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cefromnova t1_j0a6uni wrote

Lame. Soooo many fed contractors will go unpaid for those two hours because of this nonsense.

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omartinez1492 t1_j0a93ie wrote

Employees/contractors are not required to show up to work 2 hours late, right? You have up to 2 hours to safely make it to work. If it is indeed nonsense, showing up at the usual time is an option.

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cefromnova t1_j0abwqw wrote

It depends upon how the contract is written. We are not allowed to work or bill hours if the government is not present. The government will not guarantee someone will be there at the normal starting time which translates to we have to show up two hours late and will not get paid. It's even worse when the entire day is a wash.

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dcsnarkington t1_j0aj3c0 wrote

This is just delayed start which is essentially optional. I have never heard of a delayed start impacting contractor pay or invoicing.

If it were a full closure, on a T&M basis or a Cost+ in a very strict contract where the govt is not approving work except on site then the government would not pay the firm for those hours. Typically however the contractor would try to justify work offsite when the govt is closed, perhaps doing planning or training.

This generally would never apply on a firm fixed price basis, which is probably around half of the projects these days.

That said for most any white color work t&m, cost+, or ffp even when the govt closes unexpectedly they would have their employees bill to overhead or g&a and doing company training or other corporate function work. They would be very unlikely to not pay their employees as most of the time people are salaried anyways.

Now if you were an hourly employee, and your company was annoyingly tough on the bottom line. I could see the employee not getting paid during a closure. I have never personally seen that happen, but I dont do any facilities work (cleaning, landscaping etc.)

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MarkinDC24 t1_j0b5e5l wrote

I can smell your FAR certification ☺️.

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cefromnova t1_j0bknel wrote

Our contract states plain as day that if the government is not there, we cannot be there and we cannot bill hours. I've worked on many contracts yet this is the first one I've ever seen written like this. People can continue to downvote the hell out of me but it doesn't make what I'm saying any less true.

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veloharris t1_j0blode wrote

Sounds like you need a new contract.

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FancyRatFridays t1_j0bsgw6 wrote

Or a new government office. I used to have a contract like this, but none of the feds ever took advantage of the late start (unless the weather was truly unreasonable) so for me, both work and pay carried on as normal. No big deal.

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dcsnarkington t1_j0brs1a wrote

I believe it. I've never heard of that applying during a delay though.

For today's 2 hour delay are you guys not authorized to bill for the 2 hours?

If not are you authorized to bill direct to contract, are you going to bill to another charge line g&a or ovr?

...and if you dont mind me asking, are you not getting paid?

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cefromnova t1_j0dhvmk wrote

We were fortunate today and had a govie come in at the normal start time. If that didn't happen, we were told by contract program management that we would have to take PTO for the 2 hours as the government denied allowing us the ability to make up the hours by either adding them to the end of a work day or working a weekend day.

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dcsnarkington t1_j0dnvjz wrote

Yikes man, forcing your employees to take PTO is not great. I'd have my folks do training on overhead or g&a in this circumstance. I'd be unhappy about that.

You know the funny thing about all of this is that the govt doesn't get unspent money back. Once the money is sent over to the KO, and if it's not executed during the contract year the customer agency doesn't get to use that money for anything else. It goes back to the treasury.

Even if we're talking about 100 contractors, 2 hours of unspent labor is at most maybe $30k. This is budget dust to most any agency, however you are doing material damage to the personal finances of your contractors.

Some organizations are dicks. I have folks who had literally no accomodations during COVID from the beginning pre-vax. Nothing. Just keep coming in... while the govt all changed to telework. Irresponsible disregard for health and safety

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cefromnova t1_j0dzc6o wrote

Yep, I was on a contract like that during COVID. I worked in the office the entire pandemic, no telework allowed. We were even forced to do shift work because COVID protocols would not allow for all of us to be present in the office at the same time.

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Oldbayistheshit t1_j0bxq0b wrote

Awww poor baby!

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cefromnova t1_j0di4js wrote

Why such harsh negativity? We count on 40 hours of pay each week just like most full-time workers.

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Oldbayistheshit t1_j0didhl wrote

You “count” on. You make a lot more as a contractor. You sign up for no benefits, as a result u miss two hours. Change careers if you’re gonna complain

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cefromnova t1_j0dyuid wrote

Your facts are wrong. Most of us have salaries equivalent to our government counterparts. Most of us work the jobs we do because we believe in the service we provide to our country. If government employees are allowed to get two hours off from work for free because of bad weather, as contractors we should at least be allowed to work those two hours and get paid for them. That's a fair ask and shouldn't be ridiculed by strangers who don't walk in our shoes.

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Oldbayistheshit t1_j0dz1wa wrote

So get a government job?

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cefromnova t1_j0e0n30 wrote

Is that a serious statement? Do you think one just asks for or applies for a government job and just gets it? 🤦

I'll attempt to school you a bit:

  1. Most of us have gone through the hiring process for government positions only to get denied for the position...Many times over...For years. Mind you, these are government positions where we would do the same exact job we have been doing as contractors for years.
  2. Many government agencies only hire from the outside at post college entry level, say a GS-10/11. If you're working at the level of a GS-13, it's very difficult financially in the DC Metro area to downgrade that far (35%+).

Please try and be more kind and empathetic to people, especially when you have no knowledge of their circumstances.

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Oldbayistheshit t1_j0e0zmx wrote

You don’t have to school me. I hired a contractor yesterday

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cefromnova t1_j0e1dby wrote

Okay? Your really poor attitude has shown nothing but a lack of knowledge on both how contracting works and government hiring works.

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Oldbayistheshit t1_j0e1r4w wrote

Ok haha good luck never getting into the gov with that attitude

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cefromnova t1_j0epgtt wrote

Excuse me? I told you my story. Not all of us get in, even after going through the process countless times. My attitude has been very forthcoming and polite whereas yours has been downright repulsive. Have a Merry Christmas knowing you've got a guaranteed paycheck 👍

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Oldbayistheshit t1_j0e1vw9 wrote

Btw I was a contractor and got in the gov. Now I hire contractors

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cefromnova t1_j0epq46 wrote

Whelp, glad I don't work for you with how you treat strangers over the internet who have been in your shoes. Oh how quick people like you forget.

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