Howard Goodman's Site for Contract Professionals

About eight months ago I was pulled into a new project that involved the overhaul of operating procedures for the IT department of 'Client T'. The project team included subject matter experts (SMEs) from appropriate areas within parallel departments, a project manager (himself a contract professional), and yours truly as technical writer.

Long title, eh?  In a prior blog I defined what I believe a professional to be—someone who becomes attached and devoted to a particular occupation and practices it for a majority of their working career.  The most obvious examples of professionals are physicians, den...

Long before I came to work at my current client, ‘Pharma Manufacturer T’, the contract-staffing firm through whom I work negotiated a deal with them.  In addition to their negotiated hourlies, our contract staff would receive paid time off (PTO, in HR vernacular) in the form of accrued vacation hours.  The number of vacation ...

In these times, anyone will tell you that so-called ‘permanent’ or ‘direct’ employment is anything but.  Corporate America is laying off or furloughing permanent employees at a rate rarely seen before.  There are two principal reasons for these actions.  First, as in the...

I thought it would prove enlightening to put this word-pair under the microscope, since it has been my intention to unify and dignify the disparate titles of those who are employed under this business relationship.  First, professional.  It is generally accepted that the word professional as it relates to employment means &...