Contractors Loathe Agencies
Do contractors loathe agencies?
A reader, Sparks, posted this in reply to our article Contractors must remember we are not charities.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but if all agencies were as you describe, they wouldn’t attract the near-universal loathing they seem to.
Moreover, the main reason that many contractors loathe agencies is that they don’t earn their money:
They have little or no technical knowledge
“Hi, we’re looking for someone with 7 years .Net experience and something called Orrible Financials. Can you tell me what that is?”
Many appear to be just pattern-matching monkeys
The client asks for X, type X into Jobserve, take first three CVs with X, send to client. There’s no sifting process at all.
They don’t care about the contractor at all.
I know the agency gets the client, and has to win that account. However, surely the contractor deserves some recognition. I’ve been contracting for 4 years, at a number of different agencies, and I’ve never met a representative from any.
They are shambolic
Example phone message today – “I think we contacted you before (they didn’t) about the EAA regulations. It’s quite urgent. We need you to reply and let us know today what you want to do.”
They’re discourteous
I hire contractors/perms in some of my roles. So, if I phone up asking for my recruiting contact and have to leave a message, if I do not leave the name of my company as well, they don’t return my call. I can only assume they think I’m just another contractor phoning about a role.
Most contracts (in my experience) are extended
Normally I’m the one who initiates contact between the agency and the client to see what is going to happen at the current expiry date. More often than not I’ll be sent through an extension contract from the agency long after the expiry date and I’ve continued working without a contract.
Even then this contract has more than once come through with some other contractors name/company on and none of the clauses I’ve taken time to negotiate prior to taking the role initially. It seems to be a case of bang out a standard word doc to the client/contractor. Get a couple of signatures and watch the money roll in for the next six months.
They are Deceitful
This has been covered a lot in other articles here, but surely raising the rate at the client every contract renewal and not telling the contractor or passing any of this on to them isn’t entirely an ethical way of doing business. Particularly given the feeble efforts (above) that agencies go to at contract renewal time.
Hmmm, right well it’s turned into a bit of a rant. However, I just wanted it to be clear why I feel the way I do about agencies. I guess the rest of the contractors may have other reasons?
Or maybe they’re all the same as mine.
Do all contractors loathe agencies? Let’s hear from you.
For more great stories about contractors and recruitment agencies click on Contractor Recruitment Agencies.
Read also Recruitment Agency Commission – Should They Continue to Get It After a Renewal.
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