The difference between being hired by clients, and hired by bosses is that with clients you set fair boundaries of how much you’ll do and for how much money.1
Whether Your Business is Incorporated or You’re a Joe Schmoe Working a Hotdog Stand, An Office Manager, Or the Mailroom Boy – We all Work for Someone. The People Who Pay Us Are Our Clients.Anyone IN business IS someone’s client – whether you’ve got a contract with an HVAC company, car warranty service, ISP, Phone Service, bank, groundskeeping… and anyone IN business HAS clients.
Generally speaking, employees come in three varieties
1. Contract Company Employees (which includes management and labor) who work under contract. Most of the labor isn’t manual or menial but skilled/educated. The contract can belong to the company or to the employee, depending on negotiating skills. 2. Contract Union Labor (Organized and self incorporated). Management is not active in these unions, but Union Labor promoted to Management agrees while under Union contract not to actively seek to harm the Union if promoted to management. Many Union members don’t grasp that they own the union, and that the union is their business. They don’t usually fully grasp the realization that they’re being paid directly by their own Union’s client,2 and that they, EACH of them, are business owners3 contracted to work under terms that are clearly laid out.4
3. Company Employees (including managers) who work without a contract.
Non-Contract Employees General Understanding of Business
The average non-contract worker without business ownership experience has at best a low level awareness of what’s wrong with the non-contract “Boss/Employee” business relationship.Without a contract, in fact, there is no “Business Relationship” at all. There’s no room for negotiation, no room to set boundaries as to job parameters, no room to argue or respond with facts or argue a case – the relationship is one sided; Parent — Child; Dictator — Dictated to, and this is even when everyone seems to be getting along just fine because that can change at any time, for any reason, and there’s nothing anybody can do about it. The boss dies, the horrid daughter takes over, everything changes instantly! The boss starts drinking at work, becomes overbearing and demanding, keeps the bar open after everyone is gone so he can continue drinking and won’t let the bartender leave… and the bartender can’t complain. Why? No contract.
What Possible Solutions are there for Intelligent Business Minded Workers who are not under contract?
Four options that came from my business owner parents5 are:
- Get More Clients (have more than one part time job so you can dump one any time it gives you a hard time).
2. Use the NLRB and DOL as your representation.6
3. Along with #2 above, blend in, keep your head down, don’t stick out, and get lost in the crowd. Never volunteer for anything. (That advice was given to me by my Dad before I went into the Army. But when I worked for him, he also advised me to always ask “Is there anything else I can do [or before I leave] for you?) When a problem arises quietly give your client (the boss) a chance to settle fairly with you without involving the NLRB or DOL. That’s the “Walk softly and carry a big stick” strategy of Gunboat Diplomacy practiced by Teddy Roosevelt. Have all your guns loaded.
4. Organize everyone else who’s been dealt with unfairly and start a Union – management will initiate a vigorous and expensive anti-union campaign, likely hiring professional union busters https://www.ueunion.org/org_steps.html 7
As a capitalist, whether I’m acting as an incorporated business (be that something I run, or have a board run with me), and that includes as an incorporated Union – or not (as in “just an employee”) my clients have got to be reigned in on scope of work I’m providing. Contracts are written and specifically worded to prevent clients from running roughshod over businesses and taking them to the cleaners, making them do dozens or hundreds of things not defined as part of the tasks hired to do. While I’m not advocating that everyone join or form a Union, that really is up to the “Boss” or “Client” depending upon their attitudes and behaviors.
Site Author, David J. Curtis: David Curtis, a seasoned professional with decades of Bartending and Bar Management experience began his career in Midtown Manhattan, NY, tending and managing bars before diving into Manhattan’s bustling nightlife club scene. Over the years, he has mastered high-volume, high-pressure bartending as the lead bartender in iconic Midtown Manhattan nightclubs (Pursuits, Sybils, Club 53), Coconuts Comedy Club, the Fitzpatrick Hotel, British Airways Hotel, and tended bar briefly in the Wall Street area, generating over $1,496,564.00 annually in personal drink sales. He has since extended his expertise to establishments in Georgia (Marriot Hotel) and now Tampa Florida, in an Exclusive Platinum Service Award winning club. David’s roles as a Bartending Instructor at the American Bartending School in Tampa, while maintaining a second job bartending, and his years experience of managing bars, and working as a Brand Ambassador along with his extensive professional library of over 1,000 bartending books, highlight his dedication to continually refining his craft. He holds a diploma in Bar Management, Advanced Bartending, is Whiskey Certified by DIAGIO, and is BarSmarts certified by Pernod Ricard.
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- The Union’s Client is the business the employee reports to 5 days a week, and that Contracted Client then gives them their paychecks each pay period[↩]
- Contracted Labort owns the Union, which is a fully incorporated business[↩]
- Terms include which specific tasks belong to each job category, rate of pay and other compensation, overtime, vacation pay, and other. The Contract BELONGS to the company (The Union) providing the services to the client – not the other way around. Unions are very much capitalists, looking to strike the best deal for what the market will bear, and provide useful services to satisfy their clients – after all, if their clients go out of business, they also lose, and if through their performance their clients grow and thrive, they can negotiate a better contract when the time comes.[↩]
- …and from my own business dealing with clients when I ran a business[↩]
- To use the NLRB and DOL as your lawful labor law representation you’re going to need to keep detailed pay and hours records. You’re going to have to be heavy on documentation starting from day one working. Keep 3″x 5″ index quote cards. Record your own conversations for your use to type up accurate transcripts for use when and if you need them with the NLRB / DOL and in court should you have to sue for unlawful termination. Notate every single piece of documentation with date, time, witnesses present – This is particularly important because multiple work schedules will verify that your records were indeed recorded on the days you said.[↩]
- The right of workers in private employment to form unions and bargain collectively with their employers is guaranteed by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and related federal laws. The NLRA is preemptive, meaning it supersedes state law in the areas it covers.[↩]
