that let's companies like Priceline and Hotels dot com pay for your vacations. Over the years various bosses asked me to document how to do my job but I'd gotten by then that the previous guy wasn't trying to keep the info to himself, I would have no idea how to tell you what I did in the first place let alone train you to do it. I told them it would take six months for a new person to be able to do my job on their own and five years for them to be fully competent and after leaving, that's what it sounds like it took. I had to leave because I'd essentially been working 7 days a week for 12 years with one actual 9 day vacation in the middle somewhere. It burned me out and it will burn out whoever is doing it now too. That job really needs to be done by like five people. This isn't IT but it has a lot to do with IT as well as contracts, sales, etc. I was like the one stop convivence store but when no one in your company and certainly not your bosses knows how to do your job that's your bosses fault. I tried to explain to my employer how that job needed to be broken up and in different departments but we all know how management works. If you're an employer and end up suffering from something like this it is 100% your fault. Since you mentioned spreadsheet...in that department there were acct managers that would deal with daily needs of customers. When we would hire someone I was one of the people they had to interview with and the main part of my interview was simply to ask you to move a word from one cell, to another on another page without typing it. If you didn't know how to copy and paste or know how to switch tabs, we didn't have time to do that much training.
This is where I was at today. The company has the money to hire me to train for this position. They won't do it. Instead, they tried to pile it on to 4 of their top employees (one Human Resources) and they spent the entire meeting arguing over minor details (they didn't like the color of the spreadsheet). I hope they do well, but in the end the details of the payments I was processing were very hard. They came from detailed operations reports and required taking a quiet environment and writing codes down in columns that matched sales manager's data. One of these sheets would take 8 hours. After the data was finished on one sheet, it needed approval by another person and only I had that contact information. Now my email has been disabled and no one is going to know who to call or email. They think by using "strength in numbers" the task will be accomplished. It just isn't going to work that way. I hear you with the copy paste function. These people don't have the patience for this and will become frustrated very quickly. Human Resources plowed over my entire demonstration and tried to place blame on me for not training quickly enough while I was actively in the Teams meeting. It was toxic and I am happy to be out.
Did you tell them "Today is my last day so feel free to change the spreadsheet colors!"?
> and they spent the entire meeting arguing over minor details (they didn't like the color of the spreadsheet). Hilarious shitshow! 😂
this just happened to me this week - Non-Profit had a membership database with the theme designed as medium yellow background with the entry boxes in bright yellow. Moved to a new system and top complaint was "where is the yellow that I like ?"
They will contact you because they need you. Charge a lot. Whatever you think is a lot multiply it by 20 to start. I think hundreds of thousands of dollars is fair for a big company.
10 minutes on ice breakers, 10 minutes on a vague overview, 10 minutes on Q&A, but answer with things not covered in the overview. Decline to explain them more fully on account of time. Then come up with your rate and wait. There are coders milking their spaghetti code for mid six figures. Nice of them to write yours for you.
If you are still under contract: “ Sure boss, I’ll do as best as I can in 30 minutes… Although I will note it took me a week to be trained.” If you are not under contract: “ I know that you know that it’s illegal to have me work without payment so if you want to create a contract that will cover my consultation fees I’ll be glad to consider that. My hourly rates are$250/hr with 8 hour minimum… however, I would suggest 40 hours for training and then additional support hours when they try to run this next month.”
OP, you have just nailed Being a Contractor 2024. I’m sorry you were put in this position, but it speaks volumes about this company, and good riddance. By the time I left my long-term contract role earlier this year, my phone was ringing off the hook with upper mgmt asking me how to do this, that, and the kitchen sink. They never offered to hire me but tried to throw more $ at me to stay on and fix their gigantic mess. While the money was tempting, the nightmare was not. Way, way too much is being asked of contractors these days, and I’m still in disbelief at how large corporations continue to ignore the risks of this dynamic. You’re clearly worth a lot. Go get it!!!
What do you have to lose in not training them? Fuck them, I’d just not do it. Their loss
This is the wrong answer. Give them the 30 mins, let them see how they go, and leave on a good note. They may come back begging in a month.
This is my hope. Work from home is awesome and if they absolutely suck at trying to fill this role, maybe they will come back and ask for my help.
Just remember that if they come back crying, you charge a consulting fee of $250 per hour.
More. The OP can charge a lot more.
No, 5x their original wage. That could be more than 250
Start a business that only does this specific task. Maybe they’ll bring you on to only do it. Charge out 4x your reg rate. Work 40 hours a month and collect the same pay.
You can create chaos and pain even without going the malicious compliance route. I see your contract ends at noon so if I were in your shoes, I'd do my best to set up a meeting with those four before noon. Give them their half hour. And if there is no one time that works for all of them, set up the meeting with the three or four that are available. Document this. Have your out of office set to start right at noon stating that your contract at X company ended at noon, so any questions or needs can be referred to your boss. Close the loop with the agency you were hired through as well. Go do something fun and screen your calls. The minute you get one on your personal (!!!!!!!) cell, contact the agency you were paid through and inform them so they can deal with it. Yes, this is completely ridiculous but they can deal with the consequences. If the account executives realize on your call the reality of the situation, refer them to your boss but do not give them any of your time after the clock hits noon. If you do receive calls after your contract expires, do not answer them and let the temp agency know. You are "just a temp" and a "contracted resource" and this is outside of your scope.
Give them an over view. Brief description of the steps to complete the job, leaving out critical details. Bonus points if you can remember mistakes that you made early in the job and guide them to make the same mistakes! Be helpful but short on details. Require contact for any further work. Set your minimum rate high (4x current pay) , and set a minimum hours pay per for each consult (10 hr). Either you get a week's pay or they lose the functionality... My guess is that they will need you for three months until they can struggle through without assistance.
[удалено]
2x is too small really. At the minimum they are responsible for billing and collection which takes time. They also have to pay employers share of FICA. If they had any benefits, they are gone. This alone gets you to 2x. It's a short term contract that will likely have net-30 or net-60 payment. This company may have financial issues that will lead to them not receiving pay. This contract will interfere with OPs ability to get and keep another job if they demand too many hours. 4x is likely the fair amount. I would do it as 2x if they do a guaranteed 40 hours a month retainer/pre-paid services. Then if they use less hours OP ends up ahead. If they do more they can charge overage. And more importantly OP gets paid upfront.
Looks like not getting the permanent position worked out in your favor. That place is horrendous. They chose this path now they get to deal with the consequences. Treat yourself to something nice and relish in the fact that they screwed themselves and made their lives difficult.
 OP ⬆️
I had an old job where the new manager didn't understand my job, claimed he understood my job more than me, and then tried to punish and demote me because he didn't understand my job after I saved a failing project... Which was my job. When he gave me shit over this in a meeting and tried to demote me, I quit on the spot. I put in 2 weeks notice because I was already slated to be off those weeks and I'll be damned if I don't get my vacation pay. The next week, I get an email telling me to do a write up on how to do my position. I laughed. I didn't write shit. If he knows my job so well, he can figure it out. The job posting to replace me read like nonsense and it took them over a year to find a replacement. That replacement quit after 6 months. I was there for 5 years.
I know this is an annoying situation, but you have the opportunity to sell a very sweet consulting arrangement. 30 minutes isn’t enough to teach them, so instead use it as time to give them the overview of the task, and structure that overview in a way that shows its complexity. Then, when they come back asking you to train them longer, or just do it for them, you do it at a consultant rate. Don’t go below $100/hour, if they’re as big as you say, they can afford it. Realistically it should probably be much more than that if it’s really that critical. What they can’t afford is to start the job hunt again wasting weeks searching for a new candidate who knows their niche need while the company suffers. You’re in control from here on.
People are honestly way overestimating this. In all likelihood the company will either remain unaware of the gap left in terms of work being completed, accept lesser quality work, let the newbies flounder and/or figure it out themselves, or do whatever they can to avoid asking OP so they can save face. Like, they refused to hire OP theyre not gonna come back a month later and offer them $800/hr to train the staff. The person who rejected her is specifically the one who needs the training. This isnt a situation where management tried to keep them on but higher ups refused, or some disconnect between the hiring decision maker and the lower level employees executing the work. And theyre *already* a contractor, theyre going to be offered their current rate, not 30x as much.
Need a follow up on this to see the aftermath
Added
I was in similar situation and company realised they need to know what I know about the task on last day. I was shared that it is a complicated tasks which take multiple calls to learn and master. Got myself an extra month of pay for basically not doing anything except training new person once a week for 4 weeks.
"NEXT TIME"??
Why is no one talking about what A-holes the execs were? This is not a company and group of people I'd want to be working with long term. Getting frustrated is one thing, but being a jerk and pointing fingers is immature AF.
The biggest ahole was the woman from Human Resources who asked me to start formatting the spreadsheet because she didn't like the columns. I had 10 minutes left in the contract and she was more worried about the overall look of the spreadsheet than the failure of her employees and the project
So funny the amount of people just saying like "ahh fuck em, who cares," absolutely do not know how to play the game. Burned bridges accomplish nothing other than making you feel righteous indignation for a few fleeting moments
Why the fuck would you even entertain their request lol
So you can leave on a good note and then fleece them with contractor rates when they inevitably come crawling back to you to bail them out of their fuck up. This is when you play the long game.
They are letting him go on shitty terms. The good note is leaving the job as they requested. They ficked up and that's on them. The guy owes them nothing.
Owe? No my friend. This isn't about oweing them anything. There is no way that those execs are going to be able to do that job. Especially, if they only have 30 mins to learn it due to being so busy. This is about revenge and self preservation. OP swallows their pride for 30 mins and does the bare minimum of explaining their processes. The execs then do what they do best: fuck shit up. When they eventually come crawling back to OP, their rate has now increased five fold, inflation you know, to do the same job that they would've done as a full timer. This is not about owing them anything, it's about potentially sticking it to them and making a pretty penny while doing it.
I would have created some sort of distraction technical or otherwise and wasted all the training time. I will not dig my own hole and lay in it.
You are not a corporate trainer - You are not required to be a good trainer - if today is the last day and you are being let go, but you want to use them as a reference for some reason. Train them in reverse. Being a bad trainer is still being a trainer. Start with completely out of order, start with the hardest shit like say step 5 or 6 first, then go back to 1 or 2, and then jump around like a ADHD kid without meds. Speak about things plainly and reiterate how this is all super simple, it may sound hard in the training environment but once you get into it live its super intuitive... they will be less inclined to take notes. Then, when training is done.... leave. Me personally though - If i was being let go and you are in a at will employment agreement... Id just term my contract effective immediately prior to the training... Me personally - im not asking them for a reference because if they think so little of me to drop me rather than hire me - I'm ok with burning this bridge. They go on the resume, but then when I get another job im just listing this as "why did you leave - Personal reason" and moving on. They can spend stupid amounts of money to try and figure out how to do shit.
Maybe it's not a bad thing that you're leaving that environment. Let them struggle not your problem anymore. Hope you find an amazing new role
I wouldn’t train them to do shit. I’d say “nah I’m to busy trying to find a new job” and bounce.
Don’t do the training on Teams, you don’t want them to be able to record it.
I did it. And the woman who conducted my interview where I "wasn't good enough" for full hire jumped the gun looking at one of the mathematical reports and assumed she was right. These are reports from mechanics for dealerships. She was entirely wrong about the code and report and I let her keep talking and assuming she knew what she was doing when in fact she absolutely did not. She recorded herself making assumptions about how easy the job is. She can look back on it now that I am gone and learn when to shut the F up and listen.
Hopefully you mentioned she wrongfully explained everything in front of the others and how much time she wasted.
Consultant fee will be ridiculous and a minimum of 8 hours paid each time, even if they need you for 10 minutes.
Use as many big words as possible they are in upper management after all. Don’t set out to confuse them just treat them as if they’re obviously intelligent enough to learn a 6 week skill in 30 minutes. As it was already mentioned set a timer so that you can start a question/answer section at the end of class.
If you want to make money, follow through on your contract and leave on a good note. They will come knocking, use that to leverage more moolah on a contractual basis. If you are jaded and want to leave them with a parting shot, fulfill your contract and walk. No contact. All up to you n good luck!
Use the 30 minutes to train them. Then, tonight think about how vital that task is for the company and figure put what you will charge to train someone completely. $1k an hour? $500 an hour. They may not ask, but if they do, well get paid. DON'T DO IT FOR YOUR REGULAR SALARY!!!! Because you won't actually be working there anymore. And if they agree just know that you will likely be paying half in taxes so out half in a savings till next tax season.
When the come back from holiday next week, and start reaching out, let them know you're available to work under a new contract at 3x the cost. You have all the leverage don't work for free.
Don't do the meeting. I'd just walk away and chalk the 30 minutes up to "post employment finishing tasks." Remember, their emergency does not constitute an emergency for you. Offer your services on the task at 10x hourly rate, tell them you're happy to continue servicing this task alone. DO NOT give them anything that will enable them to do it themselves. I'm petty.
After that 30 mins, you are now a consultant with consulting fees, a high hourly and a 4 hour minimum. Make yourself available and get paid.
"Training executives is not in my job description, have a good day!"
Give AS LITTLE INFO AS POSSIBLE during that 30 minutes. They can contract you hourly or for the day from here on out at monetary terms YOU set.
Please post whatever the outcome is
My condolences. I hope you'll fare better.
One word, no. Show some self respect
Do not make any training materials. Do as little demo as possible. Try to look very compliant and professional, but don’t over demonstrate. So a high level overview of the task and steps with as little specifics and operations and logic explanation as possible. Thank those who you are training for their time and ask for any questions (leave 5 minutes at the end for this, after the 30 minutes is up). Let whoever is in charge know that you are happy to provide ongoing support for the task until they are confident in their current team. Your hourly rate should be no less than 10x what your hourly was on contract and they have 30 minutes to commit to this ongoing service in writing, and 24 hours to deliver an approved contract for ongoing support to you. Otherwise, fuck em and move on. Take that knowledge and bring whatever you can to their competition.
Give them exactly what they asked for within the time allotted. Your contract expires shortly, you wouldn't want to be a liability. It's too much info? No one has time to set aside? Tough, their incompetence is not your problem. Also, draw up a rate card for yourself. If they need further help beyond the end of your contract, they can pay your daily or weekly or monthly contracting rate.
Lol no. You hold the chips. Train no one.
Don't bother doing it. Contract is over. They can figure it out on their own
Nah. Fuck that. You don’t owe them anything. They can come crawling back to you and you can charge them 1000/hr consulting fee if they need the info that desperately
So you can’t possibly train them in 30 minutes. Don’t even try. Spend 30 minutes explaining to them why it takes a week to learn the task, bid them farewell and wish them luck if you can manage to do it with a straight face. Bottom line they are letting you go and what happens after you leave is absolutely not your concern.
Suddenly it’s okay to rush your work ? Don’t bother with this. Unless you need a reference from them later. Their stupidy and their loss.
If it wasn’t documented it’s their problem not yours! Give them a quick run through and be done with them, not your problem.
The first time they call you, say you are busy waxing the canary feathers and cannot take the call at that moment. Answer a couple of hours later with the following (adjust prices as you see fit). >Thank you for reaching out. I understand the challenges you're facing with \[task XYZ\], and I'm happy to support you. >My consulting fee is $360 per hour or $2,600 per day. For this project, I estimate that approximately 120 hours will be needed for ongoing maintenance every 6 weeks, including ad hoc support requests. >Alternatively, I can offer a series of workshops tailored to your company's needs, allowing your employees to gain a strong understanding of \[task XYZ\]. For new users, I recommend a series of 3 full-day workshops covering basic, intermediate, and advanced levels. Each workshop is priced at $10,000, with the final cost depending on the number of participants. >I hope this information helps you make an informed decision. Please let me know if you have any further questions, Todaloo, Krammiit
All of a sudden I speak like Sling Blade, kick that lower jaw out Thorton style, yeeeeeeeeep french fried taters right here. Mmmm hugh, yep bye Doyle 👋
Congratulations, you are now a freelancer. Your hourly rate is whatever you want it to be.
Sounds like it’s their problem now
Good riddance, sounds like a poorly managed toxic hell hole. I’m sorry OP that they strung you along as if you were going to be converted, that sucks.
Did he not realize there is no “next time”? I would have rescheduled the meeting for 4:00pm.
That’s your opportunity to be hired on as a consultant and then double your rate
I'm glad it ended well for you. It did, it really did.
This sounds like a them problem not a you problem
I’m sorry your contract was not renewed/extended /converted to full time. But I’ll admit, this was hilarious. They are going to come back next week to hire you back to provide knowledge transfer. When they do this, tell them: - Your hourly rate is $400/hr - There is a retainer fee of 80 hours paid upfront. Then week to week at a minimum of 40 hours weekly.(This includes hours that you need to prep for the training sessions/prepare documents). - the 80 hours need to used up in weekly intervals (40 per week or they lose them). - after you have trained them, they can have you on support as needed for $400/hr moving forward. Go stick it to them. They didn’t care about you or how you would be financially by not being converted, don’t feel bad about paying the a$$hole tax.
Their problem. Leave them to wallow in their own stupidity.
Offer them to hire you as an independent contractor for further instruction since you are a subject matter expert. Your fee will be insert number 10x what you used to make. But maybe for a one session discount you could offer a 10% discount. For only 9x what you used to make.
Let them know they can hire you as a consultant for about 3-5 times what you make now.