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Working the System at a BigCo

expatsoftware.com

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Re: Working the System at a BigCo

#41

Post by jjguy »

tome wrote: post #37
jjguy wrote: post #17

In a past life, I ran a consulting team at a BigCo whose business centered on T&M contracts like OP's. BigCo had 10k employees, mostly associated 1:1 to contracts with the same "bill exactly 40 hrs, but never overhead" constrains. Our little team had 100 employees, but we matrixed those guys across all our contracts. While the clients disliked the idea of not having "their guy," they really liked having access to the…

I don't get it. What did you actually do? Multiplex their time so they worked for two clients during the same hour, or what?

No, we'd never bill two clients for the same hour. Very few (no?) T&M arrangements where that would be legally/ethically/morally acceptable.

We simply let the team bill to multiple contracts. The contract & dev managers were responsible for authorizing the time and ensuring it was necessary/suitable/etc.

A typical T&M contract considers something around 1920 billable hours per year an FTE. 40 hrs a week, 4 weeks of vacation/sick time/etc per year. The typical way to manage those contracts at scale is hire one person per 1920 hours on a contract, then that person works exclusively on that contract.

We didn't allocate one person to a single contract, but fractions of a person - based on how much we estimated any given contract would need a certain set of skills:

"Joe's 20% on Project X and 80% on Y. Valerie's 100% on Y. Bill's 80% on Y and 20% on Z."

Of course, those are just estimates and nothing ever goes to plan - and it's always hard to hire enough good people. As a result, there were always opportunities for folks to do more work - either on their primary contract(s) or supporting another.

It makes the contract management harder, but it provides meaningful benefits to both the team and the clients.

Re: Working the System at a BigCo

#42

Post by bussierem »

thatwebdude wrote: post #19

There's a gray area between "good worker mode" and happily salaried. If they're taking advantage of that, then you need to leave BigCo. There are other SmallToMediumEvenSomeOtherBigCos out there who'll pay what you're worth; even if that coincides with 50 or 60 hour weeks.

If the latter are paying you "what you're worth" in return for 50-60 hours a week, aren't you getting paid 50-75% of what you're worth...? I think you've been fooled.

Re: Working the System at a BigCo

#43

Post by jjguy »

awjr wrote: post #39
tome wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get it. What did you actually do? Multiplex their time so they worked for two clients during the same hour, or what?

I think each contract was for 10 people working for 40 hours each per week. In effect buying 400 hours of expertise. That did not stop one of those 10 people doing 40 hours on one contract and another 10-20 hours on another. As long as both contracts were satisfied all was good. By under resourcing the operation, employees were guaranteed to earn 'overtime' if they wanted it. However implication is that you would be…

> However implication is that you would be happy putting in 50-60 hours

You're taking a too narrow a view of it. We never committed anyone to 50-60 hours, that's unsustainable. But by _allowing_ it and building a system to manage it, you let folks work what they want and still meet the client needs.

Without that flexibility, what happens is what OP describes - folks work more than 40 because you need to / want to, but you don't get compensated for it.

Re: Working the System at a BigCo

#44

Post by Bartweiss »

tome wrote: post #37
jjguy wrote: post #17

In a past life, I ran a consulting team at a BigCo whose business centered on T&M contracts like OP's. BigCo had 10k employees, mostly associated 1:1 to contracts with the same "bill exactly 40 hrs, but never overhead" constrains. Our little team had 100 employees, but we matrixed those guys across all our contracts. While the clients disliked the idea of not having "their guy," they really liked having access to the…

I don't get it. What did you actually do? Multiplex their time so they worked for two clients during the same hour, or what?

To extend the other answers: the 'hack' in this case is putting everyone on every project. In a lot of consulting settings, charge numbers are kept within a small pool of people working primarily on that contract. When things are heavy, they work overtime, when things are light, they work undertime.

In this case, a team of ~100 all had access to everyone's projects. So rather than being stuck with the demands of a single client, everyone got to work overtime whenever they wanted, and not when they didn't.

Re: Working the System at a BigCo

#45

Post by Bartweiss »

bussierem wrote: post #42
thatwebdude wrote: post #19

There's a gray area between "good worker mode" and happily salaried. If they're taking advantage of that, then you need to leave BigCo. There are other SmallToMediumEvenSomeOtherBigCos out there who'll pay what you're worth; even if that coincides with 50 or 60 hour weeks.

If the latter are paying you "what you're worth" in return for 50-60 hours a week, aren't you getting paid 50-75% of what you're worth...? I think you've been fooled.

...no? Salaried jobs break the direct correlation between hours worked and hours paid, but it doesn't mean there's no plan there. There are absolutely salaried jobs which openly expect 50+ hours, it's up to you to decide if the salary matches the expectation.

(There are plenty of jobs which aren't upfront about it, obviously. That's more of a scam.)

Re: Working the System at a BigCo

#47

Post by enjalot »

dilemma wrote: post #32
enjalot wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is it still all guys their?

Your comment makes no sense.

I was pointing out the repeated use of "guy" by the parent. It implies that only men work at the BigCo. Certainly the use of guy is cultural, but it derives from a male dominated work culture.

(also I used the wrong "there"...)

Re: Working the System at a BigCo

#48

Post by jermaustin1 »

s73ver wrote: post #34
skybrian wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that like it's a bad thing. I think the management perspective would be that they're good at hiring and/or outsourcing, which are definitely good management skills to have and arguably what doing the job well is all about.

It is bad, because the managers take the bulk of the credit and reward, rather than those that actually do stuff.

You say that like it's a bad thing. Obviously a manager didn't do everything, and no executive would think they did. What they know though, is the manager hired the team that worked together and delivered the appropriate solution. If you want credit from the executives, you should become a manager and manage expectations and deliverables.

Re: Working the System at a BigCo

#49

Post by Hackertrogan1 »

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Re: Working the System at a BigCo

#50

Post by skybrian »

jermaustin1 wrote: post #48
s73ver wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is bad, because the managers take the bulk of the credit and reward, rather than those that actually do stuff.

You say that like it's a bad thing. Obviously a manager didn't do everything, and no executive would think they did. What they know though, is the manager hired the team that worked together and delivered the appropriate solution. If you want credit from the executives, you should become a manager and manage expectations and deliverables.

Well, I'd argue that a good manager helps his or her people get credit/visibility/promotions that should come with increased responsibility for doing the work.
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