The news of a new engineering manager behing hired gave me concerns about how it will impact my bid for full-time status. The division manager is going on vacation for the week before and a few days after the August Civic holiday, so he’s not even going to be around to decide about my becoming a full-time employee. And of course when he does return, will he really want to make a decision right then, or pass it off to his new engineering manager? And will said engineering manager even be able to make a decision like that in the first month or two? Doubtful. So I bumped up my timeline, and got some sort of answer surprisingly quickly.
Yesterday morning I secured permission from the agency through which I contract to pursue full-time employment here. I figured there was no point in waiting for the magical 3-month mark, as I’ve been in the company for just shy of 9 months total, 3 of which (minus a week) have been in my new position. If that doesn’t give them enough of an idea as to whether I’m working out or not, nothing will. In any case, the ball has been set in motion (with the agency contacting this company’s HR department), and this morning I followed that up with an e-mail to the division manager.
Surprisingly, I got some sort of feedback from him already. It was in passing, but he said that the idea of bringing me on as a permanent employee has been discussed, and they (he and human resources I guess) are thinking that it’s going to happen sometime in September.
Wow. That’s quite the definitive answer for having asked so recently. Of course, I’m not going to hold my breath for September; we will have new operations and engineering managers that will be coming up to speed, and having seen how the administrative assistant is getting jerked around with her contract, I don’t honestly expect any action in the next 7 weeks. (Dumb stupid August with 5 weeks in it…) Still, it’s on their mind, it sounds like they’ve decided to do it, it’s just a matter of when they can get their act together.
There is also the not-so-small matter of what they’re actually going to offer me in way of remuneration as a full-time permanent employee. While I don’t have any benefits as a contractor, I do get to write off my vehicle expenses, and my contracting rate isn’t too shabby. Jannette and I will have to figure out what kind of a threshhold figure we’d accept, and what we’d do if they don’t meet it. I at least have a good idea what rate they are being charged by the agency I was placed through, so I know how much they’re paying for me now. There should be room enough for both sides to come away from this happily.
Good news, for certain. Not definitive, but it’s going in the right direction. More as it comes!
Not From Toronto 