Habitual Contractors…

What you need to know; A phycological profile of what you are signing up for as an employer.

? During recent events, I tried to explain the term “Habitual? Contractor” and what we are, that caused a self reflection as to what managers are signing up for when dealing with us as a group. This is a personal assessment with myself, in hopes it clarifies as to who we are, what we do, briefly describing common traits and trying to put into perspective our motivations, I know from experience that we are hard to describe and upper management without a brief history and phycological profile will run them selves crazy as to why we are different and difficult to deal with.

1. An immense desire to travel, Reference the poem “The Men That Don’t Fit In” by Robert Service. We will constantly seek new places, therefore you have us for 1-4 years, look at our work history, stateside contractors can be a mixed group, sometimes it’s discipline issues, lack of skills or simply a desire to see and do as much as possible on as many aircraft, in the civil aviation community. Military stateside contractors will have some of the same issues or just simply be looking for a higher pay/per-diem rate. Conversations with them in the hiring process can give a lot of insight to the individual. Multiple airframes is indicative of a constant desire to learn and to round out our skills. Multiple job sites with the same airframe normally indicates a comfortable knowledge on specific airframes and previous management maybe he reason they left. We normally don’t leave “Crappy Jobs” we leave managers we feel are crappy.
2. Money is a driving focus; multiple overseas contracts are going to tend to be indicative of wanting or gaining more money, and a strong desire to world travel, those of us that fit into this category leave when we have seen what interested us in the country in the first place, or there is a more intriguing place.
3. Many of us have made poor financial choices early on as a general rule and are trying to play catch-up with financial goals, these are the wild card employees and normally are the first to leave when better offers arise.
4. ? Habitual Overseas Contractors are already away from home and feel no real attachment to anyplace we work, our homes and families are not normally with us, many times if you can get an employee to bring family you will have them for a longer duration (3-5 years appears normal based on personal observations) therefore you will keep experienced workers. We feel less inclined to establish a semi permanent presence on an overseas job site if we are flying solo.
5. ? Another common denominator for multiple overseas contracts is a strong desire to return to our stateside residence in better financial shape so we can locate local work and finish our careers, this will be more common with older workers. However single older workers may just be trying to ‘’Reset” after divorce or a major life event.
6. Military contracts mostly draw veterans, many will seek aircraft that their military service directly relates to. Many will have had several deployments or worked in hostile environments after serving or breaking into Contracting, supervisors that have the same experiences seem to relate better with those individuals. If someone that has never had mortars dropped on them while working is in a supervisor role, it’s going to be hard for them to relate to those that have. There are many of us that have worked together in the 20 years of conflicts, and that has forged a bond few can grasp. We are also going to be drawn to those we have worked “Down Range” alongside. Many of your referrals from this group will normally draw a tighter team.
7. We generally stay away from manufacturing environments, a few short stints is common, however boredom and repetition will eventually take its toll. The environment many of us will seek to return to from leaving this type of work is one that relies on self reliance, minimal supervision, adequate facilities. Many time’s the history of a strong manufacturing only background will clash with seasoned contractors? simply because manufacturing is literally an “over the shoulder” scenario and the “Habitual” contractor wants and desires more autonomy.
8. We are already looking quietly for “The Next Contract!” Many of us weight the money VS Bullshit factor. We have all had experience dealing with Government contracts and understand the rules, simple house cleaning, documentation, quality expectations, work schedules and common practices and procedures should be followed by all; however we have a metric that most abide by, if what are perceived as overbearing or extremely un-necessary rules are implemented, poor management, supply issues, pay issues then the benefits of being at a location are not worth the money and we leave, MRO type places rely on a steady supply of local workers that? (for whatever reasons) can not go elsewhere for employment. Many times failure to recognize the fact that the time required to recruit, interview, onboard and get workers on overseas sites will cause a major delay on project completion deadlines and invariably cause the demise of a project simply due to shortages in talent familiar with the project. Habitual Contractors will know this and therefore feel less inclined to feel “Stuck” and will move on.? ?

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? ? ? ? ? There is not a Scientific Psychology study to help employers deal with this species of contractors, I wish there were statistics to draw an accurate conclusion and develop a “profile” from, it’s meant only as an insight for you.

?? We are the most dedicated, funny, eclectic, stubborn and opinionated group of misfit aviation people on planet earth!

? ? I am Reminded of a saying a co-worker told me in Afghanistan in 2010;

? ? “I am a contractor and no dime shall be left behind!”

You have been warned??

Alaska Mike.

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