Greg, I'm all for recalling the people in the Congress that don't get it done... however, we don't have the right of recall when it comes to federally elected officials. But, I would love to get rid of Comrade CocoPuff.
Jay you are too d*mn funny, I wrote a rather extensive article for a blog this spring on this very subject and for some reason no one ever learns that many states can recall their own representatives, many not all.
In the case of Michigan there is a procedure that is there that simply states that if a group of people file for a petition to recall with the Michigan AG, a petition is issued, there is a gathering of signatures that is a percentage of the actual votes that were cast for that person at the last election, the signatures need to be gathered within a time limit that is set in the law (I think it is 32% and 90 days) and the signatures are confirmed as registered voters, the recall takes place immediately. This is for every elected official in Michigan, including the Attorney General, senators, congressman and governors - judges are excluded of course, they have to be recalled by the Michigan legislature.
In the case of Levin, he is a senior senator and he has done less for the state than any other senator we have had. There are military centric jobs that are going to Mass, Connecticut, New York and Arkansas while at the same time we are bleeding to death as a state with no one at the helm of our state. Granholm wants to raise taxes and give it to the schools instead of promoting the state, nothing good about her and anyone who voted for her is a fool.
Well enough about that…
You know it gets tiring to hear about the contractor vs. the employee stuff. Many of you read about this stuff, you don’t like the idea of a company that tells you to do this or that and many more think that just because you are being told something, it takes the independence out of the equation, WRONG.
As I stated before and as other have too, the idea of a contractor is not what you make it out to be, you have a requirement to fulfill the needs of a company that can terminate your contract for any reason at ant time – believe me I have done it with a number of contractors before because I just didn’t like them.
The idea that the IRS is the only agency that oversee this is wrong, the department of Labor has something to say about it, the IRS is only concern with taxes, not employee rights and by thinking you can use the common-law determination questions as a contractor, you better have a d*mn good idea what you are talking about if you approach a company with the attitude that you are an employee and back it up with a lawyer who does nothing but labor issues. Been through a few things on both sides of the fence and had to deal with both the IRS and DOL on this very issue. Labor Law is very complex and sometimes hard to get a grasp of.
For me, I heard all of this from the IT people I would contract to do specific work and both the contracting house and my company knew what we could and could not do, the biggest thing was educating the people who did not have specific skill sets needed to complete complex projects. I have had in the past not only tell people what to do but how to do and when to do things, this never violated any government policies. Also I had required contractors who were on site at customer’s locations to be dressed either in uniforms or proper apparel, again not violating anything.
But the difference here is very simple and clear;
1- You as an O/O are to do your due diligence when you are offered the contract (you know that a company is required by law to allow you to see the contract before you have to sign it so you can have it reviewed?), which means you read the contract and/or have a lawyer go over it with you so there are no problems with expectations and such. Again you are contracted to do a specific job within a specific area of the company for the company and the customer and maintain the company’s ability to keep the customer and show a positive image as a representative of that company – make sense?
2 – and you have to have a clear understanding that you are not, by any means completely independent because of the requirements of the company and the customers they serve. Being independent can be construed as not needing to follow specific instructions, being part of the company image or maintaining that company image and a whole bunch of other things but in fact it is no where near the meaning that has been determined by the courts and other laws. Independence is about performance and your ability to make judgment calls, like how to load your truck, how to drive in traffic and so on.
The last thing I have to throw into this is that because we all have CDL’s there are added factors involved to the equation that many who worked in the IT industry have never faced or understand. There is a difference between a CDL and a MCSE and CISSP certification with a masters degree, the latter is not regulated by the federal government.
