Anyone who hires contract employees is a con man.

Agent_Z

Well-Known Member
After almost a decade of random 1099 jobs, I've come to the conclusion that most people that use contractors are con men. At least any job that I've landed in the transportation industry of any kind has worked out to be that way. I've always liked the idea of working for myself, but nine times out of ten the companies that go the 1099 route are just looking to short-change their "employees." Every courier service I've ever worked for cheated their drivers as well as the last brokerage that I worked for. I know a lot of guys in the construction business that have had the same experience doing subcontracting work. Most of the time it's just an excuse to get out of paying workers a livable wage.

I don't know where I was going with this, I just felt like rambling. I started reading some of the contract labor laws in European countries out of boredom while I was trolling around on Google this morning, and my jaw almost dropped. The US is really at the bottom of the curve when it comes to laws protecting 1099 contractors from exploitation.
 
After almost a decade of random 1099 jobs, I've come to the conclusion that most people that use contractors are con men. At least any job that I've landed in the transportation industry of any kind has worked out to be that way. I've always liked the idea of working for myself, but nine times out of ten the companies that go the 1099 route are just looking to short-change their "employees." Every courier service I've ever worked for cheated their drivers as well as the last brokerage that I worked for. I know a lot of guys in the construction business that have had the same experience doing subcontracting work. Most of the time it's just an excuse to get out of paying workers a livable wage.

I don't know where I was going with this, I just felt like rambling. I started reading some of the contract labor laws in European countries out of boredom while I was trolling around on Google this morning, and my jaw almost dropped. The US is really at the bottom of the curve when it comes to laws protecting 1099 contractors from exploitation.
i worked if i can recall, 2 jobs that were 1099.

i got the full pay, but of course, i had to set aside money for taxes.

i had no problem getting all that was due me.

i had a problem saving some of that money for the taxes.

will i ever 1099 again...not only NO...but HELL NO.

i prefer taxes being taken out, THEN getting a tax refund at tax time.
 
New job sucks already huh

No. --- I'm just getting ready to file against the last one with the Department of Labor, as per what the BBB instructed me to do. If they Department of Labor finds the office to be in the wrong, I can file a formal complaint with the BBB. But the BBB doesn't handle unsettled wages. I have to go through Department of Labor first.
 
I love the part in our contract where it explicitly states that the company cannot and WILL NOT dictate to an agent when that agent must be available, but says in the previous sentence that the agent must be available between 7a - 4p. --- You can't dictate when I'm available, but if I'm not available, then I'm no longer an agent, which basically means I'm fired? Then they tell us that we have to work from an office? Their office? That pretty much follows along the lines of an hourly employee, and employee status, rather than subcontrator. I'm sure there's some phrasing in this paragraph that somehow skates around labor laws, but the gist of it is the same.

It's all semantics.

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Applicable penalties? --- That's being fired, right? LOL!!!

There was a clause in the contract that stated that the the office would only pay if there was a prior agreement upon termination. I had an email stating that I would be paid for x-amount of crane mat loads through the week before I left. The manager decided not to pay me for those 20+ loads. It's not a lot of money, but it was enough to **** me off enough to file a complaint. And having an e-mail from the guy stating that he would in fact pay me kind of solidified the deal and gave me the evidence that I needed.
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UNLESS Agent Z has an email with your corporate signature, timestamped and dated, stating otherwise...
 

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Here is my favorite part of it.

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I cannot begin to count the number of zero production days that I had. Which falls under the "cheap freight" argument. Then he would always get pissed at me when I made $55 sales. I was threatened I don't know how many times over the $55 sales. I'd tell the carrier on the phone, "My minimum is $55 on a sale. I won't go any lower. Are we going to argue over $5?" Of course the carriers never could fathom that I was only making a $55 sale, and would always try to swindle me out of more money. But when I had to make those low ball sales, that's what I would do. --- Stupid jerk can find some other schmucks to peddle his cheap ass lumber.

Shit's like the Price is Right. That'll be $50.01, Bob!!!

55 is a good number...
 
There is a lot of 1099 abuse in trucking and construction. However, there is also a lot of individuals that don’t know how to price their labor and leave themselves open to abuse. Sometimes the abuse isn’t intentional it’s a case of multiple individuals not understanding how to price their projects.
 
There is a lot of 1099 abuse in trucking and construction. However, there is also a lot of individuals that don’t know how to price their labor and leave themselves open to abuse. Sometimes the abuse isn’t intentional it’s a case of multiple individuals not understanding how to price their projects.

In a lot of cases it doesn't even boil down to contractors pricing their services. The company that contracts prices their services for them. But then again, stupid idiots like me agree to less than livable wages. At the courier job I worked I was told 1,000 times that I would get more work. Things would get better. Blah, blah, blah, blah. "We're working on getting your more work." --- Two years later, there I was. Still playing dumb.
 
just get a normal job, at a normal place, with a normal pay and normal taxes taken out, and a normal lunch break and a normal coffee break

da end.
 
better than have to read about non paydays and such. one get's what one deserves on a 1099.
That's called bending over and being done dry. Allowing that to happen is a personal failing that has nothing to do with your tax situation.

Let's be real here. There are employees and independent contractors. Employees are beholding to whichever petty tyrant takes on the mantle of boss, and submits to whatever sort of indignities heaped upon themselves in return for wages whose payment is only guaranteed by government fiat.

Independent contractors are in charge of their lives, and as a consequence must be responsible for their situation. Whether that situation is profitable or a degrading dry ****, is entirely up to them.

This is not meant to degrade either "employees" or independent contractors who have been taken advantage of. It is merely a hard, cold look at the situation. Not everyone is meant to be an independent contractor, and many mistake a situation billed that way when it is thinly disguised employment that allows the employer to take advantage of the arrangement.

If one properly takes the 1099 situation on, it can be both rewarding and profitable. The key is knowing when some jackwad is trying to bend you over.
 
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Hello, I'm ironpony. I'm gonna insult employees and then say they shouldn't feel bad two paragraphs later.
Still chuggin' the koolaid?

Look deeper. I'm not knocking the individual, I'm calling out the situation. Employment is just another layer of control.
 
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Still chuggin' the koolaid?

Look deeper. I'm not knocking the individual, I'm calling out the situation. Employment is just another layer of control.
Satisfies my sweet tooth.

You're still controlled by your customers. There is no true freedom short of going off grid. And they'll still get you for taxes.
 
Satisfies my sweet tooth.

You're still controlled by your customers. There is no true freedom short of going off grid. And they'll still get you for taxes.
Nope... it's the other way around.
 

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