From Contractor to Employee

["George F. Hayhoe III" <george -dot- hayhoe -at- SRS -dot- GOV>]

Regarding the ethical issues associated with moving from contract status to
employee status, you'd better be sure you've got yourself covered both
ethically AND legally!

On both occasions when I've been recruited as a permanent employee by the
company for whom I'd been providing contract consulting services, the
company has approached the contracting agency, which gave its approval. I
certainly wouldn't have accepted an employment offer unless the contracting
agency was aware of what was going on and agreed to allow me to change my
status. That was because my contracts with the contracting agency contained
clauses which required me to do so.

If I were going on an interview with a prospective client of my contracting
agency and were offered permanent employment instead of the expected
contract, I would expect that the client would contact the contracting
agency to negotiate an arrangement. (If I ran the contracting agency, I
would at least want the fee that the client would have paid to an
employment agency for locating a candidate for the job!)

Any contracting agency worth its salt deals with issues like this all the
time. It's good business for them to deal cooperatively with clients who'd
like to hire contractors as permanent employees. The client companies
aren't always as experienced or cooperative as the good contracting
agencies, and some will try to bend--if not break--laws and ethical
imperatives. Don't let yourself be caught in the middle!

--George Hayhoe
  Assistant to the President for Recognition Programs, STC