help, temp to hire scam!?!?! (job offer, employee, consulting, 401k)

[kelbucks]

Please someone help and tell me what you would do!!!!!!!

I was working for a great company who is going through some rough times with layoffs etc... I also knew I was well underpaid based on market value and from talking with other employees, but I didnt push it because I liked the company. With layoffs, the economy, and schedule changes, I got nervous and posted my resume just in case.

I was contacted by a temp to hire recruiter for another local company and offered a 13k raise to work a temp to hire job. After talking with others in my industry, I found that local company has a reputation for paying very well and their reputed pay rates were comparable to what I was offered as a temp. My former employer actually offered me a 5k raise to stay with them, but I turned it down because of what the temp agency offered me. I wasnt worried about permanency because it was temp to hire and I know I am VERY good at what I do. Long story short, I left my permanent stable job for this temp job. I havent even been there two weeks and they want to make me a permanent employee.

The temp agency told me the company "wanted the temp agency to negotiate my permanent salary for them." Heres the catch, the temp agency who sat there and drove up my salary as much as they could for me... has suddenly turned head and are trying to drive DOWN my permanent salary. They offered me 7k less than what I was making as a temp! The temp lady tried to minimize it by claiming the benefit overhead (401k, pto, etc) was the reason for it, and that it was entirely normal to take such a huge hit. I reminded her of the outrageous fees the company was paying to her agency should more than compensate for the benefit overhead. She tried to claim she only got pennies out of what I make there (yeah right, if they only get pennies out of their temp staffs salaries, then how do they function as a company). She couldnt even tell me what the benefits were at this company because they didnt want the temp agency to know! After 3 calls of arguing with her, and her going to "check" on things, I finally told her I had just spoken to an individual who used to WORK in a staffing agency in my industry negotiating salaries and had told me it was rare to make less as a perm than a temp. The temp lady then got upset and said that the company didnt want "word to get out" that they pay their temps more than their perms. If she is trying to tell me this is industry standard, then why would they be so worried about people finding out about this standard?

I ended our conversations by telling her that I was extremely upset and feel like I was tricked out of my old job by being offered the temp salary and then having them try to force me into a 7k less salary within two weeks of starting. I could have stayed in my old job taking their higher offer and would have had I known this would happen. Basically, I feel like this is some kind of scam. The temp lady claims she doesnt profit at all by what I earn as a permanent employee, yet spent all this time arguing with me about how it was perfectly normal to go down so low and I should just accept it. At the end of our argument after I had told her how upset I was over this, she simply minimized it all by saying "well nothings final, they were just throwing out a number to see if you would accept it or not". If it was no big deal and they were "just throwing out a number" then why did she spend all that time arguing with me? She was supposed to call me today to negotiate further, but then didnt.

I like the company itself, but this temp recruiter has been horrible. To begin with, she sent me to my interview on the wrong day, then she never responded to my emails about what time I was supposed to start at my new job until less than a week beforehand, and she just seems like a major idiot, or a total flake. I only took this because the job is a perfect fit for me and the company itself is great.... but I wonder if they know about this. I dont want to work for a company who would knowingly screw me over and trick me out of my old job like this. Its in my contract that I can not complain about the temp agency to the company, so what do I do? The temp agency does have an hr where I could complain about the recruiter, but I dont want her to take it out on my by screwing over my chances of being hired permanently. Should I just assume the company wont make another permanent salary offer and try to find a new job asap before they fire me as a temp? I am soooo upset that this is happening... I feel really deceived.

[maf763]

What's confusing is why the temp agency would be so eager to downgrade salary since recruiters often make a percentage of the employee's salary. It sounds like you'll still be about a thousand ahead of where you were before taking the temp position - I think you need to either play it out and see what happens, it might still turn out in your favor, or quietly contact your boss at the previous company and see if they'd take you back. You have a good excuse to burn a bridge if you have to.

[kelbucks]

I think the recruiter was eager to get me to do it because it was so early in the game that the pay off percentage was probably MUCH higher than if they waited.

[sinsativ]

I would do the negotiations myself, get rid of the temp agency, talk to HR, get the job for permanent. Request your quality salary.

[sskkc]

In the engineering field, my father and I have both done "contract work", otherwise known as "temp work". It was always common to make a lot more $$ doing contract work, than going permanent.

And the temp agencies made a lot more than "pennies" per dollar for the temp contracts. There were always limits though on getting hired permanently... generally, the temp agency needs to be paid off - their contract with the company will usually state that there is a minimum amount of time you have to work under the umbrella of the temp agency before they can offer you employment.

[djkkt6]

If the company wants to hire you on permanently, you should be talking to them about the perm salary, not the temp agency. Talking to the temp agency doesn't make any sense at all.

[Jesse69]

OMG, I get screwed over sometimes by employment issues too. I suggest yo get a digital voice recorder like the Olympus WS-321M! Mine is awesome!

[suesmaller]

Here's my story about contract to hire: I lost my job about a year ago. I looked intensely for about six months, was ready to give up when I saw an advertisement for a job I thought I would like. It turned out to be a contract-to-hire opportunity with a major insurance company. The consulting company didn't really bother to interview me, but made a spiel about how great the Insurance company was and that they had placed hundreds of employees at the insurance company. I was sure to get placed as well. Then they had me interview with the hiring manager at the insurance company. I liked him immediately; we really hit it off. So, the next day, I was given an "offer."

Eager to leave D.C. and move back to the West coast, where I'd lived most of my life, and where all of my relatives are, I accepted the offer, knowing I'm a good employee and would probably be hired. So, for six months, I received outstanding feedback from the Insurance company on an almost daily basis. The consulting firm kept reiterating that the position was meant to be permanent, and that I was on track to get hired. Management at the insurance company said the same thing.

Then the commuppence one month before the end of my term. Farmers Insurance had a hiring freeze and couldn't hire me.

In spite of that, my immediate manager at Farmers told me that he still had every intention of hiring me permanently. He told me that as recently as last week. It's very weird, my immediate boss at Farmers stating one thing, and the consulting firm another. Whoa!

Is this illegal? To lead me on week by week, then suddenly pull the rug out from under me???? I think Farmers had no intention of ever hiring me.

Does Farmers get a cut of the contract action??? It sure seems that way, otherwise, they wouldn't be making promises they can't keep.

I do have, in writing from my immediate manager at Farmers, that my performance is "stellar." However, his manager is the person who is insisting on keeping me on as a temp.

At enormous expense to myself, I moved all the way out here from D.C., staying at a dreary Extended Stay because I didn't know how things would go. All along, I was misled. Because I'm unemployed, I believed everything the consulting firm stated. I even bought a car, based on feedback from the consulting firm. If I move back to D.C., I will have no need for the car, and I will have no place to store it.

I feel very sorry for the people at Farmers who spent enormous amount of time and effort training me. They must have been duped as well, because they have been unstinting in their praise of me.

I know this is a scam, because I finally took the time to troll the internet, doing a search on "contract to hire scams." Turns out a lot of people get the same run-around I've been getting, being told they stood a good chance of getting a job, only to be told that there's a "hiring freeze." Why this is allowed and not against the law is anyone's guess.

[MSchemist80]

Yep only 27% of temp to hire jobs ever turn permanent and those that do whose to say how much they will decide to offer you if they do decide to hire you. Giving up stable direct employment for a temp-to-hire scam job is an act of lunacy. I've had staffing agencies contact me about this nonsense and I don't even waste my time. One because I am not looking for a new job and two h#ll would freeze over before I took a temp job ever again.

For the OP keep negotiating but start searching for a new job and this time one that isn't temp. Yep temp agencies are very skilled at low-balling, lying, and deceiving though having the temp agency do salary negotiations for a direct hire is something I've not heard of before and seems to be an act of extreme corporate stupidity.

For Suesmaller I went through a similar experience at Pepsi. I was the only one trained in their state of the art analytical instrument and after 3 years of being jerked around and treated like crap by them I left. My family was shocked they didn't even try to counter-offer me when I left. If they don't dangle to possibility of being made perm how else can they motivate you and not have you disengaged? At my new job I make 75% more, have full benefits, received awards two years in a row, get bonuses and raises. I would prefer never to work for a large corporation again. It seems they have too many layers of managers whose job it is to find ways to rape their workers and save a few thousand dollars at the expense of hundreds of thousands down the road.

[houstan-dan]

First, I would never COUNT on a temp to hire job being permanent. That is foolish and no one's fault but your own.

It's pretty common what both posters here have gone through. For all the recruiters know is they were honest and things changed. It happens. That's why you're a TEMP.

I have been in a similar situation but even worse. I turned down other interviews and got hired and then they tried dropping my wage twice immediately. After the 2nd time I called their bluff and said I was going to go to my other interviews and was no longer interested. 20 minutes later they called back with my original pay. Then I got to the site and found out what they said was 6 months was more like 1 until another permanent employee was available.

So I called and got another job offer in hand. I gave them THREE days to hire me on full time with a raise and a ton of other perks more than I was originally ever asked. In fact, they gave me 10k more than I would've accepted.

I knew my value and their need. The companies clients threatened to shut down the project unless someone with my qualifications filled the needed position. Now it's been a year and a half, i'm a full time employee, and in a great position with job security. You need to know your worth and start looking around for backups, even talk to your old job just in case.

In my prior temp to hire job they offered me 80k/yr less than what I made as a contractor to come on full time.. Thanks but no thanks.