Going Gold Panning Tomorrow Morning, I Think

Going Gold Panning Tomorrow Morning, I Think

There was a job through a temporary firm over at HP that I was a perfect match for--indeed, it was pretty much the job that I did for HP until layoffs last year, although for a considerable lower salary--but HP won't allow any former employees to work for contractors there until we have been off HP payroll for at least one year. I can't figure out why they have this rule; it's not like anyone would leave HP to go to work for one of the lower paying contractors, and I sure didn't have any choice in the matter.

There are at least jobs out there to apply for now. But it appears that there are way too many other engineers applying for them for me to get a chance at interviewing. At least panning for gold in the Payette River doesn't require anyone to hire me. I rather doubt that I will bring in enough gold to be worth the time--but you never know! And it's certainly more likely than finding a software engineering job.

You would think that someone, somewhere, would be willing to hire me, even as a cheap telecommuter. But it does not appear to be the case.

UPDATE: A reader tells me that when IBM laid off workers (including him), they had a similar requirement that those let go could contract to IBM for at least one year. He was under the impression that there might be some legal requirement, perhaps tied to government contracts. Perhaps there is some provision in the tax code about how severance pay is treated, or just as likely, someone added such a requirement to a bill to "protect" workers.

UPDATE 2: Another reader thinks that it is an IRS rule to prevent employers and employees from avoiding paying payroll taxes by converting from employee to contractor--although in this case, the contract house is paying the workers as employees, so there's no avoidance of payroll taxes.